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A few weekends ago, one of our neighbors had a barbeque at their house and – never wanting to arrive at a party empty-handed – Jack and I offered to bring a salad for the meal. We brought this delicious Seafood Salad – and it was one of the first dishes to get eaten!
This seafood salad is a wonderful medley of calamari, shrimp, and scallops that have been marinated in buttermilk (that helps make the fish super tender), then cooked and tossed with a flavorful mix of onions, capers, black olives, pepperoncini and other seasonings. Everyone at the barbeque loved this salad – it was gone almost as soon as it was served!
Delicious seafood dishes like this seafood salad make Jack and I appreciate living along the coast of New England, and our easy access to fresh, quality seafood. We would hate to go to our local fish market and discover that our favorite seafood is no longer available – or years down the road, if our children could no longer enjoy seafood like we do, because the supplies were depleted.
So when Jessie from The Sustainable Seafood Blog Project asked us to participate in helping to raise awareness about sustainable seafood options, we were happy to join in the effort.
Sustainability is a popular word these days and it simply means, “the act of taking what we need from the land – be it food, water, building materials, or any other natural resource – without denying future generations the ability to do so also.”
We’re not suggesting that you avoid eating seafood all together – just consider sustainable seafood options when choosing what to cook and eat. Jack and I were thrilled to discover that both our local supermarket, as well as our local fish market offer sustainable seafood options. And, now that we’re more conscious of the issue, we’ve noticed that many of our local restaurants are also offering sustainable seafood options.
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Seafood Salad
Ingredients
- 1 pound raw calamari (cleaned, tubes and tentacles)
- 1 pound raw shrimp (16-20 per pound)
- 1/2 pound raw sea scallops
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 1 clove chopped garlic
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil divided
- 3 tablespoons chopped jarred pepperoncini
- 1 tablespoon drained capers
- 6 pitted calamata olives sliced
- A few thin slices of red onion (slices cut in quarters)
- 1/4 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
- Pinch red pepper flakes
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh Italian flat leaf parsley
- 4 tablespoons Favorite Vinaigrette or other vinaigrette of your choice
- 2 tablespoons reduced pan drippings
Instructions
- Cut calamari tubes into rings. Remove long feelers from tentacles and discard. Cut large tentacles in half the long way, leave small ones whole. Peel and devein shrimp. Cut scallops in half.
- Place prepared fish and buttermilk in a sealed container and marinate overnight or for at least 12 hours.
- The following day, rinse fish of all buttermilk and pat completely dry between a few paper towels. Separate the three fish types as they will be cooked at different times.
- In a large sauté pan over medium heat, sauté garlic in a few tablespoons of the olive oil for one minute. Do not brown. Increase heat to medium high and quickly add scallops. Sauté just until opaque. Do not overcook. They will bounce back when poked. Set aside on a sheet tray.
- Add a few more tablespoons of the oil and sauté shrimp just until they curl and turn pink. Do not overcook. Place on the same sheet tray as the scallops.
- Add a little more oil and sauté calamari rings. Sauté less than a minute until they are cooked and no longer raw. They will give off some water. Pour that off in a bowl and hold. Add the rings to the sheet pan.
- Add the remaining oil and sauté the tentacles. Sauté less than a minute or until they curl and are no longer raw. Remove to the sheet pan.
- The tentacles should also have given up some water. Add the reserved liquid from earlier to this liquid and reduce heat to medium. (if you do not have any liquid, add a quarter cup of water to the pan) While cooking, scrape the pan down and cook until you have about two tablespoons of liquid. Strain that and hold in the refrigerator.
- Place the cooked fish and the bowl of liquid in the refrigerator to chill completely.
- When you are ready to assemble, in a medium bowl, mix cooked fish, reserved cooking liquid, pepperoncini, capers, calamata olives, red onion, Old Bay, red pepper flakes, parsley and vinaigrette. Mix to combine and serve.
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I made this last year as part of our Christmas dinner. It was a major hit!! I also used your Favorite Vinaigrette. It was requested again this year, so it’s staying in our Christmas menu. Thank you for a great recipe!!
You’re very welcome Christine! Merry Christmas!
You live in N.E.!!! Where was the lobster???? Missing the East Coast just for the amazing seafood, not that we dont have it here on the West Coast too. But not $4.00 lobster ;-(
LOL Barbara – don’t worry – we have several other lobster recipes on our blog! 🙂 I’d definitely miss lobster too if I lived on the West coast…
YUM!!! I grew up on the coast of Maine and LOVE LOVE LOVE seafood! I’m always on the look-out for new and different ways to prepare it. I am so going to be trying this.
Thanks Sandi!
This looks delicious! I’m so happy to have you on board with the Sustainable Seafood Project 🙂 Can’t wait to try this salad!
Thanks Jessie! We’re happy to support such a worthy and important cause!
Martha & Jack
I can’t wait to try this recipe as I’ve been on a seafood kick lately and this looks absolutely scrumptious 🙂
Thanks Consuelo! I hope you enjoy the recipe!
Martha
This great! I am going to showcase this on my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/SeductionInTheKitchen you are welcome anytime to post your photo and post links on it!
Thank you so much Deanna!
Hey Guys,
Making this dish today and hoping to make it half as delicious as you guys did. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Hi Simone! Let us know how it comes out! Martha