Seafood Risotto w/Shrimp

Remember this photo? 

Yeps, Christmas dinner feast of lobster and hot pot.  Expanding on our lobster feast, I saved the shells and steaming liquid to cook lunch the following day - seafood risotto with bok choy and shrimp. While it's easy, it does take a little time to cook down the lobster broth and then make the actual risotto.  If you don't want to use the broth right away, I still recommend cooking down the broth and freezing so you can use for future recipes! 

Lobster Broth Ingredients

5 cups water

Remaining water you used to steam the lobster (we had a good 2-3 cups remaining)

Lobster shells (the head has the most flavor)

2 celery stalks, chopped into pieces

1/2 onion, cut into large chunks

2 carrots, chopped into pieces, no need to peel

Couple dashes of garlic powder

1. In a very large pot, put all the ingredients together and bring to a boil. Add more water if you need.  Bring down to a medium heat and cook for about 20-30 minutes. Periodically mix the pot so that the shells at the top get their chance at the bottom of the pot in the liquids.  

2. Once done, take off heat and strain so you are left with the beautiful lobster broth!  Put in fridge if you are not using immediately.  As mentioned earlier, this would also be great to freeze and bring out when you need a seafood broth for a pasta or rice dish. If it's too much to use at once, perhaps freeze them in ice cube trays so when you need a boost of seafood flavoring - say to a great bowl of ramen - you can simply toss in a cube or two.

Lobster Risotto

Lobster broth

3 cups arborio rice

3 garlic cloves, chopped

1/2 onion (remaining onion from above)

1/2-1 cup white wine (or whatever you have left)

10 shrimp, thawed and deveined 

Chopped basil

Freshly grated parm. cheese (however much you'd like)

Beware, you'll be using several bowls and pots!

1. Heat up the lobster broth in another large pot until boiling. Here's a neat little trick - since we'll be serving the risotto with shrimp, I cooked the shrimp in the lobster broth first!  I like to likely under cook the shrimp since we'll add it back to the risotto later.  Keep watch of this as the shrimp cook quickly - take out, set aside and turn the heat to medium to keep the broth hot.

2. Heat a large pot with olive oil.  Add the garlic and onion. Cook until onion is fragrant and somewhat clear. Add the rice and give it a cook mix to coat each grain with the oil olive goodness.  

3. Add in the white wine and give it a good ole stir, scrapping up the bits and yum stuff at the bottom of the pot. Turn down to medium high and let this cook until at least half the wine has been absorbed/cooked off.

4. Hope you are not terribly hungry at this time because it will be another 20 minutes or so before this is ready....  Turn down the heat to medium low.  Take two ladle full of broth, add to the rice, stir and watch the grains absorb the broth goodness.  Make sure to continually stir so nothing sticks.  As the liquid disappears, keep adding ladles of the lobster broth until the rice is cooked and you get a creamy goodness mixture.  Don't feel pressured to use all the broth.  Or, if you are low on broth, you can substitute with chicken broth or water - just make sure to warm it up before adding to the rice.

5. If you'd like to serve with veggies, bring another pot of water to a boil. Toss in the bok choy and cook until done - about 5-7 minutes.  Strain and set aside.  Seriously, any veggies will work in my opinion.  We just needed to balance out the overload of carbs....well, as much as we could..even if just a tiny bit.

6. Once the risotto is done, take a quick taste and see if you need additional salt or pepper.  My broth had a naturally salty flavor so I didn't need to add much.  Toss some basil on top and add in the cheese.  

7. Serve in bowls with 2-3 shrimp and some veggies.  Enjoy!

Mussels with Sun Dried Tomato & Basil Bread Crumbs

I've attempted steamed mussels once before and it was fine. Nothing earth-shattering, nothing so incredible that I've filed the recipe as "the recipe" and apparently not memorable in that I haven't tried again in the whole year.  I saw this recipe on a weekend Barefoot Contessa show and it seemed different yet simple.  It probably had nothing to do with the fact that I hadn't eaten anything that day and everything she made seemed delicious.


