Thursday, April 28, 2016

Italian Dressing Shrimp with Penne


Building on a very simple four-ingredient oven-cooked shrimp dish that I found on the Internet, I jazzed the recipe up a bit and created this wonderful pasta meal. The resultant sauce even toned down the lemon rind and boy, was it delicious.

Feel free to alter the ingredients.

It’s one of these “go for seconds” and “no left-overs” meals.

Ingredients
  • GARLIC SALT, to flavor pasta-cooking water
  • PENNE PASTA, 1 cup
  • OLIVE OIL, 1 tablespoon
  • BUTTER, 1 block
  • ONION, 1, sliced
  • GARLIC, 2, minced
  • LEMON, 1, sliced into wheels
  • SHRIMP, 1 pound, (16-20) peeled, veined, tail-on
  • ITALIAN SALAD SEASONING, 1 package
  • ZUCCHINI, 1 large, cut into chunks
  • PARMESAN CHEESE, ¼ cup, shredded or grated

Directions
  1. Boil the penne in a large pot flavored with garlic salt.
  2. While the penne is cooking, melt the butter in a large pan over medium heat, and sauté the onions and garlic until soft. Reserve.
  3. Lay the shrimp on the butter and lemon slices, sprinkle the salad dressing seasoning on top.
  4. Lower the heat to medium-low and add the onions, garlic and cooked penne to the pan and cover.
  5. Add the zucchini to the pasta water and cook until almost tender.
  6. Transfer the zucchini to the pan with the rest of the ingredients.
  7. Thin the sauce slightly with 1-2 ladles of pasta water.
  8. Add the parmesan cheese and stir. Cover and let stand for two minutes.
  9. Serve in a bowl with extra parmesan cheese on the side.

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Muffin Cup Potatoes


These are very tasty, and the kitchen smells so good while you’re prepping the potatoes and during their hour-long sojourn in the oven. They go well with any meal, but especially with poultry or meat. If you have fresh thyme, use it, but if you don’t, dried thyme will work as well.

I use small Yukon Gold potatoes.

Ingredients
  • BUTTER, 3 tablespoons, melted
  • PARMESAN CHEESE, 2 tablespoons, grated
  • GARLIC POWDER, 1 teaspoon
  • THYME LEAVES, 1 teaspoon
  • BLACK PEPPER, freshly ground
  • SALT, several pinches
  • POTATOES, 4-6 small, sliced thin

Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. Butter a 12-cup muffin tin and set it aside.
  3. Cut potatoes into thin slices. Put into a large bowl, then add the melted butter, Parmesan cheese, and spices. Toss to coat the potatoes evenly.
  4. Layer the potatoes into stacks and place into the muffin cups. Sprinkle with more salt (Kosher this time) and pepper to taste.
  5. Bake for 60 minutes or until the edges are golden brown and the center is tender.
  6. Take them out of the oven and let them sit for about 5-minutes.
  7. Garnish with extra Parmesan cheese and thyme.

Monday, April 18, 2016

Beef with Choy Sum



This is rather like the Beef with Snow Peas recipe I posted earlier, except the beef marinade and brown sauce are different.
I didn’t have Chinese wine in the house, so I substituted burgendy. It was a good substitution. I also sprinkled some toasted sesame seeds just for the heck of it.

Ingredients
  • BEEF TENDERLOIN, 8 ounces, thinly sliced
  • CHOY SUM, 1 bundle, trimmed to equal-sized pieces
  • GARLIC, 1 clove, smashed

Ingredients: Beef Marinade
  • SOY SAUCE, 1 tablespoon
  • CHINESE COOKING WINE, 1 tablespoon
  • BLACK PEPPER, coarsely ground

Ingredients: Brown Sauce
  • OYSTER SAUCE, 1 tablespoon
  • CORN STARCH, 1 tablespoon
  • CHICKEN POWDER, 1 teaspoon
  • WATER, 2½ tablespoons

Directions
  1. Make the marinade and marinate the beef.
  2. Make the brown sauce and set aside.
  3. Heat some cooking oil on medium-high in a frying pan. Add the garlic and sauté the beef about 2 minutes until medium. Set aside.
  4. Stir fry the choy sum in the same pan for about 3 minutes until softened.
  5. Add the beef back in and stir well.
  6. Add in the brown sauce and cook until thickened.
Serve with steamed rice or Chinese noodles.

