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!

In the Land of Milk and Honey

Hello all! As I write this post I'm currently in the big Starbucks in Harvard Square, feeling eminently cool and snooty, hahah. It's a nice environment if you like white noise around you when you work. I decided to treat myself to coffee since I'm having a relaxed day, and since I successfully managed to end my coffee addiction about two weeks ago. It may seem a little contradictory to treat myself to coffee as a reward for ending addiction to it, but it works for me!

On to the food. Last night my beautiful friend Caitlin and I got "Becky Home Ec-y" (great phrase, thanks Caitlin) and made these Pear and Almond Upside Down Cakes from Baking Bites, a blog I've been following since high school. Really great stuff! And these little "cakelets," as BB calls them, are extraordinary:

 "If we were in the land of milk and honey, these would grow on bushes there."

They're REALLY that good.

There is no way to fully convey to you, dear Eater, how delicious these are. They are magical. Perfect. Succulent. Decadent. Amazing. They are one of the greatest sweets I have ever eaten.  If there was such a thing as a dessert for a brunch party (or really any darned time of day) these would be ideal. Truly, they are a marvel. And so, so, so easy to make! Here's the recipe, with a few edits of my own:

Upside Down Pear and Almond Cakes

Makes 8 cakes

2 tbsp butter, cold and cut into 8 small pieces

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 whole large pear (or two small pears)

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup almond meal (finely ground almonds/almond flour)* 

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp almond extract (optional)**

2 tbsp butter, melted and cooled

*I substituted all purpose flour, so I essentially used 1 cup of flour.

**Because I didn't use almond meal I added in 1/2 tsp of almond extract, not just 1/4 tsp.

I will note that we doubled the batter and got 12, not 16 cakes, but this is because we overfilled the cups. Only fill them halfway; they rise a lot and you'll want flat bottoms. See the steps for more detail on this.

Steps:


1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Line a muffin tin with 8 paper liners (If you don't have them, like me, your cakes will be just fine but you'll lose some of the brown sugar/butter topping. Next time I will be making them with the liners because that stuff is delicious). Place one small piece of butter into each muffin cup. Top each cup with 1 1/2 teaspoons of brown sugar. Place pan in oven for 3 minutes, just until butter melts. Sugar will not be fully melted. Allow pan to cool for a few minutes before proceeding.

3. Taking care to slice around the core of the pear, cut pear into very thin slices no more than 1/8-inch thick.
Lay about 3 slices of pear across the bottom of each muffin cup (enough to cover the base, but it's absolutely fine if you they go up the sides), on top of the butter and brown sugar layer. Set aside while you make cake batter.

4. In a large bowl, combine flour, almond meal, sugar, baking powder and salt and whisk until well-combined. Add in eggs, vanilla extract and almond extract and whisk until batter is smooth. Add in melted butter and whisk until butter has been completely incorporated. Props to Caitlin for reminding me to double this second use of butter, otherwise they wouldn't have been as moist or yummy!

5. Divide batter evenly into prepared muffin cups on top of the of pear layer. Only fill the cups halfway as they rise a lot (you want flat bottoms because they're upside down cakes--you can see in the picture that we overfilled the cups because they do not lay flat and we only got 12 out of the mix, not 16).

6. Bake for 19-22 minutes, until the cakes spring back when lightly touched (they'll be a light yellow color) and a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Brown sugar may be bubbling slightly around the edges of the cake.

So close to heaven you can almost taste the sunlight and the clouds...

7. Take cakes out of the muffin pan and allow to cool on a wire rack in their paper liners. If you do not have liners, just run a knife around the edges of the cupcake to dislodge them. Cakes can be served fresh out of the oven or at room temperature. Invert cakes onto a plate and remove paper to serve.

Et voilà! There you have DELICIOUSAMAZINGZOMGGGGGGG...drool...cakes! Best served piping hot and gooey on top!

If you told me I could never eat anything but these for the rest of my life, I might actually be okay with it. 

Happy eating!!

P.S. I WILL be making these in mini form for the Master's open house in Mather this Thursday. Come 'n get it, y'all!

My Favorite Cookie: Sandtarts

Today I decided to bake my favorite cookie since childhood: sandtarts. It's been a few years since I've made these delicious little cookies chock full 'o goodness, but it was time. Mostly because I was already in an almond mood as I waited for the pears to ripen to make almond and pear upside-down cake (next post!), and sandtarts are so amazingly almond-y.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm........

What are sandtarts? By another name, they are Mexican wedding cookies. They often have nuts. My family's version which I've been making with my mother for as long as I can remember is better than Mexican wedding cookies and has no nuts, which makes them a safe party treat!