Fresh mussels are a must for this dish. Don't try this dish with the mussels in the frozen section as what makes a great mussel dish (in my personal opinion) is the sauce. Yes, the great sauce where you sop up all the juices with slices of bread or scoop extra juice in the mussel shell to loudly slurp. To get that seafood-y flavor and juices, you need fresh mussels and seem to find a good selection at Whole Foods.

 

Mussels with Sun Dried Tomato and Basil Bread Crumbs

Recipe adapted from Barefoot Contessa

3 slices of toasted bread (a few more if you like to eat your mussels with bread)

3 cloves of garlic (whole)

1/4 cup olive oil

9 sun dried tomatoes

Juice from 2 lemons 

Zest from 1 lemon

1/4 cup pine nuts

1/2 cup fresh basil

1/2 cup white wine

2 lbs fresh mussels
2 tbsp butter
S&P

1. Toast the bread and cool.

2. Put the bread, garlic cloves, lemon zest, lemon juice and olive oil into a food processor. Quickly grind.

3. Add the basil, pine nuts and sun dried tomatoes along with a dash of salt and pepper. Pulse quickly.

4. Make sure your mussels are cleaned.

5. Put the olive oil and white wine into a large pot big enough to hold the mussels.  Bring to a boil.

6. Once boiling, add the mussels and then cover.  Keep covered for at least 5 minutes.  Take a look and your mussels should be all opened and smelling delicious.  Toss in two tablespoon of butter. Turn off the heat and toss any that have not opened.

7. Take the bread crumb mixture and add to the top of the mussels. Give it a good toss with the mussels.

8. Serve with some toasted slice bread to soak up the delicious sauce.

Baked Trout with Green Beans

Growing up, my dad took us on several fishing trips and we soon found out how to de-scale and clean a fish. I remember sitting in our backyard cleaning the dozen fish from our night fishing trips. For the following weeks, having whole fish for dinner was a weekly if not daily dish.

Don't be alarmed with cooking a whole fish. Pretty simple! We bought these good looking trout from Costco and after getting home, I realized that they still had scales. UGH. Should have checked more carefully at the store so the butchers could de-scale them for me. 

I couldn't find any good recipes in my cookbook sso I just went on a whim with this - or should I say, what I could find in my fridget that I thought would go well with trout, which wasn't much. Lemon, butter and herbs. Yeps, that's about it.

Baked Trout

2 whole trout (cleaned and de-scaled)
1 lemons (one cut into slices and the second into wedges)
Several long sprigs of oregano and thyme
4 tbsp butter
S&P
Garlic Salt

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2. Wash and pat dry the fish. Season the fish with salt, pepper and garlic salt on both sides and inside the cavity. Then, cut deep slit into both sides of the fish and squeeze a lemon slice and tiny slab of butter in each. For the cavity, stuff the herb sprigs and a few more slices of butter. 

3. Place the fish on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 30 minutes until completely cooked through.  Prior to serving, take one lemon wedge and squeeze the juice over the fish for additional flavoring.

Sun Dried Tomato Pasta with Shrimp

This was recommended by one of my favorite ladies, Liz. It was a very simple recipe yet very delicious with the added cream. And honestly, who doesn't enjoy a good pasta that takes 20 minutes max to make and seems like you spent way more time? Even better, I bought an enormouse container of sun dried tomatos at Costco and this was a perfect recipe to make sure you really tasted the flavors.


The original recipe is from Giadda and I made something very similar to this in the last year but it definitely needed an extra kick. I bumped it up with a little more with the cream, shrimp and I also altered the amount of ingreditents and seasoning. I was tempted to add my Tony's seasoning but I resisted!


Also, sorry for the lack of pictures. I was a tad too busy preparing dinner and only remembered to snap a picture at the very end. Also, this pasta is best consumed the day you make it. The next day I had it, it became a tad too dry and while you can add a little more cream to get it back to that silky consistency, I felt too guilty for adding more cream....


Enjoy! I'll definitely make this again.

