Application of Specialty Cresses - Scallop Ceviche and Squid Ink Tagliattele with Uni!

After getting all the specialty cresses I had to figure out some dishes to feature them.  There was a lot of mustard cress so that was my first challenge.

I was trying to find flavors that would complement mustard but the only thing I could think of was honey.  Then I thought the mustard cress would look very pretty as a garnish for ceviche, and decided to go with scallops.  I wanted to reinforce the mustard cress with whole grain mustard, which would also look very appealing on the plate.

Scallop Ceviche - scallops, whole grain mustard, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, lemon zest, and mustard cress.  This came out awesome, one of my favorite dishes that I've ever made.  I think it photo'ed well and tasted great, I'm very proud of this.

So I've been obsessed with squid ink and sea urchin for a while now - it all started with my birthday meal at Marea, where I tasted their spaghetti with sea urchin, one of the best plates of food that I've ever had.  Ever since then, I've been obsessed with non-sushi applications of sea urchin.  Later on, I had a squid ink risotto with snails and octopus at Traif, my favorite restaurant in NY.

I had some shiso cress and thought it would be great to pair that with uni since shiso is often used with sushi.  But I decided to go with pasta because of my meal at Roberta's, which featured an amazing squid ink tagliattele with mussels and sea urchin.  In addition, I had the Trofie Nero at Ai Fiori, (ligurian crustacean ragu, seppia, scallops, spiced mollica, you can read the review here), which was also delicious.  What resulted is an amalgam of the dishes at Roberta's and Ai Fiori.

Squid ink tagliatelle with calamari, shrimp, tomatoes, shallots, garlic, and crushed red pepper flakes, topped with sea urchin and shiso cress.  All the flavors worked perfectly together - in addition, this is the first time I cooked calamari, and it turned out well.  This was a very delicious plate, I'm very happy with how this turned out.