Well seafood isn't a huge part of my diet, so I thought I'd give it a go. Basically there was some seafood on special and so for once I could actually afford salmon. It's so expensive here and on a student's budget, it's rather difficult to scrape enough together for 'luxuries' like that. I have never cooked salmon in my life, so I had no idea where to start. My boss said something about cooking it in a fry pan in alfoil so I thought I would give that a go.
I seasoned the salmon with a really cool lemon and herb seasoning called
Peri-Peri Grind I got from
Nando's (for free!).
Then I wrapped it in alfoil and put it in my trusty non-stick frying pan on a low-ish heat with the lid on. I had no idea how long to cook it for, so I thought 20 minutes would be okay if it was on a low heat. Someone once told me that salmon continues to cook when out of the pan, so I figured if the worst comes to the worst, I can just wait for it to cook a bit longer on my plate before eating. I'd also heard that it can be eaten raw, so I wasn't in too much of a panic (my mother would shriek if she read this, haha).
While that was cooking, I put some frozen veggies in the microwave and set about making the calamari. Yes,
making. I decided to buy some squid tubes from the store. They felt gross and looked gross but oddly intriguing. They cost $2 for two tubes, and it made a
lot of calamari. I cut the tubes thinly. It was hard, and a lot of the bits came out as one big long squid bit, instead of joined in a circular thing. Oh well. It still tasted the same. Then I cracked open an egg and whisked it a bit.
Now, I'd never made calamari before and I didn't look up on recipes or anything, but next time I won't bother using the egg wash. The calamari was "sticky" enough to hold the breadcrumbs without the use of egg. In fact, after the first few, I gave the egg wash to Puddy, who happily licked it up. I coated the calamari in a breadcrumb and garlic mix (pre-packaged) that I am absolutely in love with, then shallow fried them in a pan. They took probably a couple of minutes to cook, and so they were done pretty quickly. My boyfriend loved them but said they probably needed a little longer in the pan. But doesn't it go rubbery if it's left in too long? I don't know. It tasted good and we didn't have food poisoning afterwards, so yay!
I checked on the salmon about 20 minutes later, and it seemed to fall apart quite well. It still looked a bit pink (what did I expect, for it to be totally white like basa or something?) but it looked (and smelt) great, so I thought, what the hey. The salmon was delicious. The lemon and herb grind on the top was really strong, but gave it a beautiful flavour. That is definitely a keeper. I really thought it tasted great. And I loved the calamari. Mmmm, so tempted to just go back to the store today and buy 10 squid tubes and eat calamari for lunch. Mmmm..... I used another sauce we got from Nando's called Perinaise (my favourite) which is sort of like a spicy mayonnaise. It's delicious. It was really good as a dipping sauce. I also like it on sandwiches (chicken sandwiches is the best). Mmmmm.....
Here's the finished product! My first time cooking salmon
and my first time cooking calamari! And nobody died or spent the night throwing up! Yay!
Shameless plug (no really, they are both the yummiest things alive!) below of the Lemon & Herb Peri-Peri grind (the bottle is an actual grinder, which is rather cool) and a big bottle of Perinaise. I know the Perinaise bottle was $4.95, not sure how much the Peri-Peri grind costs. Oh and I guess there's a plug in there for Canon too, haha,
that one was unintentional. ;)
