Fried Scallops

Did anyone else see the Fried Scallops recipe in the Times? It's great! So simple. I quartered it to have it as an appetizer and it was a huge success. I will definitely be making them again. I also mixed up a quick sriracha mayo for dipping.

Ingredients:
1 lb sea scallops
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup corn meal
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup canola oil

mayo, sriracha, and a squeeze of lemon for dipping

Lobster Rolls

My favorite place to buy seafood is Cor-J seafood in Hampton Bays. It's the best. I walk in there and I want to buy everything. Last Saturday, we stopped there on the way out to Southampton to pick up supplies for a seafood feast. We got clams, oysters, squid, and lobster and I decided to make lobster rolls. I had googled looking for the recipe from Mary's Fish Camp and found someone saying that they never taste lobstery enough at home, so I decided to make lobster mayonnaise to up the lobster quotient. (Feel free to be a normal person here and just use Hellmann's.) They were great! So chunky and delicious.

Serves 2-3
Ingredients:
2 1.5 lb lobsters
2 sticks of celery, finely diced
2 scallions, only the green parts, finely sliced
2-3 Potato Roll Hot Dog Buns
Salt and pepper
2 tbsp butter

For Lobster Mayo:
Shells of two lobsters
1 egg, room temperature ideally
3/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
salt

Tomato Sandwich

Tom Robbins wrote a story saying how if he was on death row and he could request anything he wanted for his last meal, it would be a tomato sandwich.* (Man after my own heart.) One with white wonder bread, mayonnaise, and the best summer tomatoes. When you get it right, a tomato sandwich is unbelievably good. The tomatoes are the star and the tomato juice mixes with the mayo and oozes into the bread and it's amazing. Luckily, today, I had a whole bunch of ripe, colorful, bursting-with-flavor tomatoes (from the garden, of course), some good white bread, and some quickly whipped up basil mayo. Yum! This might have to be my lunch from now until my tomato plants die.

Quick Basil Mayo:
Ingredients:
A small handful basil leaves, finely chopped
Squeeze of lemon juice
1/2 tsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp mayo
pinch of salt

Directions:
Mix it all together, add more salt if necessary.

*Tom Robbins is one of my favorite authors and this was from "Wild Ducks Flying Backward."

PLT

When I made the gnudi, it called for crispy pieces of prosciutto. These salty, crunchy slices made me realize they would be an excellent bacon substitute. For lunch today, I went to Faicco's, picked up a few slices of prosciutto, and made myself a PLT: prosciutto, lettuce, and tomato. My favorite part of a BLT is the crispy, salty bacon, and often the bacon doesn't have that crunch you're expecting. The PLT was great. I think it's also probably a lower fat option, but I'm not 100% sure. I also used pita because I didn't have any bread. (This is for 1 sandwich)

Ingredients:
2 slices prosciutto, cut in half horizontally
about 5 grape tomatoes, sliced
a handful of lettuce
mayonnaise
half a pita
salt

Directions:
Take the half pita and separate it into two pieces (as if it were 2 pieces of bread) and toast them.
Put a tsp of olive oil in a pan and add the prociutto. Cook until they are crispy and beginning to brown on both sides. Drain them on a paper towel. Spread as much mayonnaise as you like on the toasted pita slices, then top one slice with lettuce, then with the tomato slices. Here I like to sprinkle a little salt over the tomatoes. Then top it with the prosciutto and a little more lettuce and finally the other pita slice.

It's really easy, and the prosciutto cooks up faster than bacon. Feel free to use regular bread.