Shrimp 2 Ways

As the old saying goes...double the shrimp, double the fun!

While that may not be the saying, it's definitely true in my case. I love shrimp. I could seriously be a pescatarian and give up meat if I could have seafood every single day. And that's saying a lot, because I love meat. Maybe it's the Caribbean in me, but seafood just does something special for me.

To keep my diet varied while living on my own in the real world, I like to get frozen, pre-shelled shrimp from Trader Joe's that I can just cook up in a jiffy whenever I want. It doesn't really matter if they are pre-cooked or not since shrimp take so little time to cook.

Now, some people may be sticklers for shrimp with the shells on, and I do understand that. I even made my own shrimp stock at the beginning of the summer under the influence of Chef John Besh's cookbook My New Orleans, which is truly impressive and convinces you that the only way to cook is to spend hours slaving away over a hot stove and make everything from scratch. Oh, and raise a farm in your backyard. Suffice it to say, I never used that stock after I made it and it sat in my freezer for a month. So the net of that experience is that I now simply buy pre-shelled shrimp!

So, on to what I made:

Creamy Cajun Shrimp Linguine...found it on Pinterest!

Celery Shrimp Sauté with Guacamole Toast

So, how to make it? Here we go:

Creamy Cajun Shrimp Linguini

Original recipe found here

1 cup water

1 (14-ounce) can fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth

6 ounces uncooked linguine (I just substituted pasta)

1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 1/2 tablespoons butter

1 (8-ounce) package presliced mushrooms*

1 large red bell pepper, cut into (1/4-inch-thick) slices

2 teaspoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt free Cajun seasoning (I found mine in the bulk spices at my local supermarket)**

1/4 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup fat free half-and-half

1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Parmesan cheese (my addition)

*Didn't have any mushrooms

**The Cajun spices here must be different, because this came out kind of sweet. I compensated by adding Adobo...awww yeah. 

So from that point on I basically followed the steps of the recipe, which are below:

Combine 1 cup water and broth in a large pot and bring to a boil. Break pasta in half; add to pot. Bring mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 8 minutes. Add shrimp to pasta. Cover and simmer for 3 minutes or until shrimp are done; drain and set aside. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and red pepper to pan; sauté 4 minutes or until moisture evaporates. Add flour, Cajun seasoning, and salt to pan; sauté 30 seconds. Stir in half-and-half; cook 1 minute or until thick, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add pasta mixture and parsley to pan; toss together with tongs. Add Parmesan cheese!

My main piece of advice for this is to prep (wash, cut, etc.) all the ingredients beforehand because this recipe moves along at a quick clip! Also, as the original recipe notes, the pasta is much better cooked in broth because it absorbs that flavor. I wasn't able to do it because I had leftover plain spaghetti, but I want to try it again. On to recipe number two!

This recipe is something I threw together off-the-cuff, but more or less this is what went down:

Celery Shrimp Sauté with Guacamole Toast

Shrimp, as much as you think you'll eat
1 tbsp. olive oil
Celery, 1 stalk per serving
1/2 a yellow onion
Red pepper flakes
Whole wheat baguette slice, halved
Salt and pepper, to taste
Guacamole

Wash the celery, then halve it lengthwise and chop it; dice up the onion and set aside. Slice the bread in half, toast it, and set it aside. (You can always warm it up later and there's nothing worse than waiting for your bread to toast as your hot food gets cool.) Heat the oil in a frying pan on medium high heat and put the celery and onions in at the same time. Normally I wouldn't advocate that for veggies, but celery is high in fiber and takes a while to cook through, so it's okay to put it in with onions. Be sure to stir periodically to make sure the onions don't burn. At this point, add in red pepper flakes so that they have started releasing their heat before you add the shrimp. Next step is--you guessed it--add the shrimp! Cook for 3-5 minutes, until pink and no longer grey. Add the salt and pepper before you finish the shrimp. Finally, reheat the bread if necessary, slap some guac on there, and eat! Eat, eat, eat!

See, double the shrimp equals double the fun! And definitely double the noms!

Happy eating!

(No) Turkey Day

Edit// So, I know this is super late, but just pretend I posted it on time ;).


Thanksgiving is almost here! This means family, friends, and food.

At my house, no one really likes turkey. My dad has had food poisoning twice from turkey, so he really doesn't like turkey. Instead, we've decided to go cajun/creole for Thanksgiving. In part, because we are so close to Louisiana here in Texas, and in part because my dad got this awesome book in thanks for speaking at an industry conference called My New Orleans: The Cookbook by John Besh:

Greatness awaited us within the pages of this book...

Since it's just my dad and me for Thanksgiving we decided only to make two dishes (showing remarkable restraint for my family). This restraint was helped by the fact that a client gave my dad a pecan pie so we don't need to make any dessert.

What we DID decide to make, though, is very exciting! Red beans and rice and shrimp creole.

Since this is also a fashion blog, I figured I'd show you my totally cute apron from an artisan linen shop in Puerto Rico. I'm super into cute, unique aprons:

Kinda looks like a dress!

