Shrimp and Andouille Gumbo

Maybe it was my trip back home to NC for Brian and Jenna's wedding, but I really wanted to make gumbo tonight. So Shrimp and Andouille Sausage gumbo it was!

This is my first time making gumbo, so I followed the recipe from Epicurious pretty closely.
Here's what I used:
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup flour
1 small onion, minced
1 small green bell pepper, minced
2 stalks celery, minced
1 quart chicken stock
2 bay leaves
1/2 lb shrimp, peeled, deveined, and cut into 1/2 in dice
1/4 lb andouille sausage, casings removed and cut into bite size pieces
1/2 lb fresh okra (Whole Foods did not have fresh, so I used frozen, but it is NOT the same!)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper - I actually didn't have cayenne, but thought I did, so I subbed red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
4 cups cooked white rice

First, make the roux - rule of thumb for a roux is the longer you cook it the better. Add the oil to a heavy saucepan (about a 3-4 qt pot) and heat it up til it is pretty hot. Slowly whisk in the flour, stirring constantly.  Once the flour is incorporated, turn it down to low, and continue to stir the roux until it turns dark, thick, and aromatic. The longer you have to cook it, the better. I did mine for about 15-20 minutes and here is how it started...

 And how it turned out...

I gave up around 15-20 minutes, but if you cook it even longer, it will continue to deepen in color and flavor.  After you have the roux to your liking, add the pepper, onion, and celery dice. Cook the vegetables for 2 minutes until they are softened and then slowly whisk in the chicken stock.

Let this cook for another 15 minutes or so until it thickens up.  Make sure to stir frequently so that it doesn't stick to the bottom and burn.
Then add the shrimp, sausage, okra, and bay leaves.

Fresh okra becomes very gummy/sticky, which gives gumbo its consistency. You can also use File powder to do the thickening, but I really like okra. The frozen got a bit stringy, but it did the trick in thickening up the gumbo.
After about 15 minutes, remove the bay leaves and add the cayenne pepper, salt, pepper, and I added a pinch of dried thyme. Stir all together and serve over the rice.

The gumbo was delicious. I would probably add a bit more salt next time, but I loved it and the hubby had 2 huge portions.  This makes 4 servings, and my mom's gumbo freezes really well, so I imagine this would, too! You could also make it with chicken or I think adding crab meat would be really good. Enjoy!

Chicken with herb butter tomato pan sauce over polenta

Last week I whipped up a chicken dish with herb butter and tomato pan sauce and served it over polenta that I bought from my massive Trader Joe's run.

I would pass on the polenta next time, opting to serve this over rice, mashed potatoes (in the winter), or stone ground grits.
I used the rest of the shiitakes that I had from the ravioli dish I made, but you could omit them or add any other vegetable that would cook quickly in a pan sauce (peas, asparagus, mushrooms, snap peas, snow peas, zucchini, etc)  Adapted from Bon Appetit July 2011.
Here's what I used:
-2 TB unsalted butter, left out until it gets to room temperature
-2 TB Fresh parsley, but you could use thyme, tarragon, oregano, or marjoram if you have it
-1 large clove of garlic, minced
-1/2 tsp paprika
-2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
-Whatever vegetable  you want to use - I used 3/4 cup of shiitakes
-1/2 cup white wine
-one container of grape tomatoes
-I also had some green onions that I added, but you could use regular onions or omit.  

First, I mixed up the herb butter. I added 1 TB of fresh parsley, the paprika, a few dashes of dried oregano, the minced garlic, and some salt and freshly ground pepper. Mix it up until everything is incorporated:

Then I prepped the veggies by chopping the shiitakes, rinsing the tomatoes, chopping up the green onion, and putting the second TB of parsley aside.

Get a sauce pan heated and add half of the herb butter. Add the chicken to the pan and let it cook until done in the center, about 7-8 minutes on each side. When the pan looks like it is about to burn, add the white wine, scraping up all the drippings as you add it.  Add more wine as needed to allow the chicken to cook and not burn.

Once the chicken is cooked through, remove from the pan and tent with foil to keep warm.
Add the tomatoes to the pan and begin to cook, adding a bit of wine if needed and / or olive oil. Cook for a minute or two and then add the shiitakes or other vegetable. Cook for a few minutes and burst the tomatoes with your spoon once they start to shrivel. Once most of the tomatoes have burst, add the green onions and the final TB of herb butter and cook for one minute.If you are using regular onions instead of green onions, add them early with the tomatoes. They will take longer to cook than delicate green onions.

