Hello and welcome back to The Stone Soup Cook–so glad you’re here!
Today, I’m continuing my series on California Cuisine. For the next few posts, I am featuring grilled foods, which are an important technique used in California cooking. This week, I’m highlighting a couple of local seafood specialities: prawns, which are in season now and salmon, which will be in season starting in early June.
Among the best things about living in the Bay Area are the weather and our proximity to the ocean, from whence we get wonderful seafood. Today, I celebrate both of those things…although rather ironically. Let me explain:
Let’s get this straight–a huge reason, and I mean a HUGE reason folks like to live in Northern California is the weather. Sure–we get some hot weather in the summertime and we get some cold, rainy days in the winter. And, yes–we get wildfires, but that’s another discussion altogether. But most of the time, the temperature hovers between 65-85 degrees, the humidity is middling and skies are clear. This year is no exception.
And then there’s allergy season. There are worse places to live–places where cedar trees grow come to mind–but when allergens are in the air in Northern California and the grasses and trees are in bloom, we have to wait for winds or rain to come and clean out our “bowl” created by the mountains west and east of us. I fell victim to them this week, and have been in bed “under the weather” with sinus issues for the last couple of days.
And this got me thinking: what is the origin of the term “under the weather?” Turns out it has to do with the ocean. Let me explain…again 😉
Legend has it that the term “under the weather” is a nautical term and it came from sailors who would go below deck to recover when they got seasick–literally, “under” the skies in the hold of the ship. Perhaps they were aboard ships that were catching seafood in the cold waters off our California coast.
And that’s my rather tenuous connection amongst my allergy issues, the weather and prawns, which are in season right now in California. Ha!
Grilling shrimp or prawns is about as easy as it gets. While I do brine most fish, I don’t bother with crustaceans because the rather porous meat is quite flavorful by itself, and it soaks up seasoning on contact. Grilled prawns are a snap to put together and take only about five minutes on a hot grill:
I served them with wild rice and grilled asparagus for a super quick, easy and healthy weeknight dinner.
Enjoy with a glass of crisp California Sauvignon Blanc. We are loving Picayune Sauvignon Blanc right now.
Tune in tomorrow for grilled salmon–
Until then,
Peace, love and good food,
Keri
