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!

Guacamole!

I made some guacamole the other day and thought I'd post it up, since I make guacamole differently than other people, on account of how mine's spicy.

It's also totally yummy:

Now I normally make this with my sous-chef, but since he's currently luxuriating on a small Caribbean island I had to do it all by myself, hahah.

I don't know what other people put in their guacamole, but here's (more or less) what went into mine:

Ingredients:

1 avocado, peeled and mashed

~3 tablespoons of chopped cilantro 

1 finely chopped serrano pepper with seeds

1/4 diced red onion

~1 teaspoon of salt, more to taste

~1 tablespoon lime juice, to taste

Serves about three to four people if you don't want leftovers.

Now some people put garlic in it, which tastes good too, and tomatoes--but that's generally what I use salsa or pico de gallo for. 

I might have overdone some of the salt and lime juice because the avocado was very ripe, so it needed some extra oomph, but just taste steadily as you go to make sure it tastes nice to you.

A quick tip on picking avocados: make sure that they have some give to them when you squeeze them, but not as much as a mango, maybe more like a peach. That's assuming you like your mangoes very ripe, as I do.

Next time, I'll consult my sous-chef and see if there's some trick to make it yummier I've forgotten.

Happy eating!

Epic Sandwich Time!

Hi everyone,

I'm really excited about this post! This sandwich is delicious and making it was the fulfillment of a craving long-deferred. I first saw it on TV in late July/early August sitting at home in Texas with my mom. With steak, guacamole, melted cheese, refried beans, and good bread, it was love at first sight--I resolved to make it and eat it. Well, three months later, I made it, and golly was it good!

Being one of the more fancy, delicious, and longer dishes I've made thus far in terms of entrees, I decided to post it first before anything else. Excitingly, it's also delicious as a stand-alone steak.

This is Pati's picture first with its cutesy border:




This is my rendition:

Mmmmmm....

Messy and hard to keep together as a sandwich, but totally delicious.

About two weeks ago I decided that the time was ripe for this Epic Gourmet Sandwich. My friend Axel had cooked me dinner a few weeks ago and it was my turn to cook for him. I also decided that my boyfriend might like an epic sandwich, seeing as how it is a universal truth that all men love sandwiches. I kid, though I've never met one who didn't! He got roped into being my sous-chef, as you will see below.

The recipe is as follows, straight from Pati's Mexican Table:

PEPITO: STEAK & AVOCADO SANDWICH

Makes 4 to 6 generous tortas or sandwiches of about 4" length

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 lbs flank steak
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp Dijon mustard
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped or pressed
1 tsp dried rosemary
1/8 tsp black pepper
Pinch of sea salt
2 tbsp olive oil

4 teleras, bolillos, petite baguettes, or baguettes sliced into 3 to 4 inches and cut in half
6 ounces Monterey jack cheese, muenster or mild cheddar
1 cup gucamole (see below)
1 cup refried beans (store bought or homemade)

TO PREPARE
Marinate the flank steak with the soy sauce, olive oil, Dijon mustard, garlic, rosemary and black pepper. You may marinate it anywhere from 1/2 hour to overnight in the refrigerator. Remove the meat from the refrigerator and sprinkle with salt when you are ready to cook it.

Preheat the grill pan or grill at medium-high heat. Once it is hot, place the meat and let it cook anywhere from 4 to 5 minutes per side, depending on how well done you want the meat. You can drizzle any extra marinade right over the top of the meat while it cooks. For medium, its closer to 4 minutes per side, for over medium, closer to 5 minutes per side. Remove the meat from the heat and place it on a cutting board. Let it rest for 5 to 10 minutes, slightly covered. Thinly slice across the grain.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Slice the baguettes, teleras or bolillos in half lengthwise and place in a baking sheet. Spread about 3 tablespoons of refried beans on the bottom half of each bread. Cover with about 3 to 4 tablespoons shredded cheese. Place in the oven and let the bread crisp and the cheese melt, for about 5 to 6 minutes. Remove from the oven.

Top the pepitos with a generous amount of the thinly sliced meat and 3 to 4 tablespoons of the guacamole. Place the tops on top! Eat while hot.

