Seafood Dinner for Two, Three or Four

Now I know many of you have gone to Costco and decided that the seafood kiosk can't be resisted. Well, G and I don't do this very often, but we just didn't have a taste for anything else. Of course for two people we bought too much food but that's better for next days leftovers.

Our purchases included a 4 pounds salmon minus head and tail, one pound jumbo shrimp, one pound large (giant) scallops and gobs of mussels (I didn't count, but the package had to have at least 6 dozen or more). To go with this we included fresh asparagus, romaine heart caesar salad with homemade croutons and freshly grated parmesan cheese, and to pull it all together, a paella type rice dish with stewed tomatoes and crusty La Brea bakery sourdough bread.

It was very easy to put this dinner together. The most demanding prep was the rice. I didn't want to overcook the shrimp and scallops so I just poached them in the cooking liquid for the rice and then removed them until serving time. The cooking liquid was chicken broth seasoned with salt, pepper, minced garlic, diced onion, paprika and one cayenne pepper. They were perfect. Midway through we realized we needed to invite some friends over to help us eat it. Luckily we had help eating this one.

I used Jasmine rice (12 ounces) which was added to the cooking liquid used to poach the shrimp and scallops. Just remember to not open the lid on the rice for at least 25 minutes to assure perfectly cooked rice. Rule of thumb (or finger), the cooking liquid should measure about an inch above the rice. I leaned this from a coworker (Deanna) years ago and I still use this meaure. I did not rinse the rice and from the photo you can see it was still fluffy.

The crusty bread came in handy to dip in the mussel juice, yum what a buttery, garlicky delight! I also used the sourdough bread for the croutons. Melted butter and olive oil with minced garlic, parsley and salt to saute the cubes of bread until golden brown and crisp.

Asparagus simply steamed with salt and pepper and a little lemon juice.

We got to do this again sometime soon.
Shrimp and Scallops
Steamed Mussels in chicken broth with garlic and butter
Paella style rice with stewed tomatoes and paprika
Asparagus
Salmon stuffed with freh herbs (rosemary, oregano and thyme)
Romaine Heart Salad with Croutons and freshly grated Parmesan Cheese.