09.01.09
Posted in Cuisines, Dinner, Foodblog Events, Seafood, Shrimp, Spanish at 10:16 pm by julie
I’ve been a bad, bad Daring Cook. I’m finding that it is difficult for me to obtain certain perishable ingredients in Salem, and then coordinate that with an appropriate timeframe in which to cook them, so I’m starting to think I may have to sit out on future challenges. I was able to complete the August challenge with some modifications, but I haven’t had a chance to write up a post until now.
The August Daring Cooks challenge was Rice with Mushrooms, Cuttlefish and Artichokes by the celebrated Spanish chef José Andrés, a sort of variation on paella. I would have liked to try my hand at working with cuttlefish or squid for the first time, despite my many reservations about the potential for rubbery texture, but I was not able to find any here in town, so I ended up substituting with shrimp. I also substituted reconstituted porcini mushrooms for fresh buttons, but I at least got my hands on some fresh artichokes, so I had the challenge of getting those broken down. I ended up skipping the allioli for this recipe due to time constraints and lack of a mortar and pestle, although I did attempt a very similar aioli earlier in the month. Notice the emphasis on attempt: I’ve never been able to get my homemade mayonnaises and aiolis to thicken up sufficiently, even when they seem to emulsify properly. I’ve tried it by hand, in my Cuisinart and my mini-food chopper, all with similar results; the blender will have to be my next experiment, unless anyone has tips for me.
Once I got the sofregit made and the artichokes broken down, this recipe actually was not that time-consuming. I sauteed my shrimp first and set them aside to try and avoid overcooking, and of course soaked the mushrooms in advance. For my liquids, I used a combination of water, leftover chicken stock, and mushroom steeping liquid. The end result was a very flavorful one-pot meal that everyone enjoyed, even the baby. I’m just sorry that I wasn’t able to post about it in a more timely fashion.
Permalink
07.12.08
Posted in Cuisines, Dinner, Dips & Spreads, Greek, Leftovers, Seafood, Shrimp at 2:39 pm by julie
I’ve never been too enamored with cooking magazines, other than perhaps Cooking Light, but I was offered a free subscription to Bon Appetit from Amazon.com a few months back, so I said what the heck. It’s alright so far, but I’m not overly impressed, and I haven’t gone out of my way to make any of the recipes.
The other night we tried a recipe for shrimp skewers with tzatziki and spinach from the most recent issue. As I had hoped, it was a fast, tasty meal—hard to go wrong with those flavors, and most of the ingredients are ones I always have on hand. Not only that, but it made a lovely and fairly healthy plate of food. The problem came when we sat down to actually eat, though: it was impossible for us to eat this neatly. Of course Jeremy was eating over WoW, and Nolan was awake at the time, so I had to hold him with one arm and eat with the other. But there were the skewers and tails to deal with, and the tzatziki, while delicious, was too thick to scoop up easily either with a bite of shrimp or a forkful of spinach.
I found myself wishing I had just removed the tails from the shrimp up front and sauteed them in a little oil and garlic, then tucked them in a pita with the spinach, feta and tzatziki. The portability and one-handed operation of a pocket sandwich would have been more than worth an extra trip to the grocery store or a few hours spent waiting for pita dough to rise. Considering all the other pluses to this recipe, it may happen yet.
Incidentally, I couldn’t bear to toss out the leftover tzatziki, but had nothing to eat it with. So for lunch the next day, I mixed a can of tuna with a few tablespoons of strained tzatziki, a bit of mayo and some feta cheese. It made one of the best tuna sandwiches I’ve had in quite a while.
Shrimp Skewers with Tzatziki, Spinach and Feta
1 C Greek yogurt
1 C 1/4″-cubes English hothouse cucumber
3 T chopped fresh dill
2 T fresh lemon juice
2 T chopped shallots
1 tsp chopped garlic
Olive oil
1 lb uncooked large shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 C baby spinach
3/4 C crumbled feta cheese
Mix yogurt, cucumber, dill, lemon juice, garlic and shallot in small bowl; season generously with salt and pepper and chill until ready to serve.
