Gamberi alla Marinara

Gamberi alla Marinara

Gamberi are jumbo shrimp. The crunchy, fried shrimp blends perfectly with the slightly sweet, homemade marinara. What? I know most of you probably buy your pasta sauce. Homemade sauce has no preservatives or unnatural ingredients. It is less expensive. Most importantly, the sauce that you make yourself tastes so much better. This recipe makes a great deal of sauce. It freezes nicely.

I use Pomì tomatoes because they have no preservatives, no added citric acid and are straight from Italy. Pomì tomatoes are also in paper rather than cans. The acid in tomatoes can eat into cans and add lead to your diet. You can use sautéed zucchini and mushrooms instead of shrimp if you want this meal to be vegetarian.  

If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can use a regular blender. Just make sure to hold the lid down because the heat will cause the lid to fly off. If the sauce isn’t thick enough for you cook it on high for the last hour without the lid. Some of the liquid will evaporate.

Serve this over a long, thin pasta.

Servings: 4-6 (lots of leftover sauce)

Time: Active: 15 minutes; Cook: 8 hours minutes; (After the sauce is finished) Dinner in 30 minutes

Hardware:  A cutting board and knives, measuring spoons and cups, a crock pot, an immersion blender, a wooden spoon, a large pot, a colander, a gallon Ziploc, a heavy, deep skillet, tongs, a slotted spoon a large paper towel lined bowl, and an oil thermometer 

Sauce Ingredients:

• 26 oz. strained tomatoes
• 1-pint cherry tomatoes
• 6 oz. tomato paste
• small yellow onion (4 oz., 1 cup)
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 tablespoons dried basil
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1 bay leaf
•  ½ teaspoon brown sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• Pinch of red pepper flakes
• Optional-1 teaspoon fresh basil and ½ teaspoon fresh oregano

……………………………..

Shrimp:

•  1-pound large shrimp (16-20 count) You can buy them cleaned without tails
•   Garlic salt
•    1 cup flour 
•  ¼ cup seasoned Italian bread crumbs 
•  ¼ cup corn starch 
•  Oil 
•  Long thin pasta like fettuccine, linguine, spaghetti or tagliatelle, fresh parsley, grated Parmesan

1.      Mince the onion and the garlic. Then add them and the rest of the sauce ingredients to the crock pot. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Remove the bay leaf. If you are adding fresh herbs, add them now. Use the immersion blender to smooth the sauce. Adjust the salt.

2.      Cook the pasta while the shrimp is cooking. If you use dried pasta, it should finish up just about the same time as the shrimp.

3.      Generously sprinkle the shrimp with garlic salt.

4.      Place the flour, crumbs and corn starch in the Ziploc. Shake the bag. Add the shrimp to the Ziploc bag and shake like crazy. Set aside.

5.      Add enough oil to fill the heavy skillet up half way. Heat it on medium high. When the temperature reaches 375°, the pan is ready.

6.      Shake as much flour as you can from the shrimp. Place the shrimp in a single layer in the hot oil. Fry them for 3-5 minutes or until cooked through. Don’t crowd the shrimp, they shouldn’t be touching. You may need to cook them in batches. Use the thermometer to keep the temperature between 370° and 375°. Using the slotted spoon, move them from the oil to the paper towel lined bowl. You can keep them warm by placing the bowl in the oven on the lowest setting.

7.      To plate, place the pasta in a bowl, top with a generous amount of marinara, then pile on the shrimp. Sprinkle with parsley and grated cheese.

Southwest Stuffed Chicken

My husband loves the flavors of the Southwest and Mexico: chiles, cilantro, cumin, peppers, onions, tomatoes and a bit of heat. If you look through the blog, you can see that I try to make him happy. Of course, I love the food as much as he does. But it gets harder and harder to do something original. Stuffed chicken isn’t something new, but this is my idea, my selection of the ingredients and my instructions.

If you are like me, a recipe is just a starting place. When I was less experienced or if I am not confident, I do follow the recipe teaspoon by teaspoon. But most of the time, I read a recipe and use it as a canvas, but add my own color and brushstrokes by changing it up to please our family of two. Knowing this, I always list a few changes that you could make while following my recipes. 

While making this recipe, you can follow it exactly or change it up. You could buy taco seasoning or make your own. I prefer to make my own because most prepackaged seasonings are salt flavored salt. You can also control the amount of heat in this dish by omitting the jalapeño and choosing the variety of Ro-Tel you want. I used Ro-Tel with Habaneros. I love spicy. You could use Ro-Tel Mild. I also used ¼ cup shredded cheddar and ¼ cup shredded pepper jack. You could use all cheddar or all pepper jack or all Swiss if you wanted. (Don’t use Swiss, I was joking.) I think that it is important for food to be visually appealing, so instead of using one green bell pepper, I used ½ red bell pepper and ½ yellow bell pepper.

I served this with Yellow Rice, slices of cucumber and Spicy Pintos, the quick recipe for them is at the end.