Sun Dried Tomato Pasta with Shrimp
Serves 6
Recipe adapted from Giadda

8-10 shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 box of small pasta (pick something that can hold the yummy sauce like orecchiette)
6 cloves of garlic, peeled
3/4 cup sun dried tomato
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup grated parmesan
dash of garlic powder
1/2 cup heavy cream
dash of dried basil
S&P


1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Quickly toss shrimp with a little bit of olive oil, garlic powder and S&P. Place on baking sheet and cook for 8 minutes or until pink and opaque. Boil water and cook pasta according to box.


2. Using a chopper, quickly blend the sun dried tomatoes, garlic, oil and 1/2 of the parmesan cheese. Heat a pan big enough to hold the pasta and put the pesto mixture into the pan on medium high. Let it cook and you'll start smelling the yummy garlic.

3. Add the cream and incorporate well. Take a quick taste and add necessary S&P. I didn't have fresh basil so I added in dash of dried basil and garlic powder here. Add in the shrimp.

4. Drain pasta and put directly into the sauce pan. Incorporate well. Sprinkle well with the other half of parmesan cheese. Serve immediately!

Lobster Linguini

This year, we decided to go the non-traditional route with our dinner and have surf and turf - with the custom hot pot, of course.  I must say, Lobstah, was delicious!  So happy!  I haven't had lobster in a very long time and for a moment, I did wish I didn't have it so in the future, I'd be all sad I can't have it on a daily basis. 

Anyways, we saved all the lobster shells and the next say, I use those shells to make a delicious and flavorful stock for some seafood linguini. Can be a tad time consuming but I think it's well worth it - getting as much as possible outta those expensive ocean critters. 

Sorry for the lack of photos but battery was drained from taking many pictures of my niece and it was charging during this time.

Lobster Linguini
Serves 5

Lobster Stock:
Leftover lobster steam water (use the leftover water you steamed the lobster in)
1-2 cups water
Lobster shells
1 can tomato paste
3 stalks celery cut into large pieces
3 carrots cut into large pieces (no need to pell)
1 onion sliced into quarters
S&P

1. Take the lobster water (if you have any), 1-2 cups water and lobster shells and put into a huge pot.  Add in the tomato paste and all the veggies.  Bring to a boil and then let it simmer on medium for a good 45 minutes.  You want all that lobster goodness to seep out into the stock.

2. Once done, drain the pot and discard all the contents other than the stock.  Put the stock into a smaller pot or the same one, and let it cook a little longer on medium to reduce down.

3. Sister was on a non-dairy diet so I used just a teeny bit of cornstarch to help thicken. I imagine this would be delicious with a tbsp of butter or a dash of cream.

Lobster Linguini
1 pkg linguini
1/4 lb of shrimp, peeled and devined
4 garlic cloves chopped
1-2 roma tomatoes cut into cubes
S&P
Small handful of chopped parsley
Lobster Stock

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil to cook the pasta. Cook pasta according to the directions. I liked the linguini but you can use any other type of pasta. 

2. In your pan with the lobster stock, bring it back up to a boil and quickly cook the shrimp in the stock.  This should only take a few minutes and it doesn't hurt that it also gives more flavor to the stock!

3. In a hot pan big enough to hold the pasta, add olive oil and the minced garlic.  Then add in the tomatoes and let them cook on medium high until they start to fall apart. Next, add in the lobster stock until well blended.  Cook for a few minutes until they are well blended and then add in the shrimp and the pasta.  Give it a good mix and to top it off, add in the parsley.  Enjoy!

Seafood Shrimp Marinara Pasta

First of all, sorry for the lack of pictures in this post. I made this dish on a night where I didn't have a dish planned, which meant it was a night to cook whatever I had in the fridge, pantry and hope it was edible. This night it was shrimp, spinach and canned tomatoes. WELL. This turned out so fantastic that I rushed to take a picture of the end product before eating.

