A Preview of Spring

Yesterday afternoon, my friend Peter picked me up to make a grocery store run for our dinner. I enlisted Peter and his wife Rose to help me test a specific dish that I've been working on for a project. They had been one of the first people to try the dish back in the fall so I thought they were the perfect couple to give it one last try before I unleash it on the public. Since the practice dish is only an appetizer, I agreed, as part of the bargain, to cook whatever else they wanted as a main course. At the grocery store, Peter said that Rose's only request was that the dish feature olive oil and be Mediterranean. That really wasn't much help, but the the "M" word got me to thinking about spring. To get my brain going in the right direction, we went directly to the meat/seafood section of the store, bypassing our usual first-stop in the produce section. There were no gulf shrimp, the lamb didn't catch my eye, but tucked in the corner of the fish case were some beautiful, giant scallops. I asked to see one and upon my inspection found them to be sweet, aromatic and fresh. The Orange Rougy in the case also looked and smelled quite good. That settled it. We were going to have a seafood night with a Mediterranean flair. With our protein in hand, we swung back through the produce section and Peter must have been reading my mind when he asked if we could Julienne some vegetables to go with the fish. We grabbed peppers, onions, corn, yellow squash, zucchini and carrots. For the sauce, I wanted something bright with a lot of citrus punch so we grabbed lemons, limes a couple bunches of cilantro, parsley, garlic and green onions. With a few more ingredients gathered, we headed back to Belhaven and set to work on the beauty you see below. The recipe will be up later, but I couldn't wait to show off the picture.
Bon Appetit
~Tom