Prepare grill with oil. Thread shrimp equally onto 4 skewers and brush with olive oil; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill just until shrimp are opaque in the center, about 3 minutes per side. Divide spinach between 4 plates, and drizzle lightly with lemon juice and olive oil. Top each with one shrimp skewer, a dollop of tzatziki, and a sprinkle of feta.
Source: Slightly adapted from Bon Appetit, August 2008 (p. 45)—and will be more firmly adapted next time.
Permalink
07.08.08
Posted in Cuisines, Dinner, Nuts, Grains & Legumes, Seafood, Shrimp, Sides at 11:48 am by julie
I’ve been working hard to build a stash of extra breastmilk in our freezer for Nolan. I don’t produce much more than he eats on a daily basis (especially not this past week, while he was having an extreme growth spurt and eating nearly double his usual amount), but since April I have been able to freeze at least one bag of milk most days. It’s an accomplishment I am extremely proud of, but it is also quickly starting to overwhelm our little refrigerator freezer. Every time I open the freezer door, there is a landslide of frozen meat and veggies.
Until I can talk Jeremy into getting us a little chest freezer, my goal is to use up—or chuck, since while stashing bags of milk at the back of the shelves, I excavated a few unidentifiable freezer-burned items that have been there time out of mind—the food I’ve got in my freezer. (Probably just to replace it with more, what can I say? I particularly find the resealable bags of frozen veggies handy: broccoli, green beans, peas, corn, spinach and peppers.)
I started out with this Cuban-inspired dish, which uses frozen shrimp and peppers. I like to keep frozen shrimp on hand because they thaw quickly for last-minute dinners, and you avoid all that tedious deveining. I actually had this meal in mind some time ago, but didn’t think I had any coconut milk… turns out it was just buried in the back of the pantry. Because the shrimp only requires a small amount of milk, I used the rest in a really easy recipe for coconut rice I’ve made before, and it complimented the spicy shrimp and peppers nicely.
Enchilado de Camerones
1 T olive oil
1 C chopped onion
1/2 C chopped red bell pepper (I used a frozen blend of peppers)
1/2 C chopped green bell pepper
1/2 to 1 tsp crushed red pepper
1/4 tsp salt
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 lb medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/4 C light coconut milk
2 T chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion; sauté 2 minutes. Add bell peppers, crushed red pepper, salt, and garlic; sauté 4 minutes. Add tomatoes; cook 6 minutes or until liquid almost evaporates, stirring frequently.
Stir in shrimp, and cook 4 minutes or until shrimp are done, stirring frequently. Remove shrimp mixture from heat, and stir in coconut milk. Sprinkle with cilantro if desired. Serve with coconut rice.
Source: Cooking Light
Coconut Rice
2 C uncooked basmati rice
1 1/2 C light coconut milk
1 1/2 C water
1/4 tsp salt
1 C chopped green onions (optional)
Rinse rice with cold water; drain. Combine rice, coconut milk, 1 1/2 cups water, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat; stir once. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes until liquid is absorbed. Let stand 10 minutes; stir in onions.
Source: Cooking Light
Permalink
09.06.07
Posted in Cuisines, Foodblog Events, Pastas, Seafood, Shrimp, Thai at 9:53 am by julie
I seem to make a lot of pasta on Thursday nights, and then run out of time to write up a post for Presto Pasta Night, but this week I got an earlier start. Jeremy made a Costco run after work on Tuesday to pick up some protein for meal while I kept Freyja company at home. He soon returned with some lovely fresh tiger prawns and a hope of getting coconut shrimp for dinner. Unfortunately for Jeremy, I don’t care for coconut shrimp, so he’ll have to save that craving for restaurant ordering. The flavor profile was a good one, though, so I hunted down an alternate recipe for sautéed shrimp in a Thai coconut broth with noodles.
