Grilled shrimp with mango rice

I chose this recipe because the colorful picture caught my eye, and it sounded like a fun flavor combination. To get started, I prepared the marinade for the shrimp, which is a mixture of soy sauce, garlic, ginger, curry powder and cayenne. I put the shrimp into the marinade and got to work on the rice.

The rice is cooked in coconut milk and water – I went with brown basmati rice, which worked perfectly. After the rice is cooked, it gets tossed with diced mango, red pepper and shredded carrot.

The rice is finished off with lime juice and a combination of fresh herbs – green onion, cilantro and parsley. I know it sounds like a lot of ingredients, but you can cut everything up in advance and simply toss with the rice before serving. I also think you could get away with skipping one or two of the herbs if need be.

The shrimp get threaded onto skewers and grilled. They cook through very quickly, so keep a close eye on them.

For serving, the shrimp skewers are placed on a bed of the mango rice. The slight spiciness of the shrimp goes really well with the sweetness of the mango. I loved the tropical flavors in this dish.

Italian seafood stew

I first noticed this recipe in Giada’s Family Dinners a few months ago, but wanted to wait to make it until corn was in season. I started seeing fresh corn in the markets a couple weeks ago, and moved the recipe to the top of my list. The dish combines an assortment of seafood with fennel, corn, shallots and potato.

For the seafood, I went with littleneck clams, mussels, salmon, sole and pink hopper shrimp. You can use whatever variety of seafood that you like; I think scallops would be a great addition.

The seafood and vegetables are cooked in white wine, tomatoes and fish stock. I love that this is a one-pot meal; all you need is bread or a salad and you’ve got a great dinner.

Anniversary dinner

My parents recently celebrated their 34th wedding anniversary, so I decided a special dinner was in order.
We started with these radish and chive tea sandwiches with sesame and ginger. They were really easy to make and tasted great.

I found some nice looking wild blue shrimp, and decided on a simple preparation to let their flavor shine through. I sauteed the shrimp in a little olive oil and seasoned generously with salt, pepper and meyer lemon juice. I served an herb salsa verde from Sunday Suppers at Lucques on the side.

For this dish, I sauteed some white and green asparagus with shallots, brown butter, salt and pepper. I garnished with fresh chives.

This potato and leek galette was outstanding. I was a little worried that it wouldn't hold together, but it came out perfectly. The recipe will definitely be repeated.

For dessert I made a rustic cherry and frangipane tart from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. It was a good way to use some of my almonds. I served this with vanilla ice cream.

Overall, I thought it was a great meal. It actually wasn't all that time consuming to make either, which is always a plus.

Indian shrimp and sweet potatoes

I'm sure this will come as no surprise to all of you, but I own a lot of cookbooks. I've gotten to the point where I try to only buy cookbooks that are unique to my collection. I was in the market for an indian cookbook a while back and settled on 5 spices, 50 dishes, which happens to be written by a local author. The premise of the book is simple indian dishes based on 5 spices: coriander, cumin, mustard seeds, cayenne and turmeric. I've made about a quarter of the recipes in the book and have had a lot of success.

For this meal, I paired spicy seared shrimp with ginger and lemon sweet potatoes. The shrimp are quickly seared and seasoned with garlic, turmeric, cayenne, lemon juice, salt and cilantro. For the side dish, cooked cubes of sweet potato are sauteed with a mixture of red onion, mustard seeds, ginger, lemon, turmeric and serrano chile.

A word of warning: the recipes in this book definitely run on the spicy side. We have a pretty high tolerance for heat, but I always find myself cutting back the amount of cayenne and serrano chiles in these recipes. If you're sensitive to heat, you may want to cut back on the spice even further.

Both of these recipes were great - the turmeric turns the shrimp a pretty shade of yellow. I think these shrimp would be really delicious skewered and tossed onto the grill. The sweet potatoes were really unique - the sweetness worked well to counterbalance the spices.

Spicy seared shrimp

Serves 3-4

Adapted from 5 spices, 50 dishes

1 pound of large shrimp, peeled and deveined

1/2 lemon, juiced

3 cloves of garlic, minced

2 T canola oil

1 T finely chopped cilantro leaves
pinch of cayenne pepper (to taste)

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

salt

Pat the shrimp dry with paper towels. Heat the oil over high heat in a large pan. Add the minced garlic to the oil, cook for one minute. Add the shrimp to the pan, sprinkle with salt, cayenne and turmeric. Cook until shrimp are pink, about 3-5 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice, season to taste with salt. Sprinkle with cilantro before serving.

