What’s equal parts tasting menu, culinary lab, and delightful shared experience? SEACUTERIE! One of my absolute favorite ways to collectively bond over the vast array of wild Alaskan seafood. A way to not only feature the flavors of seafood, but also the full-sensory experience of color, aroma, texture, and whimsy that only a comprehensive, playful, and diverse seacuterie board can offer.
For example, I’ll never forget the unforgettable grazing table — essentially a massive seacuterie board — in Homer, Alaska during one of our team gatherings, when a giant crowd of us stood around in a well-adorned barn on a hilltop, rehashing a day of momentous Alaskan outdoor activities, while noshing on delicacies such as prawn cocktail, smoked fish dip, a smattering of cheeses, and exotic fruit like dragonfruit and starfruit. The seacuterie table served to anchor us as a group into the now-ness of our joy, our shared moment of pleasure, while we reminisced about kayaking with the whales, or catching a halibut the size of a small child.
The other aspect of seacuterie that I adore is that of play. This notion of the board being a kind of blank canvas on which to flex one’s creative spirit. I like to think of my seacuterie board as a way to experiment with casual-but-pretty presentations and preparations of whatever might come in my Wild Alaskan Company box. I might do the obvious moment of cold-smoked sockeye, replete with cute little ceramic bowls of soft goat cheese and piles of seeded crackers; and then surprise everyone with a deviled egg moment adorned with roe from a fisherman friend. Or I might make a batch of mini little crab cakes and frame the whole board with them. Or prep a salmon mousse as a centerpiece around which to compose everything else.
What I’m saying is that you should consider your seacuterie board as your ticket to explore, to reach beyond the expected and to have some fun with what I dare say might just become the most fun part of your holiday hosting.
Live Wild!
Monica