Meanwhile, I fried up the polenta, but as mentioned, I would probably sub out for rice, potatoes or grits. I was not too impressed with TJ's polenta (sorry, TJ's!)

Serve the chicken over the starch of your choice and top with the tomato pan sauce. Finish with the remaining TB of parsley.

The tomato pan sauce was delicious.  It really soaked up all those chicken flavors from the pan, and I loved the subtle wine flavor. Make sure you cook the tomatoes long enough for them to burst, as that's where all the flavor comes from! This was a very popular one with hubby, too.

Easy Portabella Ravioli with Sage, Walnut, and Shiitake Brown Butter Sauce

I'm not sure what has prompted it, but I have developed a serious love for mushrooms.  About a year ago, I realized that it was only the icky white button mushrooms that have that slimy, chewy texture (you will never see me post with those!) However there are SO many more mushrooms that don't get slimy when you cook them and have more of a woodsy flavor to them.  So I have been exploring with most everything aside from a button mushroom.

I was on my own for dinner, so I made this pasta which sounds hard, but is really, really easy, really fast, and really delicious.  I promise.  And all I had to buy at the store was Trader Joe's portabella ravioli and some shiitake mushrooms, but I keep a pretty stocked kitchen and had some sage on the roof.  If you are not so stocked, here's what I used: 2 TB unsalted butter, 3 shiitakes, 4 sage leaves, 1/4 cup of walnuts, 1 clove of garlic, Parmesan cheese, and one package of ravioli.

The sauce only takes about 3-4 minutes to cook (about the same as the ravioli) so get the water going for the pasta and you can prep everything else while it's coming to a boil.
Chop the walnuts and set aside. Wipe off the mushrooms with a damp paper towel (don't rinse or they get soggy), chop the stems off and discard, and thinly slice.  Chop the garlic and set aside with the mushrooms.

Chop the sage and set aside. I have to share how beautiful this sage is from our roof.  I have never seen such fresh herbs!

Once the water is about to boil, start the sauce with 1 TB of butter in a saucepan on high.  Once it's melted, add the garlic and mushrooms and saute for 2 min.

Meanwhile, add the ravioli to the boiling water.
Add the second TB of butter to the saucepan and let it melt. Then add the sage and walnuts. Let them cook until the sage starts to get crispy and the butter starts to brown.  Be careful! Once it starts to brown, take it immediately off the heat.

Drain the ravioli and add straight to the sauce pan.  Toss the ravioli with the sauce and serve immediately with some freshly grated Parmesan cheese on top.
Deliciously savory!  This would be a great date meal, too, served with an arugula or spinach salad and some crusty bread.

Enchiladas Suizas with Tomatillo Sauce

It was my good friend Caroline's belated birthday celebration, so I wanted to make something that would fly with the mostly Texas crew (4 Texans, 1 Bermudian, and me!) I ventured into Tex Mex territory, which I don't do a lot of, so for once, I followed a recipe almost verbatim.  It was good, but with a few alterations, I think next time it would be excellent.

From SELF Magazine, May 2006
1 1/2 lb bone-in chicken breasts, skin removed (I used boneless for simplicity)
2 teaspoon salt
4 cloves garlic
5 peppercorns
1 lb tomatillos (about 8), husked (I would double the tomatillo sauce, so use 16)
2 serrano chiles (4 for doubled sauce)
1/4 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro (1/2 for doubled sauce)
2 teaspoon vegetable oil
1/4 cup nonfat sour cream (1/2 for doubled sauce)
8 corn tortillas (6" each) (I used 12, which is probably why I ran out of sauce - 6 is probably right for the amount of sauce they say)
1 1/2 oz Monterey Jack cheese, shredded

First, get the chicken cooking.  Trim the chicken and put in a large pot and cover the chicken with water.  Add 1 tsp salt, 2 garlic cloves, and the peppercorns.  Boil the chicken and then reduce heat to low and cover.  Simmer for 15-20 min until chicken is cooked through.  Remove and shred the chicken so it can soak up the sauce.  Set it aside for now.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Put the tomatillos and the chiles in a saucepan.  I chopped the chiles, but you should probably leave them whole and let the food processor chop them up in the next step.  It was hard to chase all the chile pieces around the pan with my slotted spoon! I did like that chopping them up meant they got cooked pretty well and lost a little of their heat (I am NOT from Texas....) So maybe rough chop them into 2-3 pieces at a maximum?   Cover the tomatillos and chiles with water and boil over medium high heat for 8 minutes.  The tomatillos will turn from a bright green to a dull green.  That's when they are done.  Use a slotted spoon to transfer to a food processor with 2 cloves of garlic and cilantro, in case you need to add any of the water to thin out the sauce (I didn't need to.) 