Sweet potatoes with ginger and lemon

Serves 4

Adapted from 5 spices, 50 dishes

2 pounds of sweet potatoes, peeled, cut into 1 inch cubes, and cooked
1 T canola oil

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 serrano chile, very thinly sliced

1 medium red onion, finely chopped

1 tsp finely grated ginger

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

salt to taste

2 T lemon juice

Heat the oil in a large saute pan over high heat; add the mustard seeds. Cover the pan with a lid and cook the mustard seeds for a minute. Lower the heat to medium, remove the lid and add the chiles, saute for one minute. Add the onion and ginger. Saute until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the turmeric and stir.

Add the sweet potatoes, season with salt and toss gently to mix. Cover and steam over low heat until the flavors meld, about 4 minutes. Season with lemon juice.

A weekend at the beach

We took a road trip this weekend down the central California coastline and visited Monterey, San Luis Obispo, San Simeon and Pismo beach.

There was beautiful scenery...

cute elephant seals...

and of course great seafood!

We got this bucket full of local rock crab, alaskan bairdi crab, gulf shrimp, corn, potatoes and cajun sausage from the Cracked Crab in Pismo Beach. The seafood is served dumped atop your table with clarified butter, cocktail sauce, mustard sauce and sourdough bread. Everything was great, how can fresh seafood be anything but delicious?!

Spanish tapas

My parents just celebrated their 33rd wedding anniversary. In honor of their anniversary and their upcoming trip to Spain, I made them a meal of tapas. All of the recipes came from The New Spanish Table cookbook, and everything was delicious!

Tangerine olives

Marinated carrots

Goat cheese stuffed piquillo peppers

Moorish chicken kabobs

Confetti shrimp

Rice pudding ice cream with coffee caramel sauce

Roasted shrimp and orzo

On the day I bought Barefoot Contessa at Home, I read through the book and picked out all the recipes I wanted to try. This shrimp and orzo salad was at the top of my list, and it's taken me almost a year to get around to making it! Luckily, this dish didn't disappoint. I happen to love dill, so I was very happy with the combination of shrimp, dill and feta. I omitted the red onion called for in the recipe; since the recipe calls for an entire cup of green onions, I felt that would be enough onion flavor. I also reduced the amount of oil in the dressing by adding a little honey to cut the acidity of the lemon juice.

Everyday Food - shrimp with green curry cashew sauce

This recipe is from the Everyday Food cookbook. I had cilantro in the fridge and the end of a bag of cashews in the pantry, so I thought this recipe would be a good choice. It was fantastic, I highly recommend it. The sauce is what makes the recipe, you could even use it on chicken or fish. This could be served as an appetizer or a main course.

Seafood stew

I wanted to do something a little different for dinner. I hadn't cooked shellfish before, and mussels were on sale, so I decided to do a seafood stew. You can use a different combination of seafood or add fish to this recipe. I served it with homemade bread that had just come out of the oven.

Seafood stew
Serves 2
1/2 lb mussels, scrubbed and debearded
1/2 lb squid, bodies cut into rings
6-8 large shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/4 lb scallops (I used small bay scallops)
1 medium shallot, minced
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup tomato sauce
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
1/2 of a lemon
pinch of red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat, add shallot and red pepper flakes and saute for 2-3 minutes. Add the wine and tomato sauce to the skillet. Add the mussels, cover and cook for 3 minutes. Add the rest of the seafood, season with salt and peper and cover and cook for about 5 minutes, or until shrimp is opaque. Stir in parsley and squeeze the lemon over the seafood. If needed, season to taste with more salt and pepper.

Lemongrass shrimp

I love thai food, but it's often excessively greasy in restaurants. I've been experimenting for some time to develop a stir fry that actually tastes somewhat authentic. I used the vegetables that I had in the fridge, but you could use something different if you prefer. Slicing the vegetables thinly reduces the cooking time in this dish.

Lemongrass shrimp
Serves 2

2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 inch piece of ginger or galangal, peeled and sliced
1 serrano chile, seeded and deveined
3 kaffir lime leaves, sliced (if you can't find these, you could try using a few teaspoons of grated lime zest)
2 stalks of lemongrass - remove tough outer leaves and slice up the softer inner core
a pinch of salt and pepper

2 teaspoons canola oil
1 and 1/2 cups medium peeled shrimp
1 cup thinly sliced carrots
1 cup thinly sliced celery
1/2 cup thinly sliced red bell pepper
1 tablespoon thai fish sauce
1 tablespoon chicken broth
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
salt and pepper to taste

Steamed rice or cooked noodles for serving

Combine garlic, ginger, chile, lime leaves, lemongrass, salt and pepper in a food processor. Grind into a paste - this mixture is really pungent when it's raw. The smell and taste mellow out when cooked.

