Of abalone or your attention. All I did was fry it up again. I know, I know. I was going to get all crazy and stir-fry it with lemongrass or something. But it’s so good floured and fried in butter. I just couldn’t resist. I did, however, put it on a bed of arugula dressed with a very lemony, garlicky dressing (2 Tbsp. meyer lemon juice, 1 Tbsp. olive oil, a clove minced garlic, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1/8 tsp ground mustard, 1/8 tsp. freshly ground black pepper).
What’s that other thing on the plate you ask? Oven-baked sweet potato fries, that’s what. They are pretty darn tasty. Just please, cut them evenly or you’ll have burnt fries and mushy un-browned fries and you’ll just be sad.
I made dinner while listening to Terry Gross interview Michael Pollan on Fresh Air. Except for the dusting of flour on the abalone and the various seasonings (salt, black pepper, cayenne), this meal was pretty god damn local. Well, regional. And somewhat removed, or at least side-stepping, the industrial food system. Arugula and sweet potatoes from our CSA, olive oil from outside Sacramento (sent directly from the grower/press), butter from Marin county (bought at local co-op), lemons from our yard, and abalone snatched from a wild and one imagines content life along the underwater sea cliffs of Mendocino. Oh, ethical consumerism really is a honeypot. So sweet. So satisfying.
And the radio tells me it’s good! That’s what makes it so sticky!
Seriously, though, if you missed the interview, check it out online–Pollan is a master at explaining just how screwy our ag policy in the U.S. is and why and how we need to to at least start to fix it.
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