GUACAMOLE
Makes over a cup

INGREDIENTS
2 ripe avocados, halved, pit removed, meat scooped out and mashed
3 scallions, about 2 tbsp, rinsed, tops removed, white and light green parts thinly sliced
2 tbsp coarsely chopped cilantro leaves, optional
3 tbsp jalapeno or serrano chile, more or less to taste, minced (seeding is optional)
2 tbsp lime juice, freshly squeezed
Salt to taste

TO PREPARE
Gently mix ingredients in a bowl or molcajete and serve. It can be prepared up to 12 hours in advance if covered and stored in the refrigerator.

The Making of an Epic Sandwich

I took a trip to the Shaw's in Porter Square for the necessary ingredients. Since I'm not in Texas anymore I did not expect to find bolillos or teleras, but I also couldn't picture this luscious sandwich on a narrow baguette. Shaw's had a great alternative in the ambiguously named "French bread" loaf which you see about a third of in the picture above. It was nice and soft on the inside and crisped really well on the outside.

The flank steak was an adventure. It was really expensive, $17.98/1.75 lbs. I asked the nice meat section specialist for anything cheaper, similar to flank steak, and he said, "Everyone asks me that when they come in and ask for flank steak and see the price. But if you want flank steak, there ain't nothing like it. It's top of the line. You pay for what you get." Ok. I bought the flank steak.

I also decided to purchased serrano peppers because I know they pack more heat than jalapenos, and went with Monterrey Jack cheese because mild cheddar is boring and muenster seemed less Mexican, hahah.

The one thing I forgot: refried beans. I couldn't believe it, but as my guests said, the beans would have been too much. It was a really dense sandwich.

I made the marinade about two hours in advance and put the steak in the fridge. Cleaning the meat was an experience, especially with dollar store kitchen knives. I've never had to clean such a nice piece of meat so I was worried about messing it up. Thankfully, it came out okay. When I was done it was probably 1.5 lbs, which was just enough for 3 very hungry people.

Me and the meat

I had my sous-chef help me out with the guacamole, since we discovered in NYC this summer that we make good guacamole together.

We followed the above recipe this time, though we added about 1/2 more of an avocado and less cilantro because I chopped it less finely than Pati would probably recommend. I only used two of the serranos (I left the seeds in because I like a big kick), a perfect amount when chopped this size:

Those are the scallions to the left, and the serranos in the middle. Bling optional.

Guacamole:

Rock out with your guac out!(...?)

After the guacamole, I sliced the French bread in half horizontally and then cut it into thirds. I laid about five pairs on a baking pan (after preheating the oven to about 400 degrees because I'm not sure my oven really did 350 when it said 350) and covered them with chopped up strips of Monterrey Jack. I don't have a picture for it, but I left them there about 7-10 minutes while I seared the meat to get the cheese bubbly and golden and the crust hard and crispy. Side note: This is a great, delicious snack on its own. I call it...Cheese Bread.

Then it was time to sear the meat. I turned it up to medium-high heat and seared each side for about 4-5 minutes to get a medium rare-rare finish on the meat. I had to cut the steak in half due to the size of our frying pan, so one steak came out more rare than the other but we all thought it was okay.

Be sure your pan is HOT before you put the meat in, otherwise you won't get a nice char on the outside.

Be sure to let the meat rest for about 5 minutes before serving to preserve tenderness and moisture. Otherwise all the juices will bleed out and the meat will be dry. These are the lessons I learn from watching Chopped obsessively.

The steak at rest. It looks so peaceful.

Next, I pulled the bread and cheese thirds out of the oven. While waiting for the last half of steak to rest boys and I dipped extra hunks of bread into the guacamole and the marinade left in the frying pan. DELICIOUS. I was really impressed with the marinade. It makes a delicious steak on its own.

Finally, it was time to assemble the sandwiches. DIY guacamole, steak. I recommend cutting the steak a lot thinner than I do here, but it was tricky to do with cheap knives.


The final product:

Drool...

It didn't stay together very long because I cut the steak a bit thick and the bread was a bit overlarge, but eating it with your hands somehow made it extra satisfying for me. If you try it out, let me know how it goes! Flank steak can easily be substituted for some other kind of meat, but avoid frying pan steak because it won't sufficiently absorb all the wonderful flavors of the marinade.

So there you have it, folks! That is how you make an Epic Sandwich. Or Epic Steak, because it's just such a delicious marinade and such a great cut of meat. I am also permanently indebted to Pati's Mexican Table for introducing this sandwich to me. God bless cooking shows.