shrimp creole

ok, so shrimp creole is one of my favourite foods in the world. ever.

It is super easy to make, and it is super good.

Shrimp Creole

1 1/2 lb. peeled and deveined shrimp
6 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
3 T. canola oil
1 and a half (16 oz) cans diced tomatoes with juice (use a 28 oz can and save the rest to make salsa or something… or just toss the extra… i don’t care)
1 (10 1/2 oz) can tomato soup (or tomato paste, a bit of onion powder, salt and pepper)
1 T. Worchestershire sauce
1 T. Tabasco Sauce
Salt and freshly ground pepper (i usually just shake a bit of both in… i’d say 1 t. max of both)

Cook, clean & devein shrimp. Saute celery, pepper, onion and garlic in oil until tender. Add all other ingredients except shrimp and simmer for 45 minutes. Stir often to make sure it doesn’t stick to the bottom, or you are totally screwed. (Actually you aren’t… here’s the deal if you are cooking ANYTHING and it starts sticking to the bottom… DON’T scrape up the mucky burnt shit… it will make your food taste BAD and ruin your fancy dinner party and everyone will hate you and secretly slander you on the internets. Instead, pour the good stuff into another clean pot and continue cooking from there. It will be ok. I promise.)
Stir often. (Yes… I repeat myself, because it’s important!!) Add shrimp and simmer for 15 minutes or until shrimp are opaque and obviously cooked.

Serve over rice or pasta. Rice is the traditional way, but I had it at the Pirate’s House in Savannah over fettuccine and it was quite nice. You really ARE supposed to eat it over rice, but the pasta is really a nice alternative, if you don’t like rice like me (*except for with chinese or indian food… oh, or japanese)

You should probably eat a small salad or some such with that. In the picture, I made a salad with spinach, strawberries and mushrooms and a homemade balsamic vinagrette.

Chicken Noodle Soup

OK, so I pretty much only eat fish and veggies, but every now and then, I will eat stuff with chicken broth. Why?

Flashback 15 years or so, wavy lines… bloop bloop bloop, I was visiting the parents and got sick with pneumonia… went to the doctor and he had to give me this powder through an inhaler to make my heart do what it’s supposed to and was scheduling me to go into the hospital that evening. Well, my grandmom was visiting and made me eat her chicken soup… she took all the meat out, but insisted.. By the end of the day, my condition had improved enough that I didn’t have to be hospitalized. Amazing but true.

This recipe works well with the vegetarian “chicken” broth as well. You can usually find that at Whole Foods or one of those granola-y health food stores .

Chicken Noodle Soup

Makes: 5 1/2 cups soup  

5 cups clear chicken or vegetarian chicken broth, or hell, vegetable broth – homemade or store bought (5 cups= box + a can)
3/4 cup diced onion
3/4 cup diced celery
1/2 cup diced carrots
1/2 tablespoon minced garlic
About 3 or 4 handfuls of dried egg noodles, cooked to al dente
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh parsley leaves
Lemon halves, for serving

Bring broth to boil for 2 minutes in a large, stockpot with lid on, over high heat. Throw in carrots, let boil 3 min. Add onion, celery, and garlic. Lower heat and simmer on med for 10 