Goodness, is it Wednesday already? With Easter just around the corner, I’ve been busy getting things together (i.e., vacuuming the house — for once and doing *gasp* laundry) and have become rather delinquent with these weekly salads. Here’s a salad that is full of bright, seasonal flavors. It’s not exactly a diet salad, but in these parts, fried goodness is allowed and encouraged every once in a while.
Recently, Jim M. commented on my post on Moules Marinière and mentioned having tried Meyer lemons as part of a seafood tempura dish at Highlands in Birmingham, Michigan. I have yet to make it out to Birmingham to try out the restaurant but I’ve been itchin’ to try that meyer lemon tempura. So, I made them recently and added them to a salad of red leaf and pan-seared baby octopus. After thinly slicing the meyer lemons, I coated them with cornstarch (and lightly shook them to remove excess cornstarch) before dipping them into the tempura batter. The recipe for that can be found here. I served the salad with a quick dressing of [1 part meyer lemon juice + 3 parts olive oil + S&P]. The meyer lemon tempura added a nice, crispy and refreshing contrast to the salad. I would suggest serving one lemon tempura for each salad.
Bon appétit!
March 19, 2008 at '19:58'
Oh! what a fantastic idea. i just cleaned my local Whole Foods out of the last of their Meyer Lemons. Literally. I bought them all. Now I have to figure out what to do with them.
March 20, 2008 at '1:41'
Meyer lemon tempura? Wow, we’ll try that tomorrow for sure. Got lots of meyers on our tree!
Oh, those poor wee, bitty baby octobus look so helpless and ……delicious!!…..chomp! Mmmmmm.
March 20, 2008 at '9:50'
I love grilled octopus. This is a great alternative to squeezing fresh lemon on top of the salad. Were they too tart though?
March 20, 2008 at '10:20'
meyer lemon tempura! now i know what i’m going with all my meyer lemons (courtesy also of whole foods).
March 20, 2008 at '11:16'
Oh, I am dying here, and the only thing that might save me is a plate of these baby octopus.. Ahhh! Help! Octopus! Octopus!
They are great in paella, too! Yum! BTW, where did you get them? I’ve never seen them here!
March 20, 2008 at '20:12'
Those little octpus (octopi?) are so cute, I’m almost tempted to just tickle them instead of eat them.
March 21, 2008 at '11:50'
Meyer lemon tempura… how unique. When I saw the post title in my blog reader, I was expecting a tempura with a squeeze of meyer lemon. This is better than expected! Love the baby octopus too.
March 21, 2008 at '18:33'
Alejandra – You cleaned out the store of their meyer lemons? I know the feeling! I did that recently (however, I felt guilty after a few minutes and so I went back to return a few lemons so no one would say I’m hoarding all the meyers around here. I’m going to make a big batch of lemon curd and preserve that in some canning jars. I would love to make limoncello with these one day….maybe you’re braver than I?
WhiteonRice – if only you were my neighbor!
WanderingChopsticks – Thanks – no, the meyer lemons are not that tart to me. I found that frying the thin-skinned ones were better because they had less of the white pith.
Michelle – Great – I should note again that you might want to use the meyer lemons with the thinnest skin.
Warda – Yes, you’re so right! Baby octopus and calarmars are great in paella. I got them at the Asian grocery mart (frozen, though).
Irene- Thanks – they do look quite cute, I must agree
Chuck – Thanks – I don’t deep fry much nor do I make tempura very often and this was certainly the first time I fried citrus. I think it was quite interesting – I think I’ll try serving some to friends and see if they can tell what it is.
March 24, 2008 at '21:01'
Aw man, you scored little octopi?! yum! Deep frying the lemon slices is brilliant. The greens are secondary at this point – it looks FABULOUS!
March 24, 2008 at '22:10'
Jen – Thanks! I made them following a comment on a previous post but then I saw in Alice Water’s book – Chez Panisse Fruit that she also has a recipe for deep frying meyer lemon slices. Very interesting, indeed.