Several week ago, I bought these large shrimp with their head on in the asian grocery. I love shrimp but especially love shrimp that still have their head on.  The shrimp meat itself doesn't burst with a ton of flavor but with the head, ack, SO much more  - which is perfect to add that big punch of seafood flavoring to soups, sauces, etc.

I know it's hard to find shrimp with their head still on in the normal grocery stores - my Kroger doesn't have - so if you venture out to the chinatown or fiesta in your area, just buy 1 or 2 lbs if they look fresh.  It doesn't hurt that they are usually cheaper there too!  (These huge shrimp were only 6.99/lb - steal!)  When I get home, I like to portion them into individual sandwich/ziploc bags to freeze so you dont have to defrost your entire bag of shrimp when you only need a few.  For the ones used in this dish, I put 6 shrimp per bag.  When you need them, take them out 30 minutes prior to cooking and put in sink with water to help them defrost completely. 

Shrimp Marinara Pasta

Serves 3-4

1 lb spaghetti or linguine

6 large shrimp head-on

2 tbsp butter

32 oz can of tomatoes whole

1 can of tomato paste

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

2 small balls of mozarella, chopped into small cubes

1 cup spinach

1/4 cup grated parmessan

fresh basil chopped

S&P

1. Make sure to wash and clean your shrimp as well as the spinach.  Bring a big pot of water with a big pinch of salt to boil and cook the pasta.

2. In another saucepan, melt the butter and then add in the can of tomatoes and tomato paste.  Stir the sauce to make sure the paste is spread out and incorporated with the sauce.  I let it cook on medium heat for a good 5-10 minutes.  Then I crush the tomatoes with my wooden spoon so that you get nice big chunks of tomatoes.  I'm sure you can add fresh tomatoes instead but I used what I had! 

3. Add in the sugar, pinch of S&P, dried basil and dried oregano. Give it a taste and add more of any of the above as needed.  Let it cook for another 2 minutes so flavors start incorporating.

4. Next, add in the shrimp make sure they are immersed in the sauce, cover and let it sit for a good 4-5 minutes.  This is where the magic happens.  The juice and flavors from the shrimp heads seeps into the sauce and gives you that great seafood sauce.  Check the shrimp depending on  how big they are - they may need shorter or longer time to cook.

5. Take this off the heat and immediately pour into your big pasta serving bowl and add in the mozarella and spinach.  You need to do this quick so that the cheese and spinach melt and cook from the heat of the sauce.  Next, add in your drained, cooked pasta and give it a good mix. 

5. Last, top with the shredded parmesan and fresh chopped basil.

Crab Fried Rice

You can see the seafood theme from these past few posts.  My sister taught me this dish when she was still living up in Ohio living in her cute little apartment.  Us Tso sisters, we like - scratch - love to eat.  Seriously, a good portion of our conversations revolve around food.  The night we made this, we cooked a huge pot hoping for leftovers the next day for lunch.  We should have known better  because within 20 minutes, the entire pot of crab fried rice - GONE.  No, we didnt just have one bowl, not just two bowls, but we each had three bowls.  Not sure what got into us that night but man, we had a nice little pot belly that night and I would change it for anything!

As for the crab, it's a option of whether you use the canned crab meat (gasp, I know...) or the fresh lump crab from the seafood section.  If I could afford the fresh lump crab every time I make this dish, I would but alas, with a working PR girl budget, I must work with the canned crab.  It's okay, just use two cans and it is still pretty good.

Also, make your rice several hours before so it's not too sticky when you mix together or you can even use day old rice which sometimes works better!  Additionally, don't nix the cucumber slices.  It makes a huge difference - having a bit of crisp cucumber is so refreshing and complements the rice so well.

Crab Fried Rice

Recipe from my sister

1 pint fresh lump crab or 2 cans of crab

3 tbspn veg. oil (do not use olive oil - it actually messes up the taste)

4-5 cloves of garlic chopped

1 green onion chopped

2 eggs

3 tsp fish sauce (i really like the flavor of fish sauce and its saltiness, but add less if you don't)

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp light soy sauce

12 slices cucumber

2 cups rice (cook the rice several hours before so it's not steaming hot or sticky. You can use day old rice and quickly heat up in microwave before you add to the pan)

1. Beat the eggs and quickly scramble in the pan with a little bit of oil. Once done, take the eggs out and set aside.  In the same pan, add the rest of the oil and brown the garlic.  I put my heat on medium high so the garlic doesn't burn in 10 seconds.

