Pepper Smoked Prawns and Oysters with Grilled Polenta and Peach Salsa

This week we have failed to post because we really haven't had much to post. Late days in the lab for one or both of us have prevented us from having much in the way of proper dinners at home. We did have a couple of interesting bits to post (homemade pizza and crepes, on different nights) that I will not expound on further since I managed to lose the photos through some bone-headed techno-mistake that I still do not completely understand. Please accept our apologies for that tease, but rather than reconsruct the experiments without photo documentation, rest assured that we will repeat the dishes and post at a later date.

With that confession out of the way, I have to say that tonight's culinary marvel deserves a solo post anyway. We had the most spectacular weather in Boston today -- after weeks of intermittent clouds and thunderstorms, today was in the upper 70's and sunny; warm in the sun and delightful in the shade. We hit the gym at around 10 am (Sunday gymming is unusual for us), then enjoyed a relaxed coffee out on the patio before taking a nice walk through the Public Gardens. We ended up at a Charles Street photo gallery that we've been wanting to check out this week (the aerial landscapes from John Griebsch and the "drift" seascapes from David Burdeny are simply awesome).

On the way back home we parted company so I could put in a few unavoidable hours in the lab, and Melissa hit the supermarket with summer grilling on the brain. She had hatched a plan that involved a half-dozen live east coast oysters, a few giant prawns, a bag of cornmeal and a big handful of dried black peppercorns.

To back up a bit: after a show we saw on the Food Network a few years ago, we started using pepper-smoking as a way to add a little twist to our shellfish on the grill, and while our neighbors bristle at the teargas-like effect of the smoke that drifts in through their windows, we fell in love with the technique. Simply soak a large handful of black peppercorns in water for a few minutes, then drain and pack them into a foil pouch with some holes poked in it. Throw that directly onto the flame for the final few minutes of cooking prawns on the grill, and the flavor is divine. For the oysters, we shucked them fresh at home, then put the half-shells on the upper rack (or simply off-heat on the main rack) for just a minute or two to soak up the pepper smoke without actually cooking them. Here's a photo taken just after the heat was turned off (see polenta on the right and the peppercorn-pouch on the lower left):

Melissa served the shellfish on slices of grilled polenta with fresh arugula and a variation on the peach salsa that she debuted a little more than a month ago with grilled tilapia. The polenta was prepared with arugula and parmesan cheese, and would be a great vegetarian dish without the clam base she used when making up the cornmeal-based mixture (recipes coming soon).

The peach salsa is so fresh and clean-tasting -- it's quickly becoming a defining flavor of our summer grill. In this incarnation Melissa used fresh peach, yellow bell-pepper (capsicum), grape tomatoes, cilantro, basil, lemon juice and sea salt. The polenta mixture was poured into a spring-form pan and chilled for about an hour before being sliced into pie-shaped pieces and thrown onto the grill for some lines and a great pepper-smoked flavor.

We had a great wine with this dish. We don't often buy French wines for ourselves, since neither of us knows much about them and they are generally expensive enough that scattershot-purchases are dauntingly risky. Nevertheless, we occasionally receive a good bottle from a dinner-party guest, and this one came from our good friends Etienne and Angelique, who know a thing or two about French wines. The 2004 Coudoulet de Beaucastel Cote du Rhone Blanc paired beautifully with this dish. Melissa and I had each independently decided that we should have this bottle with tonight's dinner, although neither of us had read the notes on the label, stating that the "flowery, peachy nose and round, rich and full bodied structure"..."goes particularly well with fish dishes and other traditional provencal specialties." They were right about that.

We lingered long on the patio after out plates were clean, enjoying the wine and watching the sun go down on what at this time of year has to be considered one of the precious few perfect-weather days remaining in our New England summer season...