Thursday, April 14, 2016

Summer Salad


This is a pretty refreshing side dish. For a less-spicy salad, remove the seeds and ribs from the jalapeño peppers.

There was no lump crab available at the supermarket when I went shopping for the salad ingredients, so I substituted some Japanese surimi (“SOO-ree-mee,” imitation crab). It was fine. Not excellent, but fine.

I suppose shrimp would do just as fine.

Ingredients
  • LUMP CRAB, 12 ounces
  • GRAPE TOMATOES, 1 pint, cut in half
  • HAAS AVOCADO, 1 diced
  • JALAPEÑO PEPPERS, 2 diced fine
  • CORN KERNELS, 1½ cups roasted
  • RED ONION, 1/3- cup chopped
  • LIME JUICE, 2 tablespoons
  • HONEY, 1 teaspoon
  • OLIVE OIL, 2 teaspoons
  • CILANTRO, 2 tablespoons chopped
  • SALT and PEPPER to taste

Directions
  1. In a small bowl, combine red onion, pinch of salt and pepper. Let stand least 5 minutes to mellow the flavor of the onion.
  2. In a large bowl, combine chopped crab meat, tomatoes, avocado, jalapeño pepper and corn.
  3. Combine all the ingredients together, add cilantro and gently toss.
  4. Make a vinaigrette with the lime juice, honey and olive oil. Pour over the vegetables and gently toss.
  5. Adjust with more lime juice, salt and pepper to taste.

Friday, April 8, 2016

Rachel Khoo's Balsamic Onion Hot Dogs with Fennel-Apple-Red Cabbage Slaw


I first heard about this when Food Network cooking show host Rachel Khoo posted a video on Facebook that she’d also posted on her YouTube page.

It seemed intriguing, so I gave it a try.

You know what? Everybody liked it as it was ‘way different from the usual mustard, onions and pickled relish we usually put on our hot dogs.

This is Rachel Khoo's recipe:

Ingredients 

  • SAUSAGES, 6
  • BUNS, 6
  • RED ONIONS, 2
  • BALSAMIC VINEGAR, 4 tablespoons
  • OLIVE OIL, 1 tablespoon
  • SALT, pinch 

For the slaw 

  • RED CABBAGE, small head, ½
  • APPLE, 1 crunchy, cored
  • FENNEL, ½
  • LEMON JUICE, 1 lemon
  • OLIVE OIL, 3 tablespoons
  • SALT, to taste 

Directions 

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
  2. Cut onions into quarters and separate.
  3. Toss in the balsamic vinegar, oil and salt.
  4. Place in a baking dish, then in the oven for 30 minutes or until the onions have softened.
  5. Ten minutes before the onions are done, throw the sausages (prick the sausages to stop them from exploding) into the baking dish to roast.
  6. Make the slaw: Thinly slice (by knife or mandoline) the cabbage, fennel and apple.
  7. Toss together with the olive oil and lemon juice. Taste for salt.
  8. Place the buns into the oven for a couple of minutes to warm up.
  9. To assemble: stuff the sausages and onions into a bun, with the slaw on top.


Monday, April 4, 2016

Swiss Steak



As you will notice, I served this favorite delish dish with creamy roasted-garlic mashed potatoes and butter-garlic sautéed zucchini. It’s the perfect combination of flavors. I also forgot the green onions for garnish. Rats.

Ingredients
  • ROUND STEAK, 2 pounds, cubed, cut into thin pieces
  • FLOUR, ½ cup
  • SALT and PEPPER
  • ONION, 1 large, sliced
  • GARLIC, 2 cloves, minced
  • TOMATO SAUCE, 1 (8-ounce) can
  • WORCESTERSHIRE SAUCE, 2 tablespoons
  • SOY SAUCE, 1 tablespoon
  • BEEF BROTH, 1 cup
  • BAY LEAF, 1
  • GREEN ONIONS

Directions
  1. Salt and pepper both sides of cubed steak pieces. Dredge in flour and bound both sides with a meat hammer that has those pointy pyramids all in a row.
  2. Heat oil in large skillet and brown both sides of meat, about 2 to 3 minutes per side. Set aside on plate.
  3. Add a little oil if needed, then add onions and garlic.
  4. Cook for a few minutes, then add rest of the ingredients and stir until combined.
  5. Add meat back into skillet and cover with sauce. Cover and simmer for 1½ to 2 hours or until meat is very tender.
  6. Garnish with green onions.