Shrimp with Zucchini

We are really enjoying seafood here; not too frequently, but much more than when we lived in Denver. While discussing our menu for this week, we happened upon this curry recipe from Madhur Jaffrey, our FAVORITE Indian cook. Despite the hot chili and cayenne in it, the masala was not very hot and was EXTREMELY flavorful and mild.

Funny side note. I got a serrano pepper at the market today, but we couldn't find it when it was time to make dinner. So Mrs. Mc insisted on going to the store for another saying it seemed to be an integral part of the recipe this time rather than a fire enhancer. And it definitely was. It was funny when she walked up to the cashier and presented her single pepper to him. He laughed and said that was the smallest buy he'd seen, and she replied that she planned to pay for it with all pennies. 12 cents later, pepper in hand, she arrived home chuckling about getting rid of excess pennies.

3/4 pound Zucchini

1 1/2 tsp Salt

3/4 pound peeled, deveined shrimp (fresh or frozen but dry)

3 Tbl Coconut Oil (that's what we used)

6 cloves Garlic (finely diced)

1 cup Cilantro (finely chopped)

1 hot green chili (again finely chopped)

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

1 1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

3 small canned tomatoes (finely chopped) plus 1/2 cup liquid from can

1 tsp peeled, very finely grated fresh ginger

1 Tbl lemon juice

Scrub the zucchini and trim them. Now cut them into 4 slices lengthwise. Cut each slice, lengthwise, into 4 long strops. Cut the strips into thirds, crosswise. Put the zucchinis in bowl. Sprinkle 1/4 tsp salt over the pieces, and toss to mix and set aside for 30-40 minutes. Drain and pat dry.

Put the shrimp on paper towels and dry them off as well.

Put the oil in a wide pan and set over medium-high heat. When hot, put in the chopped garlic. Stir and fry until the garlic pieces turn a medium-brown color. Put in the zucchinis, cilantro, green chili, turmeric, cumin, cayenne, tomatoes and their liquid, ginger, lemon juice, and remaining 1 tsp salt. Stir to mix and bring to a simmer. Add the shrimp and stir them in. Cover, turn heat to low, and simmer for 3 minutes.

Uncover, turn the heat to medium and boil away the liquid, if there is any, so that you have a thick sauce. Garnish with cilantro if desired.

Seafood Spectacular

I know, don't check to see if you can go skiing in that down under place. It is frozen over. How do I know? I am writing another post, that's how. Since we had such a huge production today I decided (with much prodding from Mrs. M) that I should post something. It has been like a year or probably more since I wrote. I wont check.

Today we decided to make homemade ravioli with a shrimp white sauce. When I was buying the shrimp I decided to buy some little neck clams. They looked so cute and I thought, "What the heck". So I bought just under a pound for like $3.12. After tonight, we will be buying them again and in larger quantities. There are some advantages to living on the coast.

I kinda made this whole meal up so there is not much of a recipe per se to follow. So here is how it all went down.

First you have to clean out your clams. Actually you let them clean themselves out. Clams should be alive and closed when you buy them. I soaked them for 20 minutes in 1/3 cup of kosher salt (don't use iodized as iodine kills them) in a gallon of water. It was cool because they started making bubbles and coming out of their ice coma. They also spit out lots of sand and such. After a good soak transfer them to a gallon of clean water (no salt this time) and let them rest (another 15 mins or more). When you are ready to cook them I put about two cups of water (use as little as you can get away with) in the bottom of a pan. Then I put my metal strainer over the pot, boiled the water and dumped the clams in the basket. I covered them and thenchecked on them every few minutes. Once they popped open I took them out with a slotted spoon. After they were all done I put a bunch of butter, minced garlic and about a lemon's worth of juice in the water they were steamed with. Cooked that for a minute and then poured that over the clams. They were amazing and quite the hit. At least the girls like the shells. I liked the clams themselves.

So the other stuff for this meal we have done at least parts of them here. Check here for the mushrooms. Repentance and Catch Up. I also cooked up some shrimp and made a cream sauce. Thats pretty easy to tell you. Again there are no measurements. Just go with it. I put some butter in a pan, tossed in some minced garlic. Cooked that for a minute or two then threw in the shrimp and cooked them for a minute then added some cream, lemon juice and parmesan cheese plus salt and pepper. In hindsight I need to figure out a way to get the awesome garlic shrimp without over cooking them because they are done by the time you add the cream. Maybe next time I will fry the shrimp and then take them out of the pan and cook the cream and everything else until its thicker and add the shrimp back in.

We aslo made ravioli that was really good to go with the sauce. I will let you find your own homemade pasta recipe. Here was the insides.

4 oz. Paneer cheese grated (ricotta would work good too, I just didn't have any and had paneer left over from last week)

4 oz. Smoked Gouda aslo grated

2 oz or so of Parmesan grated

5 or so Basil leaves chopped

2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano

Mix it all up with enough milk to make it stick

We loaded each ravioli with a teaspoon of mixture and that seemed about right. It was a hit. We did learn that ravioli brings out the worst in us. I think we might need some marital counseling after this. I don't know why but anytime we make ravioli we seem to not work together so well. I think it has to do with the kids wanting to be involved and we are watching them and having struggles with the pillows of goodness etc.. In any case we and our marriage survived and it was yummy. Although maybe a ravioli press is cheaper that counseling.

Here you can see we have taken out our frustration on these poor ravioli.

Here is the final dish with all the elements.