Pulse until smooth, adding any liquid if necessary. Heat a TB of oil in a saucepan and pour the tomatillo/chile/cilantro into the saucepan. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 10 minutes until sauce reduces by about 1/2. Reduce heat to low and add 1 tsp salt and sour cream.  Stir until sour cream is incorporated. Set the sauce aside.

So the recipe says to then heat the tortillas in a skillet over medium heat, but I just popped them in the microwave until they were a bit pliable - 30-45 seconds on high.

Take a 9x13 pan and add 1/3 of the tomatillo sauce in the bottom. Divide the shredded chicken evenly among the tortillas, roll up, and place seam-side down into the prepped 9x13.  Arrange the enchiladas in one layer and cover with the rest of the sauce.  Sprinkle a generous layer of cheese on top. Bake for 30 minutes or until the cheese starts to brown.

I served with red rice and black beans:

With double the sauce and a little more cheese, this would be a keeper.  I thought my version was a little dry and we ended up adding some salsa on top (which was a shame because the sauce was delicious! There just wasn't enough of it.)
Just a little bit of a bite, but not to spicy for my wimpy tastebuds.

Miso Glazed Cod with rice and roasted peaches and snap peas

This one is a winner from several perspectives - cooks in 20 min (though brown rice takes 50 min), delicious, and you only have to clean the dishes that you cook in - no prep dishes!

First thing I did was get a cup of brown rice going because that takes 50 min to cook and I pre-heated the oven to 475.  You want the glaze to crisp up on the ends of the fish but you don't want the fish to overcook, which means a hot oven.
While the rice was going, I put some sugar snap peas (enough for 2 people) in a glass pyrex and sliced two peaches on top like so:

Then I prepped the fish.  This recipe can be made with any firm, thick white fish.  I've made it before with cod, but Whole Foods didn't have any cod today.  The only thick white fish they had were hake and Chilean sea bass. The hake looked a lot like cod and it was $7.99 to the $27.99 Chilean sea bass, so it was a no-brainer that we were going to try out hake. I asked for the thickest piece they had and got 2 filets cut, each about 5 oz and 1 in thick.
Anyway, prepping for this dish means rinsing the fish, patting it dry, and putting it in a pyrex dish that will hold the filets.
I mixed up the miso glaze by using white miso paste and honey, in equal parts. If you haven't cooked with miso paste before, it is basically just fermented soybeans, which is a deliciously salty Japanese condiment.  I've been wanting to learn to cook with miso ever since I visited markets in Japan in 2009 and saw people shopping for miso like it was red wine (with just as many varieties!) I thought I had a picture of the miso bins, but this was a market in Kyoto with something in the miso (maybe some sort of vegetable?) I could have walked around this market for a day or two:

Anyway, you can get miso in Whole Foods or any asian section of your supermarket. It's a little pricey for the 1-2 TB you need for this dish, but since it is already fermented, you can keep it in your fridge for 6 months - 1 year with no problem. I just whisk equal parts of white miso paste and honey in a small bowl - the honey gives it a nice sweet / salty balance. I used 2 TB of both, since I know that both hubby and I like miso flavor, but if you are hesitant, you might want to use a bit less, since 2 TB of each will more than glaze 2 pieces of fish (it would prob glaze 4-5 pieces), but I load it onto our fish. Here's what the miso looks like:

Pop the peas/peaches on the top rack and the fish on the middle rack when there is 20 minutes left on the timer for the rice.
Once the fish is done (it should break away easily with a fork and be just opaque in the center...check it after 15 minutes depending on the thickness of your fish...my fish was thick, so 20 min was perfect), remove it and the vegetables from the oven and plate.  It's best if the fish can rest a few minutes before you serve.

A 9 from both hubby and me! He said he is saving 9.5s and 10s for unhealthy stuff. Ha.

Roasted Beet and Ricotta Salad with Panko Chicken

This was a more time consuming dish than I normally make... but I got out of the office early and felt like a nice dinner on the roofdeck so roasted beets it was!

2 bunches of baby beets - any color - I used red ones
2 scallions
1 1/2 TB red wine vinegar
1 1/2 TB olive oil
2 TB fresh mint
Fresh spinach
Ricotta Cheese
3 TB toasted slivered almonds
Boneless Skinless Chicken breast - I used one and halved it, since that's enough normally if I take the small half
Panko breadcrumbs
1 egg

First, preheat the oven to 400 degrees to get the beets going - chop off the tops and put them in a small baking dish with 1 cup of hot water.  Leave the skins on for now, they will come right off with a paper towel once the beets are roasted. Cover the dish with tin foil and cook for 45 minutes.

