Dinner recap

Tonight's meal was nice in the sense that it was out of the norm of what we usually feast upon. The grilled okra were lovely but though I had doused them in EVOO, red pepper, salt and garlic, the seasoning was fairly muted and called for more salt. Easy to oblige, and I enjoyed my first okra of the year. We absolutely love Israeli couscous; as well, Tom adores scallops, and I lemon and capers/caper berries. So, as  I noted earlier, this recipe seemed right up our alley. You roast the lemon, thinly sliced, in a 350 oven first and then chop and stir into the couscous. Tom, who does not have the I-love-bitter gene, found the roasted rind too bitter. I love bitterness but did think that a sprinkling of brown sugar or honey during the roasting would have added a nice sweetness that would take the edge off the HI, RIND! and complement the scallops nicely. The couscous was assertive and well-seasoned though, I managed to cook the scallops perfectly despite not having cooked scallops in years, and the lemon- crème fraîche was solid. Overall, I'm not sure I'd jump to make this again, but I would if the mood struck.

We also grilled a huge mango that was sitting around, and that's always a treat.