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.

What to do on a Friday?

This is a first for Mormon Cook. I am writing this post on my phone via email. Tonight was one of those nights where we didn't desire to make what we had planned and we are cutting back on eating out. So Mrs. MC brought some supplies to my mom's house (we also wanted to be out of the house) and said make something. So here is the invention. I call it Butter Braised Herb Chicken. (This was taking way to long on the phone, I switched).

So here is how it went down. I started by frying some whole fresh herbs in the pan with some olive oil. I used a couple sprigs of Rosemary, Thyme and Sage. Fry these for a few minutes and then pull out. Add to the pan two cloves of garlic chopped. Fry this for just a little bit. Don't let it brown or it will get bitter.

Next put the chicken in the pan. I used three skinless breasts. You could use almost any chicken but this worked well. Cook the chicken until browned on all sides. Then add back the herbs on the top of the chicken. Add a few tablespoons of butter and cook 2-3 more minutes until butter is melted and foamy. Next add enough chicken broth to cover the chicken half way. Cover and cook until the chicken is done.

Remove the chicken and the most of the herbs, let a few leaves and such stay behind. Add about a cup of milk and return to boil. Make a thickener by mixing milk and flour and add thickener like you would for gravy until the sauce hits the thickness you want. Now return the chicken to the pan and cover with the sauce. Thats it. It was yummy.

On the side we had Broccoli done a la melting pot. We have decided after eating it as Melting Pot in their broth fondue that we like broccoli this way. So in order to do it I put three cups of chicken broth in a pot added bunch of chopped cilantro and three limes cut in half, squeezed into the pot and then added peel and all into the pot. Boil this for about 5-10 minutes and then strain all the stuff out and boil your broccoli in it. Its amazing.

Pleasant Pheasant

So this one time I went hunting and shot some pheasants and quail. Having done this often while growing up I was excited to show my new wife how to dress these birds. I have a picture somewhere of them laying on newspaper in the front room of our apartment. Needless to say Mrs. Mc was not all that impressed with the procedure. She didn't really want to eat any of them after seeing me skin and gut them. One would think this would put Mrs. Mc off game birds entirely for the rest of her life, but being the creative genius I am I have figured out a way to make Pheasant pleasant to her palate.

You will need some pheasant, diced up into about 1/2" cubes or smaller, a sheet of puff pastry and some carrots, onions, celery, cooked rice, diced apple and spices. The process is quite simple. Make a mirepoix with the carrots, onions and celery and sweat until the onions are clear and translucent. Then add the apple and cook for a few minutes. Add in the pheasant and cook until the pheasant is done, usually only takes a few minutes, its rather lean and the pieces are small.

Once you are happy with the doneness of the bird I add the spices. I use cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, pepper, salt, garlic powder in varying combinations until it tastes good. It should be sweet but also savory. Think pumpkin pie and all the good fall crunchy leaves under foot flavors you can imagine and you will get the idea. Finally toss in the rice and mix it all together. This is the filler. It can be eaten alone but adding it to the pastry makes it even better.

Next put your sheet of puff pasty on a baking sheet and cut it in half width wise. This should give you pieces like the ones in the photo. Then you simply fill your pieces and carefully roll them up with the seem at the bottom. Bake these on about 400 until they puff. Cut them up and eat them. It makes a very nice dish and it looks pretty too.

Repentance and Catch Up

So its been a while since there has been a post and Mrs. MC has been begging me to begin again. I looked over the pictures and realized that I don't even remember how I cooked some of this stuff so I decided that as a means of cleansing the past and starting fresh a new I will simply post pictures of what we have cooked with some descriptions and then moving forward, especially now that I should be working from home more and thus cooking more, I will be more diligent in posting.

These photos are from a Vindaloo we made from one of Madhur Jaffery's recipies. If you like Indian food and really want to learn how to cook it, do yourself a favor and buy her Indian Cooking book. This book is amazing. We have yet to find something that wasn't good in here. Everything is well worth the effort. As with any Indian from scratch recipe I recommend reading it and prepping all the spices first so you can work fast. Anyway, this was a lovely Vindaloo. A little hot but next time we will make it hotter.

Next on the catch up docket, Cathedral Windows. These are a tradition from Mrs. Mc's family and we make them every year just like they did. We however are chocolate snobs and instead of using Chocolate chips or Hershey's nasty chocolate we use Cadbury's Dairy Milk, except now that Kraft has bought out Dairy Milk we are apprehensive about its future quality. Anyway this is the only good use I can think of for those weird fruit flavored colored marshmallows.

I made my own fish and chip batter! I used Flour, Sparkling water, baking powder and some spices I think. It was way simple and the batter turned out great. The pictures make we want to make this again. This time I will note the recipe and post it.

Next up Stuffed Mushrooms. This recipe I can tell you. Its something I have done a few times before. I take the Cremini mushrooms and remove the stems and leave the cap with the little depression where the stem was. Then I chop up the stems, some red bell peppers and some garlic. I fry up a wee bit of sausage, preferably hot italian and once the sausage is cooked I throw the cut up stems and red peppers into the mix and saute them. Once that is all cooked I let it cool for a minute and add some parmesan cheese and panko bread crumbs to the mix. Then I stuff the mix on the mushrooms, splash some olive oil on the bottom of a baking dish and sprinkle some salt on that. Place the mushrooms in the pan with the stuffing facing up, then bake at like 350 until the crumbs brown. I have added extra crumbs to the top before as well. Its yummy.

