Karin's Week Thirty Recipe: Liguine ai Gamberi (Liguine with Shrimp)

After looking at my posts, I am apparently off a week in our endeavor for new recipes, as I have another new recipe, apparently for Week Twenty-Nine. This one is from a brand-new cookbook I recently got, Cucina Rustica. It is recipes that are simple & Italian, which sounded right up my alley. I've also read about this cookbook previously, and it had gotten good reviews. Whilst reading through the pasta section, I came upon this recipe that allowed me to use the frozen shrimp I always have on hand.

Liguine ai Gamberi (Liguine with Shrimp)

1/4 EVOO (extra-virgin olive oil)
4 garlic cloves, peeled & minced
1/2 tsp red chile pepper flakes (or to taste)
3 lb red tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped, approx. 4.5c*
1 c dry white wine
15 fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped
1/2 c chopped Italian parsley, leaves only
1lb medium shrimp, peeled & deveined
1 lb linguine (we did not have this, so I used spaghetti)

*Due to miscommunication, Nate only purchased 1.5lb of tomatoes at the store, but we did not peel & seed the tomatoes, so ended up with approximately the right amount.

Heat EVOO in a 10-12 inch skillet over low heat. Add the garlic & red chili pepper flakes to the oil and stir. Lightly saute the garlic until it smells rather garlicky, approx 1 min. Add the tomatoes and white wine to the skillet. Cover and cook the tomatoes over medium heat for 2-3 minutes, or until they begin to break down and release their juice. Add the basil and parsley. Stir frequently and continue cooking over moderate heat, cover removed, until the tomatoes and wine form a sauce (this is still very runny consistency for a sauce), approx 10-15 min.

Add the shrimp to the sauce and cook over high heat just until the shrimp are tender, or just until pink. Meanwhile, cook the pasta until it is al dente. Drain the pasta, and add it into the pan with the sauce. Toss the pasta with the sauce over high heat so that the pasta starts to absorb the sauce. Serve immediately.

Note: We used a normal frying pan approx 10 in in diameter. This is not the right size pan! We ended up adding the sauce to the pasta, instead of the other way around. Use a large DEEP pan if you are going to follow the directions.

This recipe, contrary to my last one, turned out delicious! It was very flavorful, and had just a hint of spice. The shrimp absorbed the flavors really well. We also had it as cold leftovers, and it still tasted great. Nate's response was that I can definitely make this one again. It was super easy and smelled great while cooking. I'm now wondering how it would taste using chicken. This one will get marked in the book for future use.

Jennifer's Week Twenty-Eight Recipe: Pasta Shells with Spicy Tomato Sauce

A recipe for my continuing quest to introduce more vegetarian meals to my carnivores. This comes from The Occasional Vegetarian.


Pasta Shells with Spicy Tomato Sauce

4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped fine
8 plum tomatoes, each cut into sixths
3 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/3 pound shells or other short pasta
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh coriander (cilantro)

In a medium skillet, saute garlic over low heat in the olive oil until it begins to turn golden, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the jalapeno pepper and saute for 1 to 2 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, 1 teaspoon salt and the pepper and cook, partially covered, until the tomatoes soften and begin to fall apart, 10 to 12 minutes. Stir every few minutes.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Add the remaining 2 teaspoons of salt and the pasta. Cover until the water returns to a boil. Cook until the pasta is tender but firm, 7 to 9 minutes.

Drain the pasta and add it to the simmering sauce. Toss to combine. Add the coriander and toss lightly again. Serve hot.


Will I make it again? Signs point to no. Chad and Erik did not like it and I was indifferent. The "spicy" sauce was not spicy and Chad did not like the chunks of tomato in the sauce. I'll have to try again!

Karin's Week Twenty-Four Recipe: Creamy Pasta with Chard and Tomatoes

This past Saturday, we once again ventured out to our local Farmer's Market. One of my goals this summer is to eat more veggies of types that I am not used to. This week the Swiss Chard looked very tasty and colorful, along with some of the early-ripening tomatoes - chard is not on my usual veggies list, tomatoes are.  Once we got home, I needed to find something to do with the Swiss Chard. Lucky for me, this recipe used ingredients that were on hand, and fresh. Once again, Joy of Cooking comes up with a recipe for a random ingredient.

Creamy Pasta with Chard and Tomatoes

1 T olive oil (a bit more if your pan is nonstick)
1/4 c chopped onion (I used shallots, about 1/2 c, as they needed to be used up)
2 cloves garlic, minced (we ended up using twice this, as we like garlic)
1/4 - 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
2 large ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped, or 1 cup chopped drained canned tomatoes
1 lb chard, trimmed and cut crosswise into 1/2 inch strips (including green leaves)
3/ 4 c heavy cream
Black pepper to taste

Cooked fettuccine or egg noodles in amount you need to feed a family.