2. Once they are lightly brown, add the rice, crab meat, eggs.  Give it a quick toss. 

3. Then add in the fish sauce, soy sauce and sugar.  Cook for about 4-5 minutes.

4. Sprinkle with green onion and serve with slices of cucumber! 

Shrimp & Mango on Romaine

I pretty much love seafood and since shrimp is one of the cheapest to buy, I tend to cook it a lot. Whether it's shelled shrimp cooked with green onion and ginger, shrimp cooked with green asian squash, shrimp in pasta, shrimp ceviche or shrimp in udon soup, I'm pretty much a happy camper.  How bad do I have it? At restaurants, Ross can almost always predict what I'm going to order simply because of those six little letters.

This is a quick and easy appetizer.  The longest part was peeling, cleaning and cooking the shrimp and letting it cool a little bit.  Otherwise, this is done in just a few chops and mixes!  The original recipe calls for endive instead of romaine lettuce, which I was hesitant to purchase because folks, endive sure isn't cheap!  Also, make sure the mango is ripe, juicy and sweet. The one I bought was a tad too under riped and while it was okay, it could have been sooooo much better. 

Shrimp & Mango on Romaine

Adapted from Real Simple

1/2 lb shrimp (peeled, deveined, cooked and cubed)

1 large mango, cubed

3 tbsp olive oil

1 lime, zest and juice

1 lemon, zest and juice

4 tspn grated ginger

S&P

8-12 Romaine leaves

2 large grab-fuls cilantro, chopped

1 small handful of mint, chopped

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Peel and de-vein the shrimp. Pat dry the shrimp and put on a baking sheet.  Lightly toss with salt, pepper and 1 tbsp olive oil.  Bake for roughly 8 minutes - check through oven window and when they are pink and opaque like the below picture, they are done!  Don't over cook.  Take out to cool and then chopped up into small cubes.

2. Start chopping! Chop the mangos, mint and cilantro. In a bowl, zest the lime and lemon. Add the juice of both. Add in the grated ginger, salt and pepper, olive oil, mint and cilantro.

3. Add the chopped mango and shrimp to the liquid mixture.  Quickly taste to make sure you have enough salt or lemon juice.  Scoop mixture into individual romaine leaves and serve! 

Shrimp & Crab Ceviche

I love seafood. You're not part of the Tso or Hung family if you don't - especially since our folks ingrained in us at every meal that fish would make us smarter and our vision better. Which, btw, don't trust because even with of all the fish I ate growing up, it didn't do a darn thing for me. 28 years later and I have almost legally blind vision. Awesome.

Anyways, while at a party hosted by my Twinkie, I met one of her friends who brought some ceviche and boy, oh boy, was it good. Prior to this, the thought of serving family and friends "raw" fish (yes, I know it's 'technically' cooked with the lemon/citrus juice but still....) and potentially giving them food poisoning gives me a little heartburn. So this ceviche with only shrimp and real lump crab was good enough for me to try! I made it for our christmas dinner one year and it was a hit. Very simple and with a few odd ingredients, like V8. I think I will try plain tomato sauce/puree the next time I make this. Regardless, the taste is pretty delicious that I think this gives my guacamole a good running. Hrm, maybe I should have a guacamole and ceviche showdown?

Really important for this is to use good quality lump crab. Don't you dare use the crab in the can where you find the tunafish. Go to the fresh seafood section and ask for their lump crab - or you can look at the refrigerated section next to them where they should have fresh lump crab in the sealed plastic containers. I don't personally like the claw meat and end up paying the 15 bucks for the good lump meat.

