SHRiMP eTouFFee

I love to look at the sale circulars to help decide what to make for dinner. Today 24-30 count shrimp was on sale for $4.99 per pound so that cinched the deal for me. It was a pretty nice day with the weather being in the mid 80's and a slight breeze so I didn't want anything too heavy on the menu. When I grocery shop and see specific items, pictures of finished foods flash through my mind. When I look at shrimp I think of Etouffee, Po' Boys, Low Country Boils and the list goes on and on...I made an executive decision and decided tonight would be etouffe. Emeril Lagasse has a recipe in his cookbook 'Real and Rustic' for crawfish etouffee that I substitute in peeled and deveined shrimp for the crawfish. If I do crawfish, I use 3 of those packages of crawfish tails in the seafood department. I love it either way, see what you think.

Here is the recipe from Emeril's website. The only differences I see from the one in the book are this one is doubled, the addition of garlic, which is never a bad idea *imho* :o) and the exemption of 2 bay leaves (4 for this recipe). Other than that, it's all the same.

I serve my etouffee with garlic bread and over jasmine rice.



SHRIMP ETOUFFEE

Ingredients needed:

1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) butter
4 cups chopped onions
2 cups chopped bell peppers
2 cups chopped celery
2 teaspoons chopped garlic
2 pounds medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups water
6 tablespoons chopped parsley
1/2 cup chopped green onions

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions, bell peppers, and celery and sauté until soft and golden, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Add the shrimp, salt, and cayenne and cook for about 4 minutes, or until the shrimp turn pink.

Dissolve the flour in the water and add to the shrimp mixture. Stir until the mixture thickens slightly. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the parsley and green onions. Stir and cook for about 2 minutes more.

Serve right away.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings


Enjoy!

DoWN a RoCKY RoaD oF DeCePTioN...

To satisfy the inner beast I had to provide something chocolate in addition to the Raspberry Lemon Cake. This next recipe was my attempt at that. I found it while scouting for a recipe to use with yet another boxed mix, this time a brownie one!

The link for this recipe can be found here http://www.homeschoolzone.com/cook/rrbbrownie.htm. Brownie Mix Rocky Road Bars

My family loved it and what a quick recipe for a seemingly gourmet brownie. While I love to sometimes spend a great deal of time whipping something up from scratch, I've become a big fan of those recipes that offer a quick fix for a dessert. Everything that tastes good doesn't have to take forever to prepare! You'll probably enjoy it more if it doesn't :o)

Here's a photo of the finished product. No complaints here from the peanut gallery :o) Hope you fair as well as I did :o)

a CHiCKeN ReQueST i CouLDN'T iGNoRe...

'Would you make HoNeYeD CHiCKeN TeRiYaKi?'

I'm not complaining, I love the fact that there was a special request for me to make this chicken dish for dinner tonight. It's an absolute favorite chicken dish in our house and although I try to keep frying to a minimum this is one recipe that can't (imho) be done any other way.

This recipe was one that I got off of one of those recipe cards you get through the mail. Fairly simple, breaded chicken breasts dipped in a teriyaki glaze and served over rice. The resulting dish is another one to add to your 'list' of 101 chicken recipes and I definitely recommend trying it once. This recipe easily serves 4 with some leftover and the leftovers are so good COLD! (If, there are even any leftovers to speak of :o))

I usually serve this with jasmine rice, my rice of choice, particularly with asian dinners.

Preheat canola (my personal preference) oil in a skillet to 350 degrees.

Prepare the glaze:
1/2 cup soy sauce, lower sodium is better
2/3 cup honey


(You can make more or less, I just find it to be a little better if the honey measured is slightly more than the soy sauce. You can use remaining sauce to drizzle sparingly over the rice)

Heat the soy sauce and honey in a saucepan on medium until they are combined. Turn off heat and set aside.


For the chicken:

2-3 chicken breasts, sliced thinly
2-3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup flour, you may need to add more if you start running low

Dip the chicken strips into the egg and then bread with flour. Shake off excess flour and start stacking on a plate so you will be ready to start frying. I sometimes sprinkle a little flour between layers of chicken so that they don't stick together. Carefully shake excess flour off and lay in preheated oil, let it lightly brown and when you see the edges turning light brown, turn the pieces over with tongs.

