Yeah… I think you’re right. I spent the morning scouring the net for photos of abalone almondine to see if they looked like I remember. Some were close, many were not.
The consensus I came away with was egg and flour (or bread crumbs), just flour (tossing the steaks in a paper bag with seasoned flour), just egg, and flour and then egg. I also found numerous recipes with the eggs and crushed saltines.
I then looked through all my books, and found it in a 1979 cookbook for divers (Bottom’s Up Cookery) which uses only flour.
Gotta say the abalone I saw in most of these recipes looked pathetic compared to the large greens and occasional reds that we caught in the waters off Catalina and Palos Verdes, or the steaks we could order at the Malibu Sea Lion or Millie’s Seafood Grotto in Redondo Beach, let alone the Avalon pier back in the 70’s-80’s. Luckily, the Calamari steaks I will order from Giovanni’s are much larger.
I think I am gonna grab some sole fillets from the Safeway and experiment with the eggs/flour and the flour/eggs, along with getting the sauce just right. Then I will apply the best results to the calamari steaks. Stay tuned as I will definitely post the end results (with photos) to this thread.
Thanks everybody!