While that's going, you can toast the almonds, pine nuts, walnuts, whatever you have. I had slivered almonds so I toasted them in a pan over high heat. Have a dish ready - once they start toasting, they will brown up quickly!

Then I prepped the chicken to bread. I trimmed the chicken, coated it in egg and dipped it in panko.  I added the chicken to the oven when there were 20 min left on the beets. 

Then I prepped the salad.  Chop the two scallions and add to a large bowl. Add the chopped mint, red wine vinegar and olive oil. I also added some haricot verts because I had a few left over. Add the spinach and toss all together until everything is coated.

Once the beets and chicken are done, remove them from the oven and take the beets out of the water immediately so they can cool. Let the chicken rest for 5 minutes before you slice it. Use a paper towel to rub the beet skins off and dice the beets and add to the salad mixture.

Plate the salad and top with a generous spoonful of ricotta cheese. Add freshly ground pepper to the ricotta and top with the panko chicken, sliced on the diagonal.

9 from me, 7 from hubby.  I think it was a little too much salad for him.  (I even added a few baby red potatoes that I boiled.)  Next time, I might do the beets / ricotta idea with farro or barley with some chopped spinach incorporated.  Then it would be less salad and a little heartier for the hubs.

 

Linguine with Clams

So hubby had a brutal week last week, and after an all nighter on Thurs, was really hoping for a bowl of pasta and a 9PM bedtime Friday night. 

So I obliged and picked up some delicious looking clams from Whole Foods to make linguine with clams. 

I pretty much followed a recipe from Epicurious with only a few minor tweaks. 

4 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup finely chopped shallots

3 large garlic cloves, minced

24 small fresh clams (such as Manila or littleneck), scrubbed (I actually used some clams from Maine that were on special, and there were about 15-20 in the bag)

1 cup chopped seeded peeled tomatoes (I did not bother with seedless peeled tomatoes - who has time for that? - I used some leftover grape tomatoes)

6 tablespoons dry white wine

1/2 pound linguine 

1 cup (packed) chopped arugula

First I chopped all the ingredients and had them prepped and ready to go.  I wasn't sure how to scrub clams, but I put them in a big bowl of cold water and rinsed them a  few times until there was no more grit in the bowl. I do know that you have to be really careful with clams so that they don't die - don't ever put them in a  closed off bag and make sure they go directly in the fridge. 

First, get the water on for the pasta.  

Meanwhile, saute the shallots and garlic in a bit of olive oil for about 2 minutes until they are translucent. Add the clams, 3/4 of the tomatoes, and the wine and bring to a boil. Then cover and cook until clams are open. I made a mistake here... I turned the heat down when I covered it since it was really, really boiling. However, when I peaked after 4-5 minutes, none of the clams looked close to opening so I turned the heat back up and cooked for another 6-7 minutes.  So I cooked mine too long. Don't turn the heat down and stay to 8 minutes. 

Then use tongs to take the clams out of the pan and put them in a bowl off to the side and tent with foil to keep them warm. Drain the pasta and add it to the pan along with the arugula and the rest of the tomatoes (still on high heat.) Toss all of it together with tongs and plate with the clams.

 We both gave it a 7 since the clams were overcooked, but it would have been an 8 or 9 if they had been cooked right!

Seared Sea Scallops with arugula, snap peas, and haricot verts

Yum. My most perfect attempt at sea scallops ever! This was perfection.
While I was waiting for hubby to get home, I prepped everything since scallops cook so quickly.
So first I made a bed that I would serve the scallops on - arugula, sugar snap peas (raw) and just barely steamed haricot verts. I actually got the ones from Trader Joes that I could just open and pop in the microwave for 2 minutes.

Then I chopped one large shallot (the recipe said 2 TB but I did not measure) and measured out 1/4 cup of white wine vinegar and 1/4 cup white wine.  I grabbed one stalk of rosemary out of our roofdeck garden and chopped it up for the sauce. The recipe called for tarragon, but I love to use our fresh rooftop herbs so I did a little subbing out-
Then I washed the scallops, pulled off the mussel on the side, and then patted them dry.  I sprinkled both sides with salt and pepper and I was ready to go.

Once I knew we were 15 min from dinner, I heated a saucepan on high and then added 1 TB of butter. Once the butter foam calmed down I knew the pan was hot enough and added the scallops.  Let them get a nice crust on the first side, cooking for about 2-3 minutes.  Then flip the scallops and let them cook for another 2 minutes. Don't overcook!

