New Years Day Part Three

I had picked up a Williams and Senoma cook book from the library. There were so many interesting recipes, and i had a nice bag of shrimp in the freezer, so i thought i would be a fun occasion to try one out.



So for this one i was missing, two of the herbs (mint and oregano). It actually called for parsley too, but i stand by my utter disgust with parsley - it will not enter my kitchen. Okay, fine - i can improvise.




The rest of the recipe was shallots and garlic which i sauteed the shallots for a few minutes, then added the garlic. After that i was supposed to add some vermouth- which for some reason i had used up. I did have sake - and some white wine... that's almost vermouth right?

I added the chopped plum tomatoes (which to be honest couldn't have been a lot riper) This basically made a nice sauce, i added the shrimp and cooked them until they were pink, added the feta and let it heat. This dish was actually quite good, the sauce was awesome, and i had an extra baguette for dipping.

Chowing Down

Squash Quesadillas and Shrimp tacos

I used to make squash enchilladas with a mixture of roasted squash, roasted garlic, chipotle and cream cheese - i decided to use some left over squash that we had baked and make quesadillas with these. I used a similar mixture, and grilled them. I served them with a lime chipotle sour cream. I also made shrimp tacos which were tasty as always!

For a side dish i made a black bean and corn salad. I added some cucumbers, cilantro, jaleponas and red onions. I basically used the sour cream dip from the squash and dressed the salad, using more lime that in the dip.

the roasted squash

Quesadilla ingredients (and a spritzer for the chef)

shrimp on the bbq

grilled shrimp

salad

taco toppings

finished quesadillas

Cottage Dinner with Seafood

My apologies, i've been super busy doing a summer stats class, so i have been cooking and photographing, but i just haven't really been posting. I'm going to put up a couple with minimal text and will try and write a few entries as soon as i have a minute to breathe!

Grilled some veggies and ended up blending them for a roasted veggie dip which was nothing special.

Got this shrimp recipe out of the Sunday NY Times and it is amazing. You make a sauce out of butter and Sarachi, and boil the shrimp - shells on - then toss them with the sauce and some diced jalepeno and corriander. Kinda like my popcorn guilty pleasure.

Scallops in a white wine, butter and garlic sauce

Potatoes that i boiled then tossed in a shallot butter.

Steak Nicoise

Now that i've started eating steak, i really enjoy it. I usually get tenderloins because to be honest i can't really eat more than 4 or 5 ounces of red meat. My brother in-law was in charge of picking up the steaks and he came back with two monsters. Actually that was good because we had a brand new bbq to test out. Since the steaks were so big and it was a really hot day i thought that i would make a nicoise salad, but with steak!

I had a bunch of leftovers, including these Yukatan shrimp that i got from the New York Times. (i'll give the recipe in another post). I decided to incorporate those in another meal-type salad. Unfortunately there were no asian ingredients at the cottage so i had to make it a lot simplier than i had intended. I did have cabbage and avocados left over from the Fish Tacos.

I also had some potatoes that i had tossed in shallot butter - i packed those in foil and heated them up on the bbq.

The steaks as i mentioned were monsters. Once they were finished i sliced them into thin slices for the salad.

I had a few of the usual ingredients for a nicoise - hard boiled egg, tomato, but i also added some left over grilled asparagus, butter lettuce. I topped it with a honey dijon dressing i made with pretty much everything in the fridge!

Chipotle Shrimp Quesadillas

Not only do i enjoy fish tacos, but i also like to make quesadillas with fish. This time i reused some of the jumbo shrimp i had for another meal. I simply defrosted them, and tossed them with chipotle and lime, then grilled them (shells on).

All of the ingredients

Shrimp on the grill

Shrimp Quesadillas

(old cheddar, tomatoes, onions and cilantro)

Portabello and Asparagus

(i grilled the portabellos first, but the asparagus i left raw)

Quesadillas

Tofu and Shrimp Thai Curry

About six months ago i was on a crazy thai curry kick. I liked it in part because you could use so many vegetbales. At the time i used a President's Choice canned curry sauce that i liked, but then they changed it to a new jarred one that i didn't really enjoy as much. This led me to realize that i should probably learn how to make the sauce from scratch - it would be a lot healthier and i always like a cooking challenge.

I actually sort of invented my version of the recipe, so its not the most authentic thing, but it does have a lot of the ingredients you would expect in a thai curry. Once of my finds was purreed lemongrass, which is not always easy to find at any given time. Kafir lime though, that's another story, i think i've only used them once and really am not going to spend all the time sourcing it. For this recipe i did use some lime zest, which i think gives the recipe a nice freshness.

Sauce Ingredients:

Garlic
Ginger
Green Onions
Vietnamese chili
Green Curry Paste
Coconut Milk
Fish Sauce
Lime Zest
Cilantro

I did the usual - add a ton of veggies; mushrooms, carrots, onions, eggplant, bok choy, brocoli and green beans. For a little extra protein i added tofu and some shrimp that i had originally purchased to make a baked scampi which i haven't gotten around to yet.

One of the most exciting things about this meal is that i sucessfully made rice. It was white basmati, but i did not burn it. Take that starches!

Above:

Sorry about the different lighting - i've been swtiching things up in my kitchen, and apparently its made the lighting all odd

Curry (ignore my neighbour in the background)
Whole veggies
Cut veggies
Sauce ingredients
Sauce ingredients - herbs et al.