It turned out to be a quick, easy meal, despite the fact that I was short on a few ingredients: I didn’t have quite enough of either curry powder or fresh ginger. I also had no ramen noodles (no big loss there), so I used some broken Barilla Plus spaghetti instead. The recipe’s process needed a bit of refining: I kept the broth and noodles separate until the end, sautéed the prawns and their aromatics in a large skillet, and poured the broth and noodles over top of the prawns, tossing it all together and scooping it with a ladle and tongs into our pasta bowls. We ate it with fork and spoons, and I surprised myself by actually liking it. The real kicker is that I liked the noodles and broth better than the prawns, which I felt I had overcooked a bit. I had anticipated that if I didn’t like the flavors of the dish, at least I could pick out the prawns to eat, but it turned out the other way around. Jeremy was a bit put off by the thinness of the “sauce,” but after I told him it was meant to be a soupy broth, he ate two bowlsful and seemed very pleased that there was enough left over for lunch; hopefully he’s not missing that coconut shrimp too much.
This is my entry for Presto Pasta Night #28, hosted by the fabulous Ruth at Once Upon a Feast. Drop by and check out the pasta party every Friday for some great recipes.
Sautéed Prawns and Noodles in Thai Coconut Broth
Thai Coconut Broth
6 oz spaghetti noodles
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can chicken broth
1 (14-ounce) can light coconut milk
1 T minced garlic
2 tsp minced fresh ginger
2 tsp curry powder
1 T chopped shallots
Sautéed Prawns
1 1/2 lb peeled and deveined medium-size fresh tiger prawns
2-3 T olive oil
2 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp chopped shallots
1/2 tsp dry ginger
1 T lemon juice
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
Cook noodles until al dente in a large saucepan. Drain and rinse with cold water.
Bring broth and next 5 ingredients to a boil in saucepan; reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes. Meanwhile, begin cooking prawns.
Sauté prawns in hot olive and sesame oils in a large skillet over medium heat for 2 minutes, or just until prawns turn pink. Add garlic and next 5 ingredients, and stirfry until fragrant. Pour hot coconut broth and noodles over prawns, toss through to combine, and slurp up with a fork and spoon.
Source: Adapted from Southern Living, November 1998.
Permalink
07.27.07
Posted in Cuisines, Foodblog Events, Pastas, Seafood, Shrimp, Vietnamese at 9:39 am by julie
I’m back for more! This is my entry for this week’s Presto Pasta Night, created by Ruth at Once Upon a Feast. I had originally planned on entering my roasted mushroom lasagne, but it was so scraped together and so creamy and pale that it just didn’t feel right to enter, coming after Myriam’s stunning Chanterelle Lasagne last week. Not that the appearance prevented us from gobbling down every bit of our lasagne for lunches this week…
We’ve been having a strange summer, weather-wise. With temperature spikes after both Memorial Day and Independence Day, and then a week of cooler weather and rain on what is traditionally the hottest and driest part of the year in Oregon, it’s been hard to know what to expect. This week has been unusually humid, so after sneaking in that lasagne before the drip factor kicked in, I really wanted to make something cool and refreshing for dinner. For some reason, Vietnamese spring rolls sprang into my head, so I gave them a shot.
I used a recipe from Epicurious, and stuck pretty close to it. The pasta element consisted of pouring hot water over maifun rice sticks and letting them soften up. Then I set to cooking the shrimp and julienning vegetables. I’ve never worked with rice paper before, so I was a little nervous about rolling everything up, but the spring roll skins I used (actually consisting of tapioca flour rather than rice) seemed pretty sturdy and didn’t stick too much. I just swished each sheet through some hot water for a few seconds, one at a time, and pulled them out while still a bit stiff. They softened up as I layered noodles, veggies, mint and shrimp, and didn’t tear much when I went to roll them. I do need to work on my technique, though, as they were looser than I would have liked. Since I barely made a dent in the package of skins, it would appear I’ll have lots more opportunities to practice.