Heat the canola oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the lemongrass paste and saute for about 2 minutes. Add the carrots, saute for 6 minutes. Add the celery and bell pepper, saute for another 2-3 minutes. Add in the shrimp, chicken broth and fish sauce; cook until the shrimp are pink and opaque. Add salt and pepper if necessary. The fish sauce is pretty salty, and when I made this, I used unsalted chicken stock, so just be careful when adding any additional salt. Stir in the cilantro and serve over rice or noodles.

Lemon pasta with shrimp, feta and piquillo peppers

I just got a pasta rollerfor my Kitchenaid stand mixer, so I used it for the first time yesterday. I made Meyer lemon pasta by adding about a tablespoon of lemon zest to the dough recipe provided by Kitchenaid. However, I'm assuming that most people don't have access to a pasta maker, so I'm writing this recipe to be used with dried pasta. But feel free to use fresh.

Lemon pasta with shrimp, feta and piquillo peppers
Serves 4

3/4 lb linguine
2 cups large shrimp (I used 21-25 per lb count)
3/4 cup roasted piquillo peppers (or you can use roasted red bell peppers)
2 tsp lemon zest
1 T lemon juice
2 tsp olive oil
2 T white wine
1/2 cup feta cheese, cubed or crumbled
2 T chopped fresh dill (parsley, oregano or basil would be good too)
salt and pepper

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil, cook the pasta as directed on the package.

If you're using jarred peppers, drain and rinse them. Heat up a large pan and add the olive oil. Turn heat down to medium-high. Salt and pepper the shrimp and add them to the pan. Cook for a minute or two on one side, then turn the shrimp to cook the other side. Deglaze the pan with the white wine.

Once the pasta is done cooking, drain and add it to the pan with the shrimp. Toss the shrimp and pasta with the lemon juice, lemon zest and roasted peppers. Add salt and pepper to taste. Transfer the pasta to a large platter and top with feta cheese and dill.

Shrimp and crab chowder

It's dungeness crab season here in California, and I'm trying to make the most of it. For this chowder (which served 2 people), I picked the meat from 1 crab that was a little over a pound. I used the shells, along with shrimp shells and lobster shells, to make a stock for the base of the chowder.

I sauteed some onions and garlic in a little butter, and added a small amount of flour as a thickener. I added the stock and 2 peeled, diced potatoes. The soup simmered until the potatoes were tender. Then I added about 1 cup of medium sized shrimp, the crab meat, and 1/2 cup of frozen corn. After the shrimp were cooked through, I took the chowder off the heat and added some fresh chopped dill.

Peel and eat shrimp

Some people like to boil their shrimp in beer, but I use white wine because I always have it around. Use about 1/2 cup white wine and fill the rest of the pot with water. Bring to a boil - I toss in a bay leaf, salt, peppercorns, mustard seeds, fennel seeds and celery seeds. I let it boil for a few minutes to let the spices flavor the liquid before I add the shrimp. Boil the shrimp for about 3-5 minutes, or until they're pink and opaque. Serve with cocktail sauce.

Feeding my prosciutto addiction

I love prosciutto. It's one of those items that is always in my fridge. Prosciutto and shrimp are a particularly good combination.



Prosciutto wrapped shrimp (serves 2)
12 medium to large shrimp (I used 21-25 count per pound)
6 paper thin slices of prosciutto
2 tablespoons teriyaki sauce
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon bourbon (optional; use it if you have it around)Combine teriyaki sauce, maple syrup, chili powder and bourbon (if using) in a bowl. Add shrimp, marinate for about 10-15 minutes. Remove shrimp from marinade and wrap ½ slice of prosciutto around each shrimp (kitchen shears work well for cutting prosciutto). Thread six shrimp onto each skewer (if you don’t want the skewers to burn, soak them in cold water for 30 minutes prior to use). Place skewers under the broiler – broil for 5 to 7 minutes or until shrimp are pink and opaque.

We had white asparagus with the shrimp. I cut off the ends, tossed the spears in a little olive oil and roasted them at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. I sprinkled some smoked sea salt and chives over the top before serving.