Shrimp Scampi Roll-Ups
I pulled a bag of shrimp out of the freezer this morning before heading off to work, told Victor I had 2 ideas - Shrimp and Grits or a Shrimp Scampi Roll-Up. Or... he could make something he wanted... It's always nice to have choices, ya know?!? When I got home, the verdict was the roll-up.
The Shrimp and Grits was something I was just going to do. The Scampi recipe came from Delish. I had bookmarked it a year ago and rediscovered it when I went through and cataloged the scores of recipes I've been bookmarking and ignoring for years. It's amazing how many recipes I had bookmarked from websites that no longer exist. It is so nice to have all of that gone and my "Food Folder" manageable for the first time in forever.
I bought a program called Paprika Recipe Manager that was recommended by our friend, Bonnie. The beauty of it is it downloads the website recipe onto your computer in an easy to read format and links back to the original recipe page with complete attribution. One of my biggest problems in copying recipes on my computer has been not paying attention and putting them in text files without adding where it was I got them from. Now... when I make something I can tell y'all where I got the idea! What a concept, eh?!?
So... armed with my recipe, to work I went...
You'll note when clicking on the recipe link that the original calls for small roll-ups with Lasagne noodles. Their picture looks neat, inviting... I chose to use lasagne sheets I had in the freezer. I was originally going to cut them into strips, but decided I'd go with the cannelloni look, instead. Mine definitely looks more rustic, but dayum, it was good! Really good. As in really, really good!
I did follow their basic recipe pretty much but used different cheeses. I switched out the mozzarella for asiago and fontina and, of course, used lasagne sheets instead of their lasagne noodles. One thing odd about their recipe is they state 10 noodles, six servings, but the video only shows 9 roll-ups in their dish. Not to mention the filling makes a hellava lot more than they show. I could have easily made 8 of these if I had used a 9x13 baking dish.
Shrimp Scampi Roll-Ups from Delish.
Theirs looked pretty. Mine tasted fabulous.
Even Nonna liked it!
Authentic Chinese - Sort of...
Tonight's dinner is brought to you by the frozen food aisle of the store where I work.
The Mystery Store.
Now... it's no secret where I work and I really like where I work - but I'm a little too outspoken politically to be sharing personal beliefs that could reflect back on my employer - even if I am on the right side of history. I don't wear uniform shirts or logo'd items in public. No mention here, no mention on social media. None of my social media accounts have my employer listed in any way. It is the place that shall remain nameless online for at least the next 113 days. My retirement could change things a bit, but only in a casual "I picked up some great frozen Asian items for dinner at [fill in the blank] today" sort of way.
To me, it just makes sense to keep the two separate.
As you can see by the photo, I really did pick up some great Asian foods in the frozen aisle. I have found that frozen Chinese food is preferable to the majority of Chinese restaurants I have visited around here.
My problem is I'm spoiled. I grew up with some of the best Chinese food this side of China. Even bad Chinese restaurants in San Francisco are good, and the really good ones are stellar. I've had the pleasure of eating Chinese food on the streets - and in a 5 star hotel - in Hong Kong. During Chinese New Year, no less - where they pulled out all the stops. And speaking of hotels... The Empress Room at the Hyatt Regency Cambridge was the place to go before they closed. I've been the only European in a Dim Sum restaurant in San Francisco with my Chinese friend telling me she will order - just smile and eat - and then watched incredibly delicious foods come to the table that I know I will never see again in this lifetime.
Yep. Spoiled.
Cooking Chinese food is something I have never mastered. There's not a lot of reason to cook Chinese in San Francisco when you can pick up the phone and have Andy's Excellent Chow Mein delivered piping hot in 25 minutes... Or walk down to the corner restaurant and be greeted like family, eat like kings, and waddle home for twenty-five bucks. Or the bakery I lived next door to on 9th & Judah that had fresh baked pork buns three for a dollar.
Have I mentioned spoiled?!?
So... maybe what I need to do is start thinking about learning how to make some reasonably authentic Chinese food... I know that in 113 days I'm going to have some extra time on my hands and the Senior Citizen SEPTA fare into the city is only a buck... I'm comfortable in Asian grocery stores even if I don't know what half of the stuff is...