Remove the chicken and place it right to the glaze mixture. Coat the pieces in the glaze and lay on top of rice immediately.




You can garnish this with sesame seeds(which I did). How about some thinly sliced green onions? As an option, you can add fresh minced garlic and/or ginger to the glaze mixture, prior to heating in the saucepan, for even more flavor! This would be great leftover in a tortilla wrap with your choice of salad greens and any other ingredients your heart desires. For us, it never makes it that far, no matter how much chicken I make.

One of our family favorites! I hope you like it as much as we do!

MY FaVoRiTe CoLD CuT SaNDWiCH...

First of all, it's been pointed out to me by my RSF (real scrapbooking friend) that it's been 3 WHOLE DAYS without a new blog post so I am procrastinating procrastination (I meant that...) and am now ready to blog on...so here we go!

Step aside Jared, this is not your usual Subway fare.

I am not a huge fan of cold cuts but for this sandwich I am willing to make an exception to that statement. There's a little Italian deli , near my parents house, that I can find those special pastas, sausages, sauces and oils that I have a craving for. This is where I usually pick up a couple of boxes of my favorite pasta, mafalda or mafaldine.




Pronunciation: ma-FALL-duh Notes: These are flat, rectangular noodles with ruffles along both edges.


I usually reserve this pasta for 'special' dinners and will often pick up 'epi bread' (an artisinal bread shaped into a wheat stalk) to go along with it. I have made this bread before from a focaccia recipe in my Baking with Julia cookbook and it is definitely a work of art. This book details how to shape the bread as well as how to make other shapes with the same dough, well worth trying once!




I digress...back to the sandwich...


I often hear people looking for ideas for lunches, something different from a ham and cheese. It was in this deli that I stumbled across a sandwich that I knew would become a lunch staple in our house. A simple sandwich, this may even replace your turkey club as a lunch time favorite.

The star of this sandwich is soppressata, a hot(or sweet- depending on your choice so be prepared to specify) cured pork salami that has peppercorns. This cut is slightly more expensive than your average cold cut, but the beauty of this meat is that the flavor is strong enough that very little is necessary.

For this sandwich, I generally use 7-8 slices(approx 1/8 lb) very thin slices of soppressata for an entire baguette. I pair this meat with equal amounts of thinly sliced provolone cheese. I use a baguette, as previously stated, because I don't like the bread to overpower the sandwich. If you use a french loaf you will find it too 'bready'. One local grocery store carries the Nancy Silverton's La Brea bread line, although this is a good baguette, especially for slicing thinly and toasting with a little olive oil and sea salt, resist using this loaf for this sandwich. I think the crust is too hard and takes away from the final presentation of this sandwich. I go to another local grocery for their baguette which is baked fresh daily and the crust is crisp and airy. Have at hand some olive oil, balsamic vinegar and romaine lettuce for the remaining ingredients necessary for this culinary masterpiece. :o) Okay, maybe not a masterpiece but I have yet to receive any complaints about it.

To assemble this sandwich, slice the baguette and drizzle olive oil and balsamic vinegar sparingly down the length of it. Lay some romaine leaves, followed by the soppressata and provolone along the length of it and fold the top over. You're done! I cut this baguette into 6-8 pieces, depending on the length and wrap each one individually in plastic wrap and store until ready to eat. I prefer to let them sit(this is the hardest party by the way) for about an hour until the flavors meld.






You can use other Italian meats in this sandwich such as pancetta, prosciutto and mortadella. All of these are also delicious but I have found through various taste testings with unsuspecting guineas that soppressata is king!

You can find soppressata at most local deli's. I prefer the Dietz & Watson brand over other brands found at your local grocery store. I hope you try this sandwich, remember...a little bit of soppressata goes a long way in this one! Hope you enjoy one of my favorite sandwiches and my solution to having the same tired old sandwich.

P.S. LUCKY ME!!! I found peppadew peppers today on the olive bar! You gotta try these babies! They are sweet with the smallest kick! Don't they look good?!?!?