As for the shrimp - again, don't you dare use the frozen cooked shrimp or shrimp in the can. Buy fresh shrimp (headless) and right now, they seems to be a great deal. I saw at Kroger the other day, large shrimp for 3.99 a lb! What a steal!

Shrimp & Crab Ceviche
Serving: This make a TON. When I say ton, I mean I can fill 4 quart containers of this stuff. If you're not serving this for a party, cut the recipe in half.

7-8 jalapenos (seeded and diced)

7-8 plum tomatos (diced)
1 bunch of cilantro (chopped)
1 medium yellow onion (chopped) --> You know me. I don't like raw onions so I omitted this.
2-3 limes (juiced)
2 lemons (juiced)
Zest from one lemon and one lime (make sure to zest before juicing)
7-8 cloves of garlic (minced)
6 avocadoo (large diced)
1 lbs. lump crabmeat
1-2 lbs. boiled shrimp (large diced)
24 oz. V-8 vegetable juice --> I use about half, taste and then add more.
1 jar of cocktail sauce with horseradish
S&P

1. Wash the raw shrimp. Boil water and add a good spoonful of salt - v. similar to cooking pasta. Add the shrimp and let it cook for only a few minutes. These things cook fast! They should have an opaque pink color when they are done. Take it out and put under colder water or in an ice bath - to stop it from cooking anymore. Who wants overcooked shrimp, right? When it's cool enough to touch, peel and chop into big chunks.

2. Start cutting and dicing all the ingredients. This is the longest part.

3. Then mix everything together in a large bowl (EXCEPT for the crabmeat and avocado). Add some S&P to taste - make sure to taste before you add more. If you want to add some dashes of hot sauce here, you can. Then, lightly fold in the crabmeat and the avocado. I like to let this sit in the fridge, covered for at least an hour to let the flavors mesh. Then serve with chips!

Restaurant Review: Hibiscus (Dallas)

For my birthday, my sister and brother in law treated me to dinner at Hibiscus in Dallas. It was pretty fantastic! I think of it more as a steakhouse/seafood/american restaurant. From the outside, it looks like this tiny little restaurant but inside, it's quaint with a wood/rustic decor and actually very big (the restaurant is incredibly deep/long with about four different sitting areas).


We were seated promptly but right next to a bar so that was a tad annoying with folks coming, going, standing, talking and waiters walking by all the time.


Here's what we chowed on for appetizer:

Baked Dungeness Crab Dip which was really good and really cheesy. Perfect for a cold night. We read Yelp reviews prior and several people recommended this dish.


And for the main course:
Roasted Liberty Farms Duck Breast with grilled sweet corn and a bing cherry sauce. This was cooked medium and it was perfect. It had the crispy skin with just a tad sliver of the fat underneath and the meat was cooked very well. Eat it together with a bing cherry and it was pretty tasty. I wasn't a huge fan of the grilled corn - not a ton of sweetness or flavor but I think its because the cherry sauce overpowered it.


Prime Short Rib with potato puree in a zinfandel sauce. Eric had this dish and when it came out, there was a unison cry of "ooooooh." It comes out on the bone and was huge. I had a piece and it was pretty darn good. Some thought it was better than the duck. He said the meat was very tender.


Crispy Skate Wing with potatoes, pancetta, spinach and lump crab blanc. My dad had this dish and it was pretty darn cool asthetic wise and delicious! We didn't know what Skate was but the waiter explained its in the same family of the Stingray and has the texture and taste of crab. The meat comes in the shape of a wing thus the name. I had to wikipedia this sucker of course. Apparently Skate is similar to stingrays but their movements on the ocean floor are much more abrupt that they look like they are skating. It also looks like a big bat with tentacles - bleh! They have a slow growth rate, are at risk for being overfished so think about that next time you see it on the menu!


Pan Roasted Sea Bass with spaghetti squash and roasted tomatoes in a lemon vinagrette. My mom loves fish and really, you really go wrong with chilean sea bass. It was cooked perfectly and good - and more importantly, it was a big piece so you aren't left feeling a little bit hungry like so many other places. However, when at new restaurants, I typically stray away from sea bass since I always know it will be good and people don't really cook it any differently (sear or poached) - and I'm always up for trying new dishes I can't get anywhere else.


