Preview to Palo Alto Grill part 4 - Seaweed, etc.

Seaweed has gotten a lot of attention lately.  People have begun noticing how full of dietary benefits the different types are.  We get so much nutrition from the land and all of its different plants, fungi and animals.  The sea comprises so many more species of flora and fauna accessible to us, and some cultures have historically made surprisingly little effort to tap into anything more than fish.  Seaweed-phobics have almost  a lopsided diet, missing out on all of the potential amino acids, fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants in the oceans bounty.

This blog has already spent a lot of time unraveling the mysteries and advantages of Agar Agar.  In the next two installments of our preopening menu development, we will be covering appetizers which happen to feature even more different seaweeds.

The first dish will be a Salmon Poke.  Poke is a Hawaiian dish, typically made from Raw Tuna, marinated in sesame oil, and soy sauce, with some form of seaweed.  Our Salmon Poke uses a seaweed salad marinated with sesame and rice vinegar.

The different types of seaweeds are rehydrated forms of nori and wakame, mixed with cucumber.

The salmon is diced.

Ingredients (per pound of salmon)

1/4 cup Low Sodium Soy Sauce

1 tsp Korean Pepper Powder (Gochukaru)

2 small Green Onion, minced

1 Tbs Sesame Oil

1 tsp Sugar

1 pinch Sea Salt

Marinade Salmon and serve after at least 5 minutes and up to 8 hours.

To mix the sauce:

Ingredients:

2 oz Korean Pepper Paste (Gochujang)

1 Tbs Water

1 tsp Sugar

1 tsp Sesame Oil

Mix with a spoon until smooth.

Spread on plate.

Then the seaweed salad and cucumber.

Top with the salmon Poke

and Avocado (not pictured)

Its best for the radish pickles 

to be made at the last minute.

Slice thinly, then mix with vinegar,

water, sugar and salt.

The radish goes on top.

(note: the egg yolk is from

an early test of this dish...

it wasn't tasty)

Top with shredded Nori

Nori is roasted and compressed sheets of seaweed.

Compared to the very textural seaweed salad,

nori has a deeper, richer, roasty ocean flavor.

For crunch, we sprinkle puffed wild rice around.

Salmon Poke

Coming soon....

And now, the dish from the upcoming menu that I am most excited about so far:

Monterey Red Abalone!

This is additionally relevant because Abalone feeds primarily off of kelp and other seaweeds.

The dish is begun with a sprinkle of 

red beans, braised in a smokey ham sauce.

The dish is garnished with Dulse and Wakame, rehydrated before being sauteed along with the Abalone.

We saute with Nori butter, a combination of Nori powder mixed into softened butter.

Pictured is a roll of our homemade Nori butter.  To powder nori, just put dry in a blender or spice grinder.

This is my new favorite thing! Nori butter is so oceany, meaty and deep in flavor

The abalone and seaweeds in nori butter...

The dish is finished with crispy ham.

Mmmmm..

Coming soon!

To find out more about the abalone we will be using, visit:

http://abalonefarm.com/videos.php

Very cool beans!