Shrimp Rice-Paper Rolls with Vietnamese Dipping Sauce
I actually cut the amounts below in half for just the two of us. A few changes I made: I left out the shiitake mushrooms because I can only eat so many in one week. The dipping sauce, a variety of nuoc cham, originally called for jalepeno, which is too spicy for me. I also left out some of the herbs because I don’t like cilantro and my basil plants are hanging on by a thread outside in this wonky weather. Finally, the original recipe called for slicing the rolls into thirds, but it wasn’t necessary and mine would have totally fallen apart I’d tried it.
Dipping Sauce
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons fermented fish sauce (nam pla)*
1 tablespoon unseasoned rice vinegar
2 garlic cloves, minced
Pinch of red chili flakes
Rice-Paper Rolls
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
4 ounces dried thin Chinese rice sticks (maifun)*
12 8- to- 9-inch round rice-paper sheets*
1 cup fresh bergamot mint leaves
1 cup finely shredded Savoy cabbage
1 cup mung bean sprouts
1 cup matchstick-size strips seeded English hothouse cucumber
1 cup matchstick-size strips peeled carrot
8 ounces peeled deveined medium shrimp
For dipping sauce: Whisk all ingredients in medium bowl until sugar dissolves. Let stand at least 30 minutes. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; chill.)
For rice-paper rolls: Heat oil in medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add shrimp and sauté until pink and cooked through, about 2 minutes. Cool and split in half lengthwise.
Place rice sticks in large bowl; add enough hot water to cover. Let stand until softened, about 30 minutes. Drain. Cut into 6-inch lengths; set aside. Fill same bowl with warm water. Add 1 rice-paper sheet and turn until beginning to soften, about 10 seconds (sheet will still be a bit stiff). Remove from water and place on prep surface.
Arrange a small handful of rice noodles in a line across softened rice paper. Top with cabbage, sprouts, cucumber, carrot, shrimp, and mint. Fold bottom of each rice sheet over filling, then fold in ends and roll into tight cylinder. Place rolls, seam side down, on platter and serve with sauce. (Can be made 6 hours ahead. Cover with damp paper towel and plastic wrap; chill.)
Source: Adapted from Epicurious.
Permalink
07.18.07
Posted in Cuisines, Italian, Nuts, Grains & Legumes, Pastas, Seafood, Shrimp at 9:55 am by julie
When we went to the Lake Oswego farmer’s market a week or two ago, I was pleased as punch to find a big pile of fava beans at one of the stalls. I’ve never seen them at the greenmarket here in Salem, just at LifeSource, and these were huge, beautiful pods that I couldn’t pass up. I got enough to really make them the centerpiece of a meal, so I spent quite a while trying to decide how to put them to use. I knew I wanted to combine them with shrimp in some fashion, and I ended up making fava bean raviolis with a shrimp and herb cream sauce that was really delicious, if rather a lot of work.
I started out shelling, blanching and peeling—despite the insistence of the stately Italian lady at the farmer’s market who told another woman (who hadn’t yet ever tried favas) that they don’t need to be peeled or even shelled. I do want to try grilling them whole sometime, but so far I haven’t been brave enough to eat them that way because I’m concerned about the texture. These were huge favas, much larger than the ones from LifeSource, and I definitely needed to blanch and peel them. I started working at 4:30pm, and I think it ended up taking me about an hour to end up with a cup or two of slippery emerald beans. From there, I’ll outline what I did, though I wasn’t really watching amounts.
*Make fava bean puree by covering with water 2 sliced Yukon gold potatoes, the favas, a sprig of fresh rosemary and half a bunch of sliced green onions and simmering until they are tender and the water has boiled off; add 3 T butter to melt, then puree with a stick blender until uniform. (Take time out to marvel at the fact that your puppy is enchanted by the smell and taste of the fava puree, and tried her darndest to stick her face in the bowl on top of the counter.) Add 2 oz fresh goat cheese and stir through while warm. It will be as thick as mashed potatoes, not watery. Cover and set aside.