Heat olive oil in large saucepan over med-high heat. Add onion, garlic and red pepper flakes, stirring occasionally until soft & golden, about 2-3 minutes. Add tomatoes (which I did not peel only chopped, as who has time to peel tomatoes?) and cook stirring occasionally until most of the liquid is evaporated, about 5 min. Add the chard and cook while stirring until chard has wilted, about 2 min. Add the cream and black pepper, then cook for 2 min or until bubbly. Remove from heat and serve over pasta.

This took less time to make than I thought it would. Once everything was chopped, it went together in the time it took to boil the water for the pasta. I was worried that this would have the texture of cooked spinach, which I abhor, but the chard ribs stayed crunchy in the sauce. Flavor-wise, the sauce was nice and light, but both Nate and I agreed we would add more red pepper next time, as you really couldn't taste it. This was a tasty recipe that got a thumbs-up and I will probably make it again if I need a quick pasta dish.

Karin's Week Twenty-Three Recipe: Chicken Curry

After reading Jenni's post last week about the Curried Chicken Pot Pie, I got the idea of making curry stuck in my head. Again with the rather quick lunch at my house, I looked through my Thai and my Indian cookbooks for something for which I had the ingredients. I had no coconut milk, so that cut out most of the Thai curries. This one I found in my Indian cookbook, Six Spices: A simple concept of Indian cooking, and it didn't call for coconut milk. Also, this cookbook has been a fun one to read, as the author is local to my area, and really seems to have made complicated recipes simple. There are lots of ingredients, but it goes together in less time than needed to cook the rice. Just make sure you have things lined up on the counter before you turn on the heat.

Chicken Curry (Rase wali Murgi)

Ingredients:

• 2-3 lb skinned chicken parts (we used breast meat)
• 2 1/2 tsp salt, divided (I omitted this)
• 6 T cooking oil, divided (olive oil worked fine)
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 3 tsp garlic, finely chopped
• 2 tsp fresh ginger, chopped (I used Penzey's ground, about 1.5 tsp)
• 1 tsp cumin, roasted and ground (again Penzey's)
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 1 tsp red chili powder (I used Penzey's Medium)
• 1/4 c water, divided
• 1/2 lb fresh tomatoes, chopped
• 2 T fresh cilantro, chopped (again with the Penzey's)
• 6 T plain yogurt (this I didn't have, but had Vanilla flavor, so used that)
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 2 tsp lemon juice

Method:

1. Wash chicken pieces and dry. Sprinkle with 1 1/2 tsp of salt and set aside.
2. In nonstick frying pan, heat 2 T of oil on high heat. When hot, add chicken and fry for 3-4 min, turning once. Transfer to a plate. (Chicken will be fully cooked later in recipe.)
3. Add remaining 4 T of oil to the pan. Add onion, garlic, and ginger and cook until onions are soft and golden brown. (I added my ginger with the other dry spices instead.)
4. Reduce heat to low. Stir in cumin, turmeric, coriander, red chili powder, and 2 T of the water. Cook for 1-2 min, stirring constantly. Stir in tomatoes, 1 T of cilantro, yogurt, and remaining salt.
5. Increase heat to medium, add chicken pieces with juices from plate. Pour in remaining water. Bring to a boil, turning chicken in sauce to evenly coat.
6. Sprinkle curry with garam masala. Reduce heat to low. Cover and let curry simmer for about 20 min or until chicken is tender.
7. Add lemon juice and remaining cilantro. Simmer another 5 min.
8. Serve hot over rice.

Note: All spices used came from Penzey's, of course. They had the garam masala in the catalog, and I liked the story so much, that I bought it when I bought this cookbook, as then I didn't have to mix it myself.

This curry was simple to make, and the vanilla yogurt didn't affect the taste or smell at all. Both of us agreed it was tasty and worth making again, maybe with a slightly different meat. We ate it with brown rice (not my favorite, but Nate's choice), and it wasn't as spicy as you would think looking at the ingredients list. This could be made with root veggies for a vegetarian version, as almost the same ingredients are on the facing page for Mixed-Vegetables Curry. It does make a lot, and tastes great as left-overs.

