French food focus-About living and cooking in rural France,recipes,lifestyle,comments

FRENCH FOOD FOCUS Latest Post Other Posts Recent Older Truffles Cassoulet Index of Recipes L inks House Sitters FiFi About me About 'My' France Comments to: yankinparisot@gmail.com Archives		Life in rural France - Food - Friends - Wine - Cheese - Comments Welcome to French Food Focus. The name describes the intent of this blog. I'll focus on food and because I live in rural France the stress will be upon French food. There are numerous posts concerning life in France and, certainly, opinions about anything that strikes my fancy. If you have some good recipes or if you want to rave about any great French restaurants this is the place to do it. I hope you enjoy my ramblings about rural France! Click Here to send me a comment
		This is our village. Our house is the white one at the top right.
	Sea Food & Pasta Salad a La Silver Palate I can't think of a better tribute to Sheila and the book than to give you my interpretation of my favorite recipe from TSPC. "Pasta and Seafood Salad with Basil". I made this yesterday for friends and they loved it. If you've never made it give it a try, its not difficult, but is delicious. Better yet go out and buy The Silver Palate Cookbook. You'll thank me for suggesting it. By the way with basil in full grown right now the recipe is doubly appropriate. Ingredients: 1/2 cup diced sweet red pepper. (yellow or green will do, but the red is nice for color) 1/2 cup minced purple onion (any onion will do, but sweeter onions like Vidalia's are especially nice) 1/2 cup good quality olive oil. 3-4 tablespoons of lemon juice 1/2 cup basil puree (Simply take several large handfuls of fresh basil leaves stalks & all and put then in a food processor or blender and process them with just enough olive oil to make a fine paste. Any extra can be frozen.) Salt & pepper to taste. Roughly 2 cups of pitted olives. (Kalamatas, Nicoise whatever type you like) 1 lb small/ medium shrimp shelled & deveined. 1 lb bay scallops (the little guys. Don't be tempted to use the large scallops.) Several small squid cut into strips. (this is strictly optional as many people are put off by squid and besides they're not always easy to find.) 1/2 lb of pasta. (shapes like fusilli are good or the little shells. You want bite sized and you want a shape that will capture the dressing. 1 cup frozen peas, defrosted and patted dry. Technique: Put a large pot of water on to boil for the pasta, a smaller pot for the shrimp & scallops and a third small pot if you are using the squid. Chop up the onion and pepper. Make the sauce by combining the basil puree, the olive oil and the lemon juice. Mix thoroughly with a fork or small whisk. Pit you olives if necessary. When your water is nicely boiling start cooking the pasta. In the second pot of boiling water put in the scallops & shrimp and boil for no more than one minute. Drain immediately. Dry thoroughly. Salt the water in the third pot and when boiling drop in the squid. Reduce the heat & let simmer for about 5 minutes. Drain & dry. When the pasta is 'al dente' drain it thoroughly. While still warm pour the pasta over the onions, peppers, shrimps, scallops & squid. Mix well. Add the peas (no need to cook them) Add the basil dressing. Mix well. Add the olives. Adjust seasoning. (Note: I like to use a bit of sea salt crystals instead of regular salt, but if careful if you do so as not to over salt.) Serve the salad at room temperature. Serve with some nice crusty bread and a decent white wine. The salad is just as good the next day after a night in the fridge. Thank you Sheila! I hope this has inspired you to go out and buy the book.