pasta and gremlins

Yep, I made pasta from scratch Sunday night. I had a new gadget that I wanted to try.

Actually, it's a used gadget. Every once in a while, my manager Kristina goes through her pantry and makes space by donating her old kitchen stuff to me. Mixing bowls, spatulas, Calphalon pans, and a pasta maker. All of which is greatly appreciated.

To tell the truth, I'm not sure linguini from scratch is much better than dried linguini from the store. It's cool to say the pasta's fresh, though. (I'm also pretty excited about the idea of making flavored pasta, like dessert spaghetti with ice cream meatballs...)

What was notable was the gremolata I made as a condiment for the pasta. (It was Kaytie's idea, but I made it and called it the gremlin, which only I found funny.) It's an Italian thing, and it adds a little citrus zip that is especially nice on a creamy dish. (We use some on a tenderloin tips risotto at work.) It was great on the shrimp pasta, and I'm planning on using the leftovers on Kraft mac and cheese.

Gremolata

1 cup pecans
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 large clove roasted garlic
4 tsp lemon zest
4 tsp chopped basil
4 tsp chopped parsley
1/4 tsp black pepper

Dump it all in a food processor and pulse until all is well combined and chopped.

skrimp pasta

Usually Drew and I like to use Sunday nights for trying challenging new recipes, but sometimes it's nice to do something easy for dinner. This shrimp pasta (or skrimp pasta, if you're from the Delta), for example, is simple. Now, Drew did make the pasta from scratch, but that's another post. And it's certainly not necessary for this recipe.

This pasta is easy (as previously stated), delicious, and absolutely terrible for you. There's not much else to say about it. We topped the pasta with a homemade gremolata, which Drew will tell you all about when he tells you about homemade pasta.

Skrimp Pasta

1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) butter
1 white onion, minced
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1 tsp fresh basil, chopped
1/8 tsp dried thyme
pinch pepper
1 pint heavy cream
1 can quartered artichoke hearts, drained
1 10 oz. bag of medium-sized frozen shrimp, peeled and deveined
salt to taste

Defrost the shrimp.

Melt butter in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Increase heat to medium high and add onions. Cook until onions are golden. Add tomatoes, basil, thyme, and pepper. Saute for around 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and blend, either with a stick blender or in small batches in a blender. Once tomato mixture is smooth, add cream while blending but do not blend too long or you'll whip the cream. Put the cream-tomato mixture back on the heat. Turn heat up to high until it comes to a boil. Once it does, turn heat down to low and let simmer until the mixture is reduced by half. Add salt to taste. Then add the shrimp and let shrimp hang out in the sauce until cooked through, 5-7 minutes (at most! It depends upon how hot the sauce is...check the shrimp often because it doesn't take long to overcook them and then they're tough and gross). Add the artichoke hearts. Pour over 1 1/2 pounds of cooked pasta (again, fresh or dried, who cares?) and serve immediately. Let your guests top with gremolata.

savory oatmeal is not gross

Kaytie and I have developed an interest in recipe contests. Could this be the way we finance our villa in northern Italy? Probably not.

But it's fun to come up with ideas. First, we sent a few recipes in to Mississippi Magazine's annual recipe contest. Then, Kaytie found a Top Chef slash Quaker Oats contest, and the brainstorming began. It could be anything, as long as the recipe involved oatmeal.

Kaytie dismissed my peanut butter-cinnamon apple-cranberry-white chocolate pie with an oatmeal-gingersnap crust idea. She said it was (1) too rich and (2) too expected. I think she was right, but on the second point only.

Kaytie's idea was savory oatmeal, topped with a fried egg and pork debris. (She'd read that oats can be treated like rice or grits.) We haven't worked the kinks out on the pork, but the oatmeal was great with a fried egg.

We made a couple variations. Kaytie did a truffled mushroom and onion oatmeal, which was great. Here's what I did.

Onion & Gouda Ris-oat-o
(I'm so clever.)

1.25 cups oats
3/4 cup liquid (half chicken broth, half water)
1 bay leaf
1 Tbs butter
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup red onion, diced
1/2 cup Gouda, grated
2 Tbs parsley, chopped

Put the liquid, bay leaf, salt, and butter in a pan, and bring it to a boil. Lower the heat to medium, add the oats, and simmer for about 5 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed.

This is the point when you could add anything your heart desires. I sauteed red onion in a bit of olive oil with some salt and pepper, then mixed the onion, cheese, and parsley into the oatmeal.

Top it with a fried egg, and have brunch.

red beans from india

As much as I hate to admit it, I think the internet is pretty cool sometimes. I realize this statement makes me sound old and out of touch. I don't care.

What has finally impressed me is that we were able to trade recipes with someone in India. (That's on the other side of the world. How cool!) Taste & Create is an event where cool people (like us) with food blogs sign up to exchange recipes and blog about it. (I still squirm when using 'blog' as a verb.)

We were paired with Arundathi at My Food Blog. On her site, she has many, many recipes for delicious-looking baked goods, as well as traditional Indian recipes. Kaytie and I finally decided to make rajma - the Indian version of red beans & rice. (Those of you who know us know how much we love Cajun red beans & rice. . . I am avoiding potty humor now. This is not an easy feat for me.)

They were great! Nothing at all like the red beans we normally make, but still a big hit. They were spicy without being too hot and flavorful without being too heavy. We served them over rice with naan and PBR. TOTT brought some mango chutney, which I thought complimented the flavors nicely, though Arthur found it unnecessary. You'll have to decide for yourself.

Thanks for a successful Sunday night meal, Arundathi!