Karin's Week Seventeen Recipe: Kohlrabi Remoulade

This recipe is a result of still having 1/2 of my Giant Kohlrabi leftover from last week's recipe. Two people cannot eat a 3lb kohlrabi in a single sitting.  Looking around for a recipe that had ingredients that I had on hand, I found this by using SimplyRecipes.com. As I had already had on-hand the ingredients for making guacamole, I thought that this might be an interesting recipe to try. Kohlrabi has the flavor of a cross between cabbage and broccoli, with a bit of radish thrown in. It's nice and firm, so once you get it peeled, it's very easy to chop or grate, etc.

Kohlrabi Remoulade

For the remoulade:
2 small-ish, kohlrabi, thickly peeled
2 heaped tablespoons of good quality mayonnaise (see below)
3 fat green olives, pitted and finely chopped
1 small clove of garlic, crushed
Small palmful of hazelnuts, roasted, cooled and chopped
2 teaspoons of grain mustard
Sea salt and pepper

What I did was grate the half kohlrabi I had left on the large holes of a box grater, which made it about 2x the amount called for in the recipe. So I doubled the mayo, garlic, and mustard, and omitted the olives and hazelnuts. Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly.

For the guacamole:
2 ripe but firm large Hass avocado
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 tsp minced garlic
1 heaping tsp of sweet chilli sauce
Cayenne pepper, to taste
1.5 tomatoes chopped
juice of 1 ½ lemons

Handful of leaves (arugula, spinach, whatever you like)


Smash the avocados in a small bowl or molcajete*. Add the rest of the ingredients (except the greens) in order to the bowl, mixing thoroughly after each addition. You could also use your own guacamole recipe.


To serve: Place some greens on the plate, top with a mound of guacamole, then a mound of the remoulade.
 

*Using the molcajete always reminds me of visiting Mexico or one of the other Latin American countries. I picked mine up on a trip to Juarez from a small housewares store in the city center - a true molcajete is made of volcanic stone. Now that it is summer, I can use it to make sauces from all kinds of fresh veggies, so you may be seeing more of this nifty device.

Verdict on this was very delicious, and kohlrabi is much better raw than cooked. I think I will be making this again, albeit with a much smaller kohlrabi to start with. Nate's point was, anything that is 50% guacamole has to be delicious. The remoulade gave it more of a salad flair, and we ate it alongside brats on the grill. I think this would make a great summer picnic dish, but I might use a food processor for all the chopping/grating.

Karin's Bonus Week 14 Recipe: Lime Pork Chops with Tomato Sour Cream Garnish (but not with pork)

This recipe is from a book that we got for a wedding present, The Big Book of Backyard Cooking. I have made this recipe in the past with boneless pork chops and it was amazing.  This time, I didn't have the pork chops, but had some nice tuna steaks thawed.  I thought, hmmm, citrus and seafood usually have an affinity, I wonder what would happen if I used the tuna?

Lime Pork Chops with Tomato Sour Cream Garnish

6 - 5oz boneless centercut pork loin chops, 3/1-1" thick, trimmed of fat (I used tuna steaks instead.)
1/4 c olive oil
3 serrano peppers, seeded and minced
2.5 T fresh lime juice (2-3 limes) (I used bottled)
1.5 tsp ground cumin
Kosher salt
3/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Garnish
3/4 c sour cream
12 small cherry tomatoes, quartered & seeded
3 green onions including 3" of green stems, finely sliced
Kosher salt
3 T chopped fresh cilantro

*I ended up using 2 tsp of red pepper flakes in the marinade, as I forgot to buy the chile peppers. I also used 1 med tomato instead of the cherry tomatoes, as there were none at my market.

1. Place pork chops in a shallow glass dish that will hold them in a single layer. Whisk together 1/4 c oil, chiles, lime juice, cumin, 1 tsp salt and red pepper flakes. Pour over pork. Cover & refrigerate. Marinate 6 hr or overnight, turning several times. Bring to room temp 30min before grilling.

2. Prepare the garnish 30 min before grilling. Mix all garnish ingredients together in a small bowl. Set aside at room temp.

3. When ready to cook, oil a grill rack & arrange 4-5 in from heat source (we don't usually oil the rack). Prepare grill for a hot fire. Remove pork from marinade and pat dry. Grill until cooked all the way through, 6+ min per side. Arrange chops on a platter. Garnish with sauce, and pass extra sauce separately.

Results: Just as good with the tuna steaks. However, I would cut in half the spicy pepper if I do it again with tuna, as it was WAY spicier than with the pork, even with only half of the marinating time. We had to use the sour cream sauce to cut the spice. But, still, the tuna was a great alternative to the pork. I wonder what would happen if I used chicken? Hmmm....