I could have another whole cookbook on here by this time next year..,
Hmmmmmmm.........
Thumbprints
Just before our inclement weather, I was a bit under the weather. I spent most of 36 hours sleeping - except when I was bolting across the hall. It's amazing how fast one can move from a dead sleep when one has to.
As the snow fell, the wicked curse lifted and the following day, under reasonably sunny skies, I returned to life.
My total caloric intake for two days was 2 cups of chicken soup that Victor had made. Totally what I needed - and it was good, to boot. We slowly brought actual food back into the diet, and by yesterday, I was fit and ready to go.
That meant we needed cookies.
I've been working on getting recipes off my computer and onto the site, so I decided I should make one of them - and Thumbprints won the day!
Quick and easy with lots of flavor - without being overpowering. I used a Bonne Maman Four Fruits for the filling.
Not bad.
Sunday in the Kitchen
I've been working on a loaf of sourdough raisin walnut bread for a few days, now... The original recipe I used called for it being baked in a bread tin. The first time I made it, I made it free-form and really liked it. I thought I'd give the bread tin a shot this time.
It wasn't a good idea.
There are several areas where I could have screwed this one up, but I think the main one was having it spend the night in the refrigerator. In the grand scheme of things that shouldn't have made a huge difference since it was out for 24 hours after, but... after forming - cold - I should have let it warm up - it just didn't rise as I thought it should. I baked it off, anyway, and while it was baking decided I needed to make a real loaf of bread.
Our friend, Lori, in Cairo, had posted a recipe for milk bread I had made a while back. Feeling dejected by what I knew was going to be a bum loaf of bread, I started making it while the other was still in the oven. I wanted a loaf of bread!
I ended up with two of them! The raisin walnut - that was actually fig walnut because I had figs but no raisins - actually came out pretty good. Not the stellar loaf I was looking for, but it had a great crust and a great flavor. It's a bit dense, but not in a bad way. It's gonna make some awesome toast in the morning! I think this one will always be free-form. Or... It may never be made, again. I just realized I tossed the printed recipe and have no idea where the original is... Oh, well... There's lots of bread recipes out there!
The Milk Bread, on the other hand, came out perfect. At least it looks perfect. I didn't cut into it, yet, but I have that feeling...
I've made this recipe as rolls a few times but never as a loaf. The recipe calls for cutting the dough into six portions and running them three in a row on either side of the pan. Being the rebel that I am - and not learning from not following the last recipe - I lined them up across.
It's a really pretty loaf.
Since the first loaf came out so well, we had it with dinner - a throw-together ground beef stroganoffy sorta concoction served over mashed potatoes.
It came out pretty good. Nonna had a fried egg.
And then... It's Oscar Night, so I needed a new dessert.
This time it was cookies. Something we haven't had in a while. I chopped up semi-sweet and milk chocolates for the chips - I had some left from Christmas. They came out excellent!
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup milk-chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Directions
Heat oven to 350°F. Cream the butter and sugars in a large bowl. Add the egg and vanilla. Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. On low speed, add the dry mixture to the butter mixture. Beat until fully incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips.
Form the dough into approximately 1 1/2-inch balls. Place on parchment-lined baking sheets, 2 inches apart.
Bake until the centers are just set, about 12 minutes. Let cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks.
We're rooting for Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri for Best Picture, and Frances McDormand for Best Actress. I really, really like Woody Harrelson, and if he won Best Supporting Actor I would be fine with it, but Sam Rockwell was super excellent. I think he has it. That's also okay!
Alsatian Potatoes
Tonight's dinner is brought to you by the recipe folder I have had on my computer for years. Literal years. I found recipes dating from 1997 - and I haven't finished looking at them all. I'm just a bit of a pack rat when it comes to recipes. I have them on my computer, I have them in file folders, in manila envelopes... If I cooked three meals a day for the next 40 or so years, I couldn't go through all of them.
And then I find another one.
I think I saved a goodly portion of the recipes when we were creating different recipes at work. That's pretty much the only reason I can think of for all of the edamame and tofu recipes. Neither item is on my normal pantry list...