*While working on favas and puree, thaw, peel and drain 8-10 shrimp, cut in half, and marinate in olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper, and a sprig of fresh rosemary.
*Make pasta dough: 1 C flour and 2 large eggs, from Marcella’s recipe, kneaded until smooth and wrapped in plastic wrap.
*Start herb sauce: 1 C 1% milk and ¾ C chicken or shrimp stock, warmed in microwave. Make a roux with 1 T each butter and flour, add warm liquid and a branch of fresh thyme, and simmer, stirring occasionally until it begins to thicken. Turn heat down to low and cover while making pasta.
*Additional elements for sauce: In a small skillet, sauté ½ C chopped sweet onion and fava beans for garnish in olive oil until onions are translucent and beans begin to soften; add shrimp with marinade (remove rosemary sprig) and cook just until pink; remove from heat and reserve.
*Run pasta dough through crank to desired thinness, cut into squares for ravioli, and fill with a teaspoon or so of fava puree, sealing edges well. Flour and cover as you go so they don’t stick together or dry out. Meanwhile, heat a large pot of salted water.
*Drop raviolis in the water to cook for a few minutes. Meanwhile, turn up the heat on the sauce, add a splash of heavy cream, and bring to desired temp and texture; add in the shrimp/fava mixture to warm.
*Toss drained raviolis with sauce and put on warmed plates, topped with crumbled goat cheese and some fresh chopped parsley or chives.
I think we finally sat down to eat about 4 hours after I started shelling beans, so it was quite the marathon prep, but worth the effort. I barely made a dent in the bowl of fava puree, though, and it was so delicious (I can’t blame Freyja for wanting to sample it) that I’ll definitely have to come up with alternate uses for it. I’m thinking crostini or sandwich smear, thinned with stock for soup, mixed into risotto, or perhaps even made into fava gnocchi.
Permalink
07.09.07
Posted in Cuisines, Dinner, Italian, Pastas, Seafood, Shrimp at 9:24 pm by julie
For a while now I’ve been mulling over the idea of shrimp and pasta in a tomato-based sauce. Last weekend, when we ran out of fresh protein in the fridge, I decided to thaw some shrimp and give it a go, and I was really pleased with the result, which was very flavorful. I started my meal based on this recipe from Stephencooks, and went from there, using what I had on hand.
Gemelli with Shrimp and Tomato Cream Sauce
We thought this was fantastic. The sauce was so flavorful that it could easily be done without the shrimp if desired.
½ lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 tsp garlic, minced
Olive oil
3 T butter, unsalted
2-3 T meaty bacon, minced
1 large shallot, minced
¾ C white wine
1 T tomato paste
½ C heavy cream
½ C diced tomatoes
2 tsp sugar
¼ tsp hot Hungarian paprika
½ lb gemelli pasta, cooked according to package directions, minus about one minute
Toss shrimp with garlic and oil. Allow to marinate while working on the sauce.
Melt better in a large skillet, and add minced bacon and shallot. (I used end bacon that was very hammy, with only a little fat.) Cook until browned and caramelized; meanwhile, stir tomato paste into wine. Deglaze pan with tomatoey wine and allow to reduce by half; add cream, tomatoes and paprika, and taste; if acidic, add sugar, and season to taste. Allow to simmer until slightly thickened, reduce heat to low, then put on the gemelli to cook in a large pot of water.
When the pasta is nearly ready, heat a small skillet or grill pan and cook the shrimp until pink and nearly done (about 60 seconds on one side, 30 on the other). Stir the shrimp into the sauce, drain the finished gemelli, and toss it in with the sauce and shrimp. Continue cooking for about a minute to meld the sauce with the pasta, taste and adjust seasoning, and serve.
Update 7/31/07: I made this dish again tonight, after receiving requests for it less than a week after I first tried it out. This time I used some uncured bacon from LifeSource, and it was just as tasty as we remembered it. I think it would work nicely with bits of chicken instead of shrimp too, or even some mild sausage.
Permalink