Finally we made these awesome Chocolate cookies. I raided all the chocolate we had in the house as it called for copious amounts of the brown gold as attested by the piles on the scale. These combined into an amazing cookie. Again next time I make them the recipe will be here.

So that is my catch up post. I am sorry there are no recipes but hey sometimes you have to make a cut and start over. That is what I am doing. If you want any recipes to these things post a comment and I will dig through my memory or files and find one.

Potato Salad from Scratch

We decided to make potato salad and to do it totally from scratch. We leaned on our good mentor Alton Brown for the basics and lifted a recipe from the foul mouthed Scottish Chef Mr. Ramsey for part of it as well. Here is the scoop . . . Pun intended.

2.5 Lbs. Red potatos

3 Tbls cider vinegar

3/4 cup homemade mayonnaise (see below)

1 Tbls chopped fresh Dill

1/2 Tbls minced garlic

1/2 Cup diced red onion

1/2 cup sliced celery

2-3 eggs hard boiled and chopped

First take the potatos and cook them whole. Place them in a pot and bring to a boil, then simmer until you can easily slide a fork into them. Then immediately remove them and dump out the water and place the pot under the cold faucet and either ice them to cool them or run cold water over them to cool them. Once they are cool use a dish towel to rub the skins off them. I found doing this under water works really well. Just put a potato in the middle of the towel and then stick it under the water and rub until the skin is all off. Then slice the potatoes how you like them. I like thicker small chunks. Place your sliced potatoes in a zip lock bag and toss them with the vinegar. Refrigerate overnight.

In the morning chop all the remaining ingredients and place them in a bowl. Then make the mayonnaise. This is really the secret to this dish as it add amazing flavor and texture that you cannot get from a jar and it is not hard to make. Here is how you do that.

3 egg yolks

1 tsp dijon mustard

1 cup oil

1 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice

Place the egg yokes and mustard in a food processor, blend just until combined. Then, this part is a wee bit tricky, turn the processor on and slowly drizzle the oil in until you get an emulsification. You will know because the motor will change sounds as the concoction goes form liquid to mayo consistency. I drizzle real slow like about a 1/8 inch stream at most. Once your mayo is together add the lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Do not all the salt, pepper or lemon ahead of time, your eggs will break down and not emulsify.

Add your homemade mayo to the chopped ingredients and mix until well combined. Then fold in the potatoes. Don't stir them as you will break them all up, unless you like it this way. Salt and pepper to taste and viola, amazing potato salad.

Davis Family Japanese Secret Yum Stuff

This is a guest post my Mrs. MC.

So we steal recipes. It is true. And then we make them our own. That is a good preface for what follows. On a trip to Utah, I stopped by the Davis household and was served this for lunch; some of the best leftovers I've had. First is the Davis version, pure and unchanged. Following that is what we did tonight. As for what to call it, I'm at somewhat of a loss. I am sure it is in the stir-fry category, but I don't know the name. Anway, so I don't have to call for the recipe anymore (just calls for things like hooking siblings up) we are putting it down on paper. . . um internet.

2 Stalks Celery

8 oz Mushrooms

1 Green Bell Pepper

2-3 Chicken Breasts

Cook the chicken and then the vegetables before hand.

4 cups Water

1 tsp Sugar

1 Clove Garlic

1/2 Cup Soy Sauce

Dump this on the chicken and veggie mixture and bring it to a boil. While it's getting there, combine

4 TBLS Cornstarch

1 TBLS Water

Turn this into a slurry and when *AND ONLY WHEN* the pot is boiling, add this slurry. It thickens almost immediately. Serve this over noodles or rice.

A word about rice. In the McLean Clan, there are really only 2 kinds of rice; basamati and now (thanks to the Davis Clan) Cal-Rose. We can do Jasmine, but really the others are IT. If we want dry rice, it's basamati and if we want sticky rice it's Cal-Rose. Don't skimp and use plain white rice and don't ever even consider that awful, repugnant stuff termed "minute rice". Please, don't make me roll over in my kitchen!

Anyway, now that we're past that, here is what we did. The sauce is the same, but I really like vegetables, so they are loaded in this. We have overdone it before, so I'm not advocating too many, but this seemed to hit perfect tonight. Good Ratio.

2 Carrots, julienned

2 ribs Celery

4 oz mushrooms

3/4 cup Broccoli

3/4 Red Bell Pepper (the rest was eaten beforehand!)

1/3 cup Fresh Green Beans

Oh and I used Tofu. Often we use chicken, but when we use tofu, it's best to marinade it in something like chicken broth with rice vinegar and sesame oil, ground ginger, red pepper flakes and brown sugar. Then bake it on 350 for 1/2 hour or so, turning them when they begin to brown. This gives them a really nice texture that my 2 year old can't get enough of.

The humungous bonus of this dish as per Davis family recipe is that it really is done within a half hour! Ours took longer since we baked tofu, steamed broccoli, carrots and green beans, in addition to stir-frying the other veggies. It's great their way; it's great ours!