Anyway, back to THE FOOD! Here's the recipe for Red Beans and Rice:

Yuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmyyyyyyyyyyyy

Red Beans and Rice 

Time is the key to making successful red beans: they need to cook slowly and well. (I totally agree, and I think this is true for almost any bean.) Using flavorful fat is another secret. Just as my grandmother did, I keep the fat from every batch of bacon I make, and I save the fat that solidifies on the surface of chilled chicken soup and roast chicken drippings, too. (Thankfully, my dad has been saving the fat from his breakfast bacon for a few days now for this recipe.) Just a little bit adds big flavor. 


Serves 6

2     onions, diced 

1     green bell pepper, seeded and diced 

1     stalk celery, diced 

2     tablespoons rendered bacon fat 

1     pound dried red kidney beans 

2     smoked ham hocks 

3     bay leaves 

½     teaspoon cayenne pepper 

3     green onions, chopped 

       Salt 

       Freshly ground black pepper  

       Tabasco

3     cups cooked Basic Louisiana White Rice  (We're using regular long grain white rice because we couldn't find Louisiana White Rice)

Dad and I went to our local Fiesta for the freshest ingredients that would be cheaper than Whole Foods.

Viva Mexico!

My dad: cool as a cucumber.

The fish counter was super sweet. Yes, that is a big balloon shaped like a dolphin in the back. 

This is a picture of all the ingredients laid out on our kitchen island (minus shrimp and rice):

This is about how big we chopped the veggies. I thought it said "chop" not "dice" the onions, so I did them too big. However, in the words of Julia Child, "never apologize."

I learned how to cut lemongrass from this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exe3Aa1d7Ro

This was "the tender part," which is the part perpendicular to the knife if it's not clear from the video:

Procedure:

1. Sweat the onions, bell peppers, and celery in the rendered bacon fat in a heavy soup pot (ours is 8 qt) over medium-high heat. (Sweating the pot means with the lid on, according to my dad. So that's what we did)

2. Once the onions become translucent, add the kidney beans, ham hocks, bay leaves, and cayenne, then add water to cover by 2 inches. 

Picture pre-water:

Picture post-water:

3. Increase the heat and bring the water to a boil. Cover the pot, reduce the heat to low, and allow the beans to slowly simmer for 2 hours. Periodically stir the beans to  make sure that they don’t scorch on the bottom of the pot, adding water if necessary, always keeping the beans covered by an inch or more of water. 

4. Continue cooking the beans until they are creamy and beginning to fall apart when they’re stirred. 

5. Remove the ham hock meat from the bones, roughly chop it, and add it back to the pot of beans. 

6. Stir in the green onions and season with salt, black pepper and Tabasco. Serve with white rice.

***THE TASTE TEST***

These beans were extensively tested and approved by my dad.

Ta da! Dish 1 done.

Dish 2 is shrimp creole:

Oh, sorry, am I drooling? My bad. Oh, you too? Rock on.

Shrimp Creole

This new version of a longtime Louisiana favorite has Vietnamese influences; it's spicy and sweet, full of herbs and flavor. Any ultraripe tomatoes will work. 

Makes 12 to 15 servings, but what you will see on this blog is a halved recipe, so just halve all the quantities. 

5 pounds jumbo Louisiana or wild American shrimp, peeled and deveined We used pre-deveined and "easy peel" wild American shrimpSalt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon minced fresh lemongrass
1/2 cup olive oil
3 medium onions, diced
10 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 stalk celery, diced
1 bell pepper, red, green or yellow, seeded and diced
5 pounds overripe Brandywine tomatoes or other heirloom tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped - In this case we had to use stewed tomatoes, unsalted, because we couldn't get any ultraripe tomatoes on short notice. 
1 bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes
Leaves from 2 branches fresh basil, chopped
Leaves from 1 sprig fresh mint, chopped
Sugar
6-8 cups cooked white rice

1.  Put the shrimp into a large bowl, season with salt and pepper, then mix in lemongrass. Heat 1/4 cup of the olive oil in a large, deep skillet over moderate heat. Add shrimp, stirring and tossing them with a spatula. Saute until they turn pink, about 2 minutes. Remove the shrimp from the pan and set aside.


Shrimp after being seasoned yet before starting to sizzle:

Shrimp ready to be put off the heat:

2. In the same skillet, add remaining 1/4 cup olive oil, onions, garlic, celery and bell peppers. Cook, stirring constantly, about 2 minutes.

3. Add tomatoes. Reduce heat to medium-low and when sauce comes to a simmer add bay leaf, allspice, and red pepper flakes. Simmer 10 minutes.

4. Add shrimp back to the skillet along with basil and mint. Cook for a minute or two. Season with salt and pepper. If the sauce tastes too tart, add a little sugar to balance the flavor. Remove bay leaf. Serve over steamed white rice.

And there you have it! That's what we made for Thanksgiving. Let me know if you try it out, it's totally delicious. To wrap things up, here's a picture of what our table looked like:

It lasted roughly five minutes.

Happy Eating!