Servings: 4-6

Time: Active: 25 minutes; Cook: 50 minutes; Chicken in about an hour

Hardware:  A cutting board and knives, a meat mallet (or a rolling pin or a very sturdy coffee cup,) plastic wrap, food safe gloves, measuring spoons and cups, toothpicks, tongs, a bowl, a large plate, a heavy skillet that can be used on the stove top and in the oven (I use cast iron,) a metal spoon, a can opener, a meat thermometer, an oven mitt

Ingredients:

• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (1.5 lbs.)
• 1 ½ tablespoons taco seasoning
• 1 large bell pepper (8 oz.)
• 1 small red onion (4 oz.)
• 1 jalapeño (optional)
• 1 oz. sun-dried tomatoes (I used California Sun-Dry Southwestern Style)
• 10 oz can Ro-Tel
• ½ cup shredded cheese
• Olive oil

1. Preheat the oven to 375°.
2. Slice the onion and green peppers into long thin strips. Wearing gloves, dice the jalapeño, removing the seeds and white ribs. Heat enough oil to cover the bottom of the skillet over medium high heat. When the skillet is hot, add the veggies and cook to desired tenderness. Some people like them very soft, but I prefer them to have some crunch. Remove the veggies to the bowl. Set aside. Don’t wash the pan.
3. Dice the sun-dried tomatoes into very small pieces. Add them to the bowl with the veggies.
4. Wearing gloves, trim the fat from the chicken and cut each cutlet in half long ways. (You want long, flat pieces of chicken not chunks.) Cover each cutlet with plastic wrap and pound flat (with whatever you have handy.) If the breasts are thick enough, you may be able to get 3 pieces from each breast. Generously season both sides of the chicken with taco seasoning.
5. Do one roll at a time. Place a small amount of the veggie filling on the short end of the chicken. Roll up tightly and secure with a toothpick. Place the roll on the plate. Do this with the rest of the chicken.
6. Add a little more oil to the pan and heat over medium heat. Add the chicken to the pan, seam side down, cook for 5-7 minutes or until the chicken is brown. Flip the chicken and spoon off as much fat as you can.
7. Nestle the unused filling around the chicken and add the can of Ro-Tel. Don’t pour it over the chicken as you will make the crispy top become soggy.
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the chicken is 160°. Remove the pan. Using the tongs, remove the toothpicks. Sprinkle the cheese on top of the chicken and return it to the oven and cook for 5 more minutes or until the cheese melts.
9. Allow the chicken to rest for 5 minutes.
10. Scoop up everything left in the pan and serve as a side.Serve with Spicy Pintos, cucmbers and Yellow Rice,

 Southwest Stuffed Chicken

 

Spicy Pintos

Quick recipe: Put pintos, cilantro and a bay leaf in the crock pot and cover them in water. Set the crockpot on low for 5 hours. You may need to add more water while they are cooking. Check to see if they are tender at 4 hours because every crockpot is different. When the beans are tender add chopped jalapeños, onion, 2 tablespoons of tomato paste, a splash of vinegar, a pinch of cayenne pepper and salt. Simmer them for another hour. Remove the bay leaf. (Culantro is a cilantro substitute. It gives a similar flavor with no soapy aftertaste. Also, if you add salt or anything with sugar or anything with tomatoes before the beans soften, they will never get tender.)

Jalapeño Popper Pops

Jalapeño Pops

Are you ready for some football? I know my husband is. In fact, he is in the other room eating nachos and shouting at the TV. This time of year means that we spend every weekend at a football game or watching a football game.

I like to serve hand food when we are at home. I love jalapeños. These bites are milder than jalapeños poppers. You can change up the amount of heat by varying the amount of pepper that you add. You can also replace the cheddar cheese with pepper jack if you like more heat. To get this much bacon you would need to fry a pound of bacon. I find it is easier to buy it already cooked on the salad dressing aisle.

You can freeze these for up to a week before frying. Just transfer them to a plastic bag after they are frozen.  

Servings: 34-40 pieces

Time:  Active: 15 minutes; Freeze: 1 hour; Cook: 10 Minutes; Pops in about 90 minutes

Hardware:  A cutting board and knife, a food processor, a silicone spatula, a mixing bowl, food prep gloves, a large plate, 2 bowls, a deep skillet, a large metal slotted spoon, a paper towel covered plate, an oil thermometer

Ingredients:

• 1-8oz package cream cheese
• 2 to 4 ounces jalapeños
• 8ounces shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 cup crumbled bacon
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup bread crumbs
• 1-2 cups of oil for frying
• Ranch or blue cheese dressing

1. Put the cream cheese out to soften.
2. Make sure to wear the gloves and remove the seeds and white ribs from the jalapeños.
3. Place the jalapeños into the food processor. Chop them until they are the size of aquarium gravel. Scrape them into the mixing bowl. Repeat with the bacon and the cheese.
4. Mix the cream cheese, crumbled bacon, jalapeños, and cheese together.
5. Roll the mixture into 2 teaspoons sized balls. If you make them too large then they won’t cook all the way through later. Place the balls in the freezer for at least on hour.
6. Put enough oil in the skillet to cover the pops.  Pre-heat the oil until it is 350°.  You will want to monitor the oil temperature and keep it between 320° and 350°.
7. While the oil is heating, place the eggs into one bowl and beat vigorously. Place the crumbs into the other bowl.
8. Dip the frozen pops into the egg and then the crumbs. You can dip them twice if you need to make sure the pop is completely encased in crumbs.
9. Place the pops in a single layer in the hot oil.
10. Allow them to cook until they are golden brown. I find that it is easiest to just cook one and then cut it open. If it is still frozen in the middle, turn the oil down. Use this test pop to gauge cooking time.
11. As they finish, place them on the plate to drain.  You can place the plate in the oven on the lowest setting to keep them warm.
12. Serve right away. Offer your guests ranch or blue cheese dressing for dipping.