Overall, I give this place a 4 out of 5. Food was pretty fantastic but the seating was a little annoying and valet was a downside. Valet was outside and this station served three restaurants so it was situated a little down from the entrance meaning that on a cold night, it makes for a very brisk 5 minutes while waiting for your car! If I'm back in Dallas, I'd definitely come back here.

Mussels in White Wine (Half Fail)

So this is my first time making this dish and instead of following one recipe, I go and combine three... While not a complete fail - very much edible and enjoyable, just not that throw down, omg moment, this is the recipe, I want to drink the sauce and eat bread forever kind of meal - I should have just stuck with one recipe and then adapted from there.

Anyways, why did I make this dish? Father's day of course. I actually wanted to cook lobster for my old poppers but the store ran out. They did, however, have a good selection of mussels. Mussels are interesting. Whiledirections usually say as long as they are closed or if they are open and when you touch them and they close - they're alive. I dunno, it still made me a little nervous that a single shell would ruin the entire dish - so making this dish added a few spurts of anxiety and anticipation as I waited to the end to find out if all the mussels were perfectly fine.

I couldn't find one recipe that sounds so delicious that I wouldn't change anything. Some recipes sounded good but they had random ingredients that my frugal self wouldn't purchase - like saffron, for instance - or had a variety of herbs that I thought would make this a tad overwhelming. I also didn't have a recipe with me in the store - since this was a spur of the moment decision - so I basically just bought ingredients I thought it would go well with. Ha!

After making it, I realized I did several things wrong. I didn't buy enough mussels to begin with (I only bought 1 lb instead of the recommended 3 lbs) so there wasn't enough shellfish flavor to balance out the amount of white wine (1 cup). As a result, the wine flavor was a little too overwhelming. I also cooked this a tad longer than I should have, especially after pouring in the wine which can start having a tart/tangy flavor than that sweet flavor you get with this dish. I'll try this again in a few weeks with some changes so watch out for the next time I make this!

Mussels in white wine sauce
Random variation off three recipes and whatever veggies I had around the kitchen
Serves 3

3 pounds mussels (I used 1 lb....mistake #1)
1/3 cup flour
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped shallots (5 to 7 shallots)
1 cup chopped leeks (1 large leek - only the white and light green parts)
Dry basil - just a dash for seasoning
Dash of Italian seasoning
1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic (5 to 6 cloves)
4oz can of chopped tomatoes
1 cup good white wine (I used La Crema Chard)
S&P to taste


Clean the mussels, put them in a large bowl with water and flour. Soak for at least 30 minutes so they get rid of any sand/dirt. Drain the mussels, then remove the "beard" from each with your fingers and make sure they're clean.
In a large pot, heat the butter and olive oil over medium heat. Add the shallots and cook for 5 minutes; then add the garlic and leeks and cook for 3 more minutes, or until the shallots are translucent.


Add tomatoes, herbs and S&P
Add wine and bring to a boil

Add the mussels, stir and then cover the pot. Cook for about eight minutes or until the mussels are open. Mistake: I cook waaaay too long by letting it boil for almost 15 minutes.

Serve with toasted bread to soak up all that sauce and enjoy!

Seafood Etouffee

Yum. I love crawfish etouffee. When I saw my folks a few weekends ago, they wanted pan cook some fish. They just add salt and cook. Bleh - just wasn't feeling it.

While driving to the grocery store with Ross, I thought of etouffee and it wasn't hard to toss the folk's fish dish out the for evening. We saw some squid at the store and thought it wouldn't hurt to add that as well. I've only made etouffee once before. It was good but not stellar - meaning, I wasn't itching to eat it again for dinner the next night.