Once the scallops are cooked, I removed them from the pan to a plate (not the salad yet - they will kick out some juices) and tented with foil. Quickly add the white wine & white wine vinegar to the pan, scraping the browned bits as you go. Add the shallot and cook until reduced until about 1/4 of a cup (so about 1/2 the total volume.)  If the scallops released any juices on the plate, you can add those, too.

Once the sauce is reduced, add 3 TB of butter and incorporate into the sauce.  The recipe then calls for 3 more TB, but I only added one more TB of butter until it was incorporated.  Then add the herbs (rosemary in my case) and a sprinkle of salt and stir to ensure everything is mixed.

Place the scallops on top of the greens and pour the sauce overtop.  Serve immediately.

This got a 9.5 from hubby and a 10 from me.  The perfect light summertime meal! I would serve with some crusty bread to scoop up the rest of the sauce.

Whole Wheat Banana Nut Muffins

Our friends from business school, Tassie and Jason, stayed with us this weekend after our friends' Rob and Kelly's beautiful wedding. We were all planning to go golfing pretty early (ok 11, but still - it was a wedding weekend...) so I wanted to have something for us to have for breakfast.  This is my most often made recipe from "The Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook," but I substitute whole wheat flour for white flour, which I think gives it a much bigger flavor and more texture (and healthier, too!)
1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 cup mashed ripe banana (you can mash with a fork on a small plate, as shown below)
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
Combine dry ingredients in a medium - large bowl and make a little well in the middle once they are mixed up.

Then I add the milk and vegetable oil to one measuring cup and crack the egg directly in the measuring cup so as not to have to clean a single dish more than I have to. Pour the oil/milk/egg into the dry ingredient well and slowly incorporate into a batter.  Add the banana and fold in until combined.
Chop the walnuts and add most of them to the batter, reserving a handful to use as a topping on the muffins.

(P.S. check out the awesome cutting board that my brother-in-law got me for Christmas!)
Spoon into muffin tins 3/4 of the way full and top with the reserved chopped walnuts.

Bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 min until golden.  Pull them out of the pan immediately and enjoy!

Pesto Orecchiette with Chicken Sausage, peas, and grape tomatoes

Our friend Val was staying with us last week while she took the NY AND the NJ bar exams. Bleh! So I told her I'd cook dinner on Tues night so she could hang out and relax and unwind before her big, awful test.

I decided to make a pesto orecchiette because we have these great big planters of herbs on our roofdeck (the co-op maintains them, thankfully!!) and wanted to use all the fresh basil that we have at our disposal.
So I made a pesto, which was too olive oil-y and garlic-y for my taste. So instead of sharing that recipe, I'll share my favorite pesto recipe that I've made a different time.

Just throw all of the following into a food processor:
1.5 cups baby spinach
3/4 - 1 cup basil leaves
1/2 c toasted pine nuts, but I used walnuts for this recipe, which gave a great, nutty flavor to the pasta dish
2-3 cloves of garlic (depending on the size)
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
3/4 tsp salt
1 TB lemon juice
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1/2 c EVOO

This recipe will show up much greener than the pic I have below! But here was my garlic-y version:

Then for the main event, I used:
1 package of andouille chicken sausage (4 links)
3/4 cup frozen sweet peas
1 cup cup of halved grape tomatoes
1 small package of orecchiette pasta

First I put on a pot of salted water for the pasta and let it cook while I did the rest. I heated some EVOO up in my cast iron pan and added chicken sausage (I took the casings off and sliced) until it browned up.  When it was getting close to browned, I added the frozen peas and grape tomatoes and cooked until the peas looked done (maybe 5 min for the sausage and another 3 min post adding the vegetables, but it depends on how hot your stove is.) I did the sausage on high heat and turned it down a bit (Med High) for the veggies. This is what it looks like when the peas are still frozen!

Once they were done, I drained the pasta (reserving some of the pasta water) and set it aside.  I added about 3/4 cup - 1 cup of the pesto sauce to the vegetables and just heated it slightly over low heat until everything was coated.  Then I added the pasta directly to the cast iron skillet and stirred all together. I didn't need to use any of the reserved pasta water because my pesto was pretty thin, but the recipe I provided above is thicker, so you may need to add a few TBs of the water to ensure you can get the pesto to coat all the pasta.

And that's it! Hubby said it was a 9, but the andouille was a little spicy for me and I didn't love the pesto I made, so I gave it a 7.  I bet it would be delicious with the pesto above and sweet Italian sausage.
Enjoy!