#seafood
Children’s books, as previously discussed, are generally something of an easy win. Even a washed-up princess can dream up a basic narrative given a sufficiency of mid-priced Rioja. Then all you need to do is pad your yarn out with some kid-friendly repetition. Lots and lots of repetition. Boom! You’re done.
But because it’s easy, everyone’s at it. Anybody with a bit of profile knocks out a kids’ title sooner or later. Geri Halliwell, Madonna, Carlos The Jackal, the lot.
So why, given the sheer tsunami of brat-lit, should anyone give my latest offering the time of day?
Well, because it has a unique USP.
Most modern books for the young focus on excitement, adventure, humour, and a profound sense of moral justice.
All things that, once these young readers grow to maturity, they will find are lacking in the real world.
Stories about boy wizards giving the bad guy in the nose-cancelling headphones his comeuppance are all very well, but it’s hardly going to teach youngsters valuable lessons about the four ennui-laden decades in a call-centre that await them.
Surely the preparation for the interminable dullness of adulthood is a simply-told tale of a little creature that stays in one place, doing nothing of interest and sucking up other peoples’ crap
And that’s Shelley’s story. Nothing happens to her. There’s no peril, so there’s no danger of story time leading to nightmares. There’s barely any incident at all. The tide washes in and out, and our bivalve heroine resolutely sticks to her rock. And that’s about that.
It’s ripe material for the repetition that professional educators maintain is essential for building language skills, and the literary minimalism represents a sizeable cost-saving too.
Rather than printing dozens and dozens of different pages, all requiring their own printing plate, we just print one. Over and over again. Add in a run of endpapers, carrying my reputable byline and the all-important price, and Bob is almost certainly your uncle. At least that’s what your mum says.
Any publisher with his (or her) salt will be on this one like a seagull on chips. I await your response. I’ll be in my beach hut.
Baked wild salmon with grassfed butter and rosemary with a side of greens and baked zucchini!
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- fresh uni, plump hotate, briny-sweet ikura, salmon sashimi, hamachi, akaebi, and fatty slices of tuna belly
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Spicy seafood ramen from Ajisen Ramen. And then the spicy seafood ramen being devoured by two hungry Asians.
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BOUILLABAISSE
(From StH)
https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/bouillabaisse
Ingredients:
Rouille
- One 3-inch piece of baguette, cut into ½-inch dice
- 3 tablespoons water
- 2 garlic cloves
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Bouillabaisse
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
- 2 leeks, white and light green parts only, thinly sliced
- 1 onion, cut into ¼-inch dice
- 1 fennel bulb—fronds reserved, bulb cored and cut into ¼-inch dice
- 4 garlic cloves, 3 coarsely chopped
- 2 tomatoes, cut into ½-inch dice
- 2 bay leaves
- Pinch of saffron threads
- 2 tablespoons pastis or Pernod
- 5 cups store-bought fish stock
- One 2-pound live lobster
- Eight ½-inch-thick baguette slices, cut on the bias
- 3 Yukon Gold potatoes (1 ½ pounds), peeled and cut into ½-inch dice
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 2 dozen littleneck clams, scrubbed
- 1 pound monkfish, cut into sixteen 1 ½-inch pieces
- 1 pound skinless red snapper fillets, cut into sixteen 1 ½-inch pieces
- 1 pound skinless halibut fillet, cut into sixteen 1 ½-inch pieces
Directions:
- In a mini food processor, sprinkle the diced bread with the water and let stand until the water is absorbed, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, cayenne and salt and process until the bread and garlic are coarsely chopped. With the machine on, drizzle in the olive oil and process until the rouille is smooth. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate.
- In a very large, deep skillet, heat the 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the leeks, onion, fennel and chopped garlic and cook over moderate heat until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook until they begin to break down, about 5 minutes. Add the bay leaves, saffron and pastis and bring to a boil. Add the fish stock and bring to a simmer. Cook over low heat until the vegetables are very tender, about 20 minutes. Discard the bay leaves.
- In a food processor, pulse the vegetables and broth to a coarse puree. Strain through a fine sieve set over the skillet.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the lobster and cook until it turns bright red, about 4 minutes. Drain and rinse the lobster under cold water until cool enough to handle. Remove the tail, claw and knuckle meat and cut into 1-inch pieces.
- Preheat the broiler. Arrange the baguette slices on a baking sheet and broil them 6 inches from the heat for about 1 minute per side, until the slices are golden brown around the edges. Rub each slice with the remaining whole garlic clove and drizzle lightly with olive oil.
- Add the potatoes and cayenne pepper to the broth and bring to a simmer. Cook over moderately high heat until the potatoes are just tender, about 10 minutes; season with salt and pepper. Add the clams, cover and cook over moderate heat until they just begin to open, about 3 minutes. Add the monkfish, cover and simmer for 2 minutes. Add the lobster, snapper and halibut, cover and simmer until the clams are open and all the fish is cooked through, about 4 minutes.
- Set a baguette toast in each of 8 shallow bowls. Ladle the fish and broth over the toasts and top each serving with 1 tablespoon of the rouille. Sprinkle with fennel fronds and serve immediately.
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pnw goal #1: eat as much seafood as possible.
featuring takoyaki and the skin on skin roll at japonessa on 1st avenue. there were two snobby ladies at the table next to us all “ughhhhhhhI hate people who take photos of their food, it’s sooooorude”. nobody asked for your opinion lady, I do what I want.
japonessa, seattle.
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