Rajma

2 cans Red Kidney Beans

5-6 Spicy Green Chiles, slit lengthwise and seeded

2 Onions, diced

5-6 cloves Garlic, chopped

2" piece of Ginger, minced

3 Tomatoes, chopped

1/8 tsp Turmeric

1 tbsp Garam Masala

In a food processor, grind the ginger and garlic together with a little bit of water and set aside. Puree the tomatoes in the food processor and set aside.

Heat about 2 tbsp of oil in a saucepan. Add the onions and saute very well until browned. Add the salt, turmeric, ginger & garlic paste, and garam masala, and continue sauteing until it begins to smell fragrant (about 2-3 minutes).

Add the cooked beans with 2 cups of warm water. Keep stirring and squashing the beans a little bit. (I used a stick blender, a little too enthusiastically. I wish I'd left the beans a little less squashed.) Continue to stir until the curry thickens (about 7-8 minutes).

Here, you can add a pinch of amchur powder. (Luckily, this step is optional, because I couldn't find this spice.) Add the tomato paste and let the curry come to a boil. Lower the heat and allow to simmer for 7-8 minutes, until the curry thickens.

after-the-cardiologist cookies

Well, I got home from the cardiologist yesterday (I have a clean bill of health, by the way), and I wanted cookies. Something delicious and sweet and accompanied by milk.

Kaytie makes fun of me because I have a massive sweet tooth, and I am irresistibly drawn to the most ridiculously overblown desserts that usually make my stomach hurt. (I recently purchased "Chocolate Seduction" ice cream, and I have had several stomachaches already.) I think what frustrates Kaytie most is that I always know when I'm going to feel sick, but I eat the dessert anyway. I'm a little stubborn.

Anyway, I wanted cookies, so I threw these together. They're fairly light and thin, a little crispy on the edges but chewy throughout. Yum. I do not, however, recommend eating (or even making - the temptation will be too great) these cookies unless you have a large quantity of milk on hand.
Billionaire Cookies
(I call these Billionaire Cookies because, like billionaires, they're rich. And they fly around in their own private jets. And have butlers. And golden toilets. I could keep going...)

1/4 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup Nutella
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
2 Tbs self-rising flour
1 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350.

Combine everything but the white chocolate chips in a bowl and stir well. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Roll the cookie dough into balls that are roughly an inch in diameter. Place them on a greased cookie sheet and press them flat. Leave about 2-3 inches between them; they'll spread.

Bake for 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes before moving the cookies to a cooling rack.

Makes about 2.5 dozen cookies.

guest blogger: The TOTT!

Hi this is Tott. Kaytie has generously allowed me to "guest blog" so that I can rave about my all- time favorite food...soup. Seriously, I could eat soup for every meal, every single one. And tops on my list of soups is Tomato Basil Soup.

Kaytie and I did this ridiculous "cleanse" where we didn't eat anything for ten days and only drank a water/lemon/cayenne pepper/molasses mixture. Needless to say, it was hell. The entire time all I craved was tomato basil soup, so Kaytie was nice enough to create this fabulous recipe for me when it was all over. It puts all the tomato basil soup in this town to shame. And as an added bonus, it is easy enough that even I can make it, and I am not the world's best cook...best eater in the world, maybe. Especially when it comes to this soup. So make and enjoy!

Tomato Basil Soup

1 onion, diced
3 slices of bacon, diced
1 really big can of diced tomatoes (not drained)
1 ½ cups of cream
½ can beef broth
¼ cup basil, chopped
1 bay leaf
½ cup shredded parmesan

Melt a small amount of butter or olive oil in a large stock pot. Add onion and salt. Add bacon. Saute onion and bacon until bacon gets crispy and onion is golden. Add can of tomatoes, beef broth, ½ of the basil, and the bay leaf. Stir until everything gets hot. Add cream and bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer uncovered for about 20 minutes or so. Fish out the bay leaf. Using a stick blender, blend until smooth. (This step is optional—if you don’t blend it, it will just be more rustic). Add parmesan and stir. Add salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with remaining basil or green onions and serve.

better late than never

Okay, you've seen this dish before. Still beautiful.

This was the well-planned Valentine's brunch that I made for Kaytie. Never mind that brunch was served at 2 pm. It looked good, and, thanks to Kaytie's hollandaise, it was delicious.

This is a take-off on the Black-Eyed Benedict. Of course, I thought I could make it better. I think I did. (How could the addition of cornbread not improve something?)

Southern Style Eggs Benedict

Cornbread Cakes

(makes 7 3-inch cakes)

3 slices turkey bacon

1 Tbs olive oil

1/4 red onion, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

2 green onions, sliced thin

1 jalapeno, seeded and diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1.5 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp creole seasoning

1 cup black-eyed peas, cooked and drained

1 pkg cornbread mix, prepared according to package directions

3 eggs

salt & pepper

Cook the turkey bacon in the olive oil until crispy. (If you're using real bacon, omit the olive oil.) Set the bacon aside to drain on paper towels.

In the leftover oil, saute the peppers, onions, and garlic for about 5 minutes. Season the veggies with salt and pepper as they cook. Set them aside to cool.

Crumble the prepared cornbread into a food processor, and add the eggs. Puree until smooth. (You could probably also do this in a mixing bowl with a wooden spoon - just crumble and stir well.)

Combine the cornbread mixture, veggies, crumbled bacon, black-eyed peas, and spices in a mixing bowl. Stir well.

Shape the cakes on a lightly greased baking sheet. I used an egg ring that I got from the Everyday Gourmet to make perfectly round cakes about 3 inches in diameter and 3/4 inch tall. Put the cakes in the fridge for about half an hour to make them a little firmer.

Preheat the oven to 300.

Fry the cakes in olive oil in a saute pan until browned on both sides. Return the cakes to the baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes.

Top each cake with a poached egg (see here for methods) and chipotle hollandaise.