The recipe is extremely simple, and is as follows:

Sandtarts Ingredients

Serves about 35 depending on how large you roll the balls of dough

¾ cups butter

4 tbsp sugar (heaping)

2 cups sifted flour

~2 tsp vanilla

1 tbsp cold water

2-3 tbsp almond extract

Cream butter and sugar; add remaining ingredients; mix well.Pinch off  into roughly 1 inch bits of dough and rollinto balls. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes. Allow to cool for 20 minutes before putting confectioner's sugar over the top, otherwise it will just melt the sugar. 

Sift confectioner's sugar over the top or roll cookies in powdered sugar and enjoy!

Here's a picture of the dough:

It's a big bowl, but it doesn't make that much dough so make the balls small to get the most mileage out of it!

Here's a picture of the size of the dough balls. They're actually a bit smaller than 1 inch:

Here's a picture of them (all 38 of them!) when I pulled them out of the oven:

A close-up for the varieties of color and shape. As you can see, they don't really flatten out much.

Final product post-sugaring! As a side note, I used a colander (yes, like a spaghetti colander) to "sift" the sugar over the top. Necessity is the mother of invention!

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!

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!

Celebrating with Food!

So to celebrate Christmas and the end of term, I cooked my boyfriend some food last Sunday: spaghetti carbonara and brownies!

Since they're both so easy to make, I'm just going to post pictures and recipes. This also likely to be my last post before the 25th, so Merry Christmas, y'all!


Spaghetti Carbonara:

This recipe is a bit Martha Stewart, a bit of my boyfriend's French host mom's recipe, and a bit of my own tastes:

Spaghetti Carbonara

1 pound spaghetti

8 ounces (8 slices) bacon, cut 1 inch thick crosswise (if you're ritzy you can substitute pancetta)

Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

3 large eggs* at room temperature

3/4 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano** cheese, plus more for serving

1/2 cup half-and-half at room temperature

2-4 cloves of garlic (optional)

1 handful chopped parsley (optional)

*Straight from an Italian and tested by my boyfriend's host mom, it's best when there are n-1 eggs, n being the number of people eating. However, I follow this rule starting at 3 people; for 2 people I add 2 eggs, 3 if I don't have half-and-half. 

**Gruyere is yummy, a bit more flavorful, and may melt more easily. I've done both and I like the Gruyere more, but negligibly. I wouldn't substitute any other Parmesan cheese for the Pargmigiano Reggiano. 

1. Set a large pot of water to boil (for pasta) and salt generously. 

2. Mince the garlic.

2. In a large skillet, cook bacon over medium heat (with the minced garlic cloves if you add them), stirring occasionally, until the bacon is crisp, 8 to 12 minutes; transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.

3. When the pot is boiling, add pasta and cook until al dente, according to package instructions.

4. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together eggs, Parmesan, and half-and-half. Set aside.

5. Drain pasta, leaving some water clinging to it. Working quickly, add hot pasta to egg mixture. 

6. Add bacon and some of the grease if you desire; season with salt and pepper, and toss all to combine (heat from pasta will cook eggs). 

7. Serve immediately, sprinkled with additional Parmesan cheese (and the chopped parsley if you have it).

Next up, Rose's (my roommate) world-famous brownies!

I follow the recipe exactly, and they are super easy to make. Just don't forget to grease/Pam the pan!

Brownie Recipe #2

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 eggs

1 cup flour

1 cup cocoa powder

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 13x9 inch baking pan.

2. Mix together the butter, sugars, and vanilla. Beat in the eggs. Combine the dry ingredients, gradually stir into the wet mixture until well blended. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.

3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes

And then, just because it's totally brilliant--Rose's Christmas present to me! It has the in/appropriate name of a "Screwnicorn" because it's a corkscrew in the shape of a unicorn (I collect unicorns!):

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!

What is this blog?

Hi everyone,

Thanks for reading =).

This blog will center on food and fashion, not necessarily in equal amounts. What will I talk about?

Well, food will (mostly) consist of food that I cook plus recipes, food my roommates cook plus recipes, food I want to cook, wine and beverage fun, and things I do to improve my house's dining hall offerings.

In terms of fashion, I'll include anything from what to do if you want a job working in fashion, to trends I like/don't like, to fashion inspiration/mood posts, links to other folks' blogs and websites, and maybe my own outfits (or things I wish I were wearing).

That's the basic idea for this blog. Other subjects will probably pop up from time to time.

One last thing: Spaghetti in Heels. One, I love spaghetti. Over the course of my life, my diet has at multiple points been about 90% spaghetti. Two, I love heels. Therefore, Spaghetti in Heels.