Rating: 💋 💋 💋 😘
My parents prides themselves on their creativity in the kitchen, producing culinary excellence every time.
Lent tests them.
While I had that time off between jobs, I spent a long weekend at home and, lucky me, it was the first Friday in Lent. It always makes for a challenge. Growing up, we mostly survived on pizza, ravioli, and fish sticks on Fridays in Lent because, being Catholic, we cannot eat meat. Now that we are older and are palates have expanded, my parents want to make our Lenten fast a little bit more interesting. I could not have been happier to be home for the first Friday in Lent. It meant I got to dine on a Salmon Guacamole Sandwich for dinner! I'm kissing my fingers.
We do have one slight critique for the meal: the bread. The recipe called for ciabatta, but the Italian market we shop at was all out, so my Mom got a rustic Tuscan loaf. Delicious bread, I cannot emphasize that enough, but it was not the best match for the sandwich. The crust was too tough and the bread was too thick to contain the sandwich, so fish and guac spilled out all over our plate. The sandwich needed to be eaten fork in hand, so you could scoop up the good stuff and stuff it back between the bread halves where it belonged. I couldn't help thinking of when my fabulous friend Olivia and I made a list of Unproblematic Date Food our sophomore year of high school. Turns out, if you really think about it, almost every food can become problematic. Some (like spaghetti sauce that will give you a red chin or salads that can get stuck in your teeth) are worse than others. The list of horrors is quite long, in fact. I think we settled on soup as a safer bet, and that is the only one I can recall. We definitely did not decide on Salmon Guacamole Sandwiches that explode all over your plate.
That aside, the sandwiches tasted fantastic. The guacamole included finely diced jalapeno that added a subtle, evenly distributed kick, and it was all tied together by the strong flavors from red onion and scallion. My mom knows how to chop vegetables into paper-thin pieces, like a good French chef, so your smooth guac is not disrupted by large chunks of intrusive vegetables. The freshly pan-seared, then roasted, salmon fillet melted into the guac - a sensational flavor pairing - and the fish was super juicy and well-seasoned. To top it all off, arugula floated over the fish created a nice texture. I was in heaven.
Reilly, my sister, teased me because she says I should be the one cooking. I offered to whip her up a Sweet Potato Taco Bowl, which I had been making the whole week prior, but she sadly did not get to enjoy one this trip. You can look forward to that recipe coming soon though!
Overall, it turns out Lent makes a great excuse to upgrade your plate's deliciousness IQ. Since I cook for myself, I will probably be eating vegetarian all Lent-long, because it will make groceries way less complicated and diminish the risk of food spoiling. This dish gave me trust that forty-days without meat won't have to be such a bad thing.
After dinner, my family enjoyed a viewing of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, reminding me how huge a crush I had on him back in second grade - great taste, if I do say so myself. Then we turned on the news to find out a high-speed police chase of a stolen ambulance was roaring through North Philadelphia on that fine Friday night.
There truly is no place like home.
XX,
MK
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