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Seafood Salad Recipe with 4 dressings

Fish and Seafood are healthy choices, and it is low-fat, high in protein and rich in omega-3 fatty acids. “The good omega-3 fatty acids have shown to reduce triglycerides, blood pressure and inflammation, read more in Seafood and fish healthy benefits.

Preparing a seafood salad, buy fresh from the market or use frozen seafood mix, I often stock a bag in the freezer. Add the quantity into a colander hold it under the water tap to remove the layer of ice.

Put a pan on the stove bring water to near boil and flash through the frozen seafood. Remove seafood quickly with a sieve and transfer to a bowl filled with ice cubes. If you bought fresh fillets and choice of seafood shells, poach the fish and shellfish for more flavour. Bonus, the remaining liquid has turned into rich aromatic fish taste broth.

Seafood Salad

How to poach fish and seafood in an aromatic broth called court-bouillon, a traditional way to enhance flavour. The Seafood Salad recipe and dressing variations are right here below.

The poaching liquid is easy to make within 30 minutes. Using ingredients; sea salt, onion, carrot, bay leaf, parsley with lemon or vinegar. (The use of acidity is to help to retain the colour of salmon and turns shellfish in a bright red colour (lobster, crab). Milk helps with white fish fillets.
Add some spices peppercorns, cloves or give it an Asian twist use ginger, galangal, Lemon Grass, etc.
Bring liquid with aromatics to a boil let it steep after 30 minutes remove all the aromatics.
Bring the liquid back to near boil, watch bubbles break through the surface. Add pieces of fish and shellfish carefully into the water.

Cooking time

Cook for the right moment;
1. small shrimps only need 15 sec,
2. squid just 1-minute
3. for all shellfish approx. 3-5 minutes (or shell opens)
4. Fish fillets between 3 – 10 minutes, this depends on thickness and type of fish. Watch the fish fillets change colour and start to get flaky.
Note: for whiter and creamier flavour use milk to poach in the fish fillets with aromatics.
1. Pour milk in a pan, just to cover the pieces of fish fillets barely.
Remove quickly with a sieve, to cool transfer immediately in an ice-water bath to stop cooking process and cool down immediately.

For Instant Pot users: cooking time table for fish and seafood.

Poaching liquid

If you are preparing a cold fish dish, remove the pan from the burner leave it to cool down in the poaching liquid for more flavour.
1. This step slows the cooking pace down. Watch the time and the target temperature carefully.
At the end of poaching all fish and seafood ingredients, you will have an excellent intensified liquid leftover. Keep the broth by straining through a sieve in containers or freeze in cubes.
Store the poaching liquid in the fridge use it within 24 hours for best flavour. Store in the freezer, it will keep for 2-3 months.
Or use a high-pressure canner to store poaching liquid as broth in glass jars. I use a 24-quart Presto canner.

Various dressing style

Seafood Salad fresh ingredients, I love various dressings to fit my mood and appetite or to go along with my menu theme.

Italian/Mediterranean Insalata Frutti di Mare simple dressing is one of my favourites. Add parsley with two tbs of lemon juice with 80 ml (1/3 cup) of light olive oil, 1-2 cloves of garlic finely minced, pepper and salt. Taste for acidity level and add if needed a little bit of vinegar. Garnish with parsley leaves or chopped onion on top. Optional: add 1 Tsp of dijon mustard for vinaigrette dressing

Thai-style dressing, in Thailand this dressing is often combined with grilled squid and fish. Start with 4 tbsp lime juice, 4 tbsp fish sauce. Add 4 tbs palm sugar or 1 tbsp liquid sweetener ( no stevia!). Followed by 2-4 cloves minced garlic, 2-3 tbsp finely chopped coriander. For moderate heat add 1 pod chilli deseeded, chopped or sliced finely. Like Thai-style hot add in finely 1-2 chopped bird’s eye chilli’s). Add 2 tbsp of filtered water and mix everything together. Taste and add a little more water if needed. Garnish with fresh mint and coriander leaves to finish. Optional: no fresh chilli at hand use 1 tsp sriracha sauce.

Japanese Wafu-style dressing, 2 tbsp light soy sauce, 4 tbsp Japanese rice vinegar, 6 tbsp oil (do not use olive oil), 1 tsp fine caster sugar (1-2 drops liquid sweetener). Optional: add finely grated onion with daikon. Garnish with roasted sesame seeds on top.

For other reads and recipes: Thai noodle soup | Red Curry Mussels | Chinese stock methods and variations

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Dried beans how-to

Dried beans how to:

Beans have become a staple ingredient in our weekly meal plans, a sensible choice since beans are low-glycemic, high-fiber, high-protein, and packed with important vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. By adding foods with a low glycemic index in our diet, you will have an extra boon since our body will digest these foods slowly, you will feel full for a longer period while eating less calories without feeling hungry. Even better

The type of bean influences the cooking time but also the type of cooking vessel; slow cooker or pressure cooker. This is a general rule of thumb in how-to start with dried bean cooking instructions, as for the cooking times click on the highlighted guidelines links for more information on type of beans. For more information on Low GI foods and Glycemic index click the highlighted link as a valuable sources.

Pre-soaking beans:

Using dried beans is easy for each cup of dried beans use three cups of water. There are two methods of pre-soaking the beans;
Boil the beans for 2 minutes, remove the pan from the heat source cover and let it stand for two hours.
The standard method is to simply soak the beans in water for a minimum of eight hours or overnight. With a maximum of two day and cleansing the water in between on the kitchen counter or depending weather circumstances in the refrigerator to prevent the beans from fermenting.

Cooking Beans:

Regardless of the method you choose; drain the soaking liquid and rinse the beans with clean water before cooking.
Use caution when pressure cooking because of the loose skins. Always use oil with these bean and you can place a rack or paper kitchen towel to help keep loose skins from floating up.
Tip when using Fava and broad beans for the first time; blanch beans in boiling water for a minute then plunge them into cold water to peel off the thick brown skin before cooking. Or buy packages labled “skinless” to avoid this time-consuming chore.
A quick overview of informative webpage links for pressure cooking times, guidelines and tips for cooking beans;

Hip pressure cooking times
Recipesource Basic guidelines for pressure cooking dry beans
Pulse Canada Guide to cooking beans, chickpeas, lentils and peas
Healthy Highways Pressure cooking guidelines

Basic cooking recipe for preparing beans is adding flavors such as onion, bay leaf, garlic even dried peppers and more to the cooking water in a crock pot for slow cooking method or using a pressure cooker for speed. You could even add a chicken or vegetable stock tablet to give it a quick twist. After cooking you can simply add a good splash of olive oil and serve them straight away as a plain side dish.

Dried Butter beans or Lima Beans