I started going through the recipes because our friend, Bonnie, was talking about a recipe app she had gotten called Paprika Recipe Manager. It can be used for grabbing recipes from the web - I have a browser bookmark folder of a bazillion of them - as well as adding recipes of your own, so I bought it and started entering them. I did a few and all of a sudden decided what I really needed to do was create another cookbook on the website and post them all here. Share the craziness that has been collecting electronic dust for years.
The Other Stuff Cook Book was born.
The interesting thing about all of these recipes is I really don't know where most of them came from. They're mere text files for the most part without any attribution. They were really more for inspiration than actually making. That being said, a few of them - like tonight's potatoes - are easily attributable. Martha Stewart's fingers are all over this one! Others... not quite so easy.
I have just started getting them done, so check back now and again for more...
In the meantime... the potatoes were a lot of fun. The recipe takes time and lots of pots - that's pretty much how I figured it was probably Martha and not Jacques Pepin - but the end result was really good. I scaled the recipe way back and then made it as two separate pastries. If I revisit this one, I may add the chicken right into the pie and make it as a one-pot meal.
I used an onion instead of leeks and russets instead of yukon golds, and just a pinch of nutmeg.
Alsatian Potato Pie
INGREDIENTS
- 3 (about 1 1/2 pounds) Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds
- Coarse salt
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 5 cloves garlic, crushed with the flat side of a large knife
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- Freshly ground pepper
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 medium leek, white and light-green parts only, halved lengthwise, thinly sliced crosswise, and washed well
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 (14 ounces) frozen puff pastry, thawed
- All-purpose flour, for work surface
- 1 1/2 cups grated Comte or Gruyere cheese
DIRECTIONS
STEP 1
Cover potatoes with water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat. Add a pinch of salt; cook until just tender, 13 to 15 minutes. Drain. Let cool.
STEP 2
Bring 3/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons cream, the garlic, and nutmeg to a boil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook mixture until reduced by half. Season with salt and pepper; set aside.
STEP 3
Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add leek; cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in parsley; season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
STEP 4
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Whisk egg yolk and remaining tablespoon cream in a small bowl; set aside. Divide puff pastry on a lightly floured surface into two 6-by-13-inch rectangles. Set 1 rectangle on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Add half of the potatoes, leaving a 1/2-inch border all around and overlapping potatoes slightly. Top with half of the leek mixture and 3/4 cup cheese; season with salt and pepper. Repeat layering with remaining potatoes, leeks, and cheese. Brush edges of dough with egg wash. Cover with remaining dough rectangle; gently press edges with a fork to seal. Cut 2-inch slits lengthwise in center of crust, 2 inches apart. Brush with egg wash. Refrigerate until cold, about 30 minutes.
STEP 5
Bake pie until golden brown and puffy, about 35 minutes. Remove from oven. Pour cream mixture into pie vents with a funnel. Bake 10 minutes more. Let stand 15 minutes before serving.
And then we had the chicken...
This is a New York Times recipe.
Chicken in Vinegar Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups chopped onion
- butter
- 8 ounces skinless, boneless chicken breasts
- ½ cup tomato puree
- ½ cup white wine
- 1 ½ tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- ½ cup chicken stock
- ½ teaspoon dried tarragon
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Method
Chop onion.
Heat nonstick pan over high heat, reduce heat to medium-high and add butter. Add onion, and saute until it begins to brown and soften.
Add chicken breasts, and brown on both sides.
Reduce heat to simmer, and add tomato puree, wine, vinegar, chicken stock and tarragon.
Cover, and continue cooking until chicken is tender, about 10 minutes total. Season with salt and pepper.
Don't be put off by the amount of onions! It seems like a bazillion, but it works! I used my Passata for the tomato puree and cut back on the balsamic because I was using a thick, aged bottle that is pretty potent.
We only ate half of them, so there's leftovers for lunch or dinner tomorrow night!
Oh... I decided I'm going to use the Paprika Recipe Manager for my bazillion bookmarked recipes. That's another chore for another day...