So in my search for a new recipe, I remembered that Ross' mom gave me a wonderful christmas present - a Brennan's cook book signed by three chefs from the New Orleans restaurant! So this was my first time to cook something from this cookbook and wow, was it no disappointment. I used a majority of the ingredients (omitted the Worchestershire sauce which I don't like very much), omitted thyme leaves, added some additional seasoning and more seafood (shrimp and squid).

Seafood Etoufee (6 servings)

from Brennan's cookbook (with omitted/added ingredients mentioned above)

1 1/2 sticks butter

1 chopped onion

3 cloves minced garlic

2 celery stalks chopped

1 canned tomatoes

S&P

1 lb crawfish tails (I used the entire bag I bought)

1 lb shrimp (peeled, deveined and cut down if they are large shrimp)

1 lb squid (I just used the entire bag I bought)

1 tbspn paprika

2 bay leaves

3 tbspn flour (I actually used a lot more than this to thicken my sauce - you can used and add more as you cook)

2 cups chicken stock

Pinch of cayenne pepper

Pinch of cajun seasoning

Dash of hot sauce

chopped parsley for garnish

white rice

Squeeze of lemon

1. Melt butter in a large saucepan and cook the onions and celery until glassy. Add garlic and cook for a little bit more.

2. Add tomatoes (including the juice), S&P, seafood, paprika and bay leaves (you can add in thyme leaves here if you want). Cook for a few minutes. Add flour and quickly stir, making sure not to burn.

3. Slowly add in chicken stock and whisk. Add cayenne. (If you want to add in scallions and Worcestershire sauce, you can do it here). I also added in a little hot sauce and cajun seasoning here.

4. Cover and cook over medium for 15-20 minutes. Stir occasionally. I added in a few more spoonfuls of flour here to thicken the sauce.

5. Add a 2 tablespoon of butter to finish off if you'd like. Add parsley and squeeze an entire lemon. Serve over rice. 6. Eat and then go for another small serving because with this, you can't just eat one bowl!

Dill Shrimp Salad

Yes, I admit it. I enjoy mayo and I probably enjoy it more than the average person. Yeps, no shame in that! This is probably why I gawked at friends who said they love visiting London but hated the food - they put mayo in every sandwich possible. Who can resist! Even better......who can resist it in a salad? Tuna salad, chicken salad, egg salad, you name it - I'm all ears. So when I saw this recipe for a Dill Shrimp Salad - I pretty much knew that was going to be my dinner the next day.
Okay, I know too much mayo can be overwhelming and can hit a point of the "ugh, that was too much mayo," but when used right, it can bring a creamy, fresh take to a food that needs a little boost in extra flavor, such as shrimp. So, what's so different with this salad? Fresh orange juice and zest. I never even thought about combining orange juice/zest with mayo. It leaves this wonderful sweet zang that adds a little kick to the salad. Not only does it make the dressing that much creamier, the shrimp tastes like its been marinated in juice for a few hours. Delicious!

Directions said to roast the shrimp in the oven for 8 minutes. Next time, I think I'll cook it for around 6 minutes and actually let it marinate in the salt, pepper and olive oil for about 20 minutes before roasting. I put the finished salad on top of a bed of arugula and baby spinach salad and lightly tossed with a little olive oil. *Please pardon 'yellowness' in the images, due to a not so great camera.

Dill Shrimp Salad
Recipe from Ina Garten

1 lb fresh shrimp
1/2 cup mayo
2 tablespoon of chopped dill
1 orange
2 tablespoon white wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Peel, devein and rinse the shrimp. Pat dry and place on baking sheet. Season with salt, pepper and olive oil - make sure to mix to thoroughly cover shrimp. Bake 400 for 8 minutes. (I recommend marinating the shrimp in the olive oil mixture for about 20 minutes before baking.)

Zest one orange and squeeze juice from half of orange. Mix in mayo (I only used 1/4 cup instead of the 1/2 cup), dill and white wine vinegar. Mix and add salt/pepper to taste.

Once shrimp is slightly cooled, add a spoonful of mayo mixture to shrimp to test. Add more as appropriate. Serve on top of fresh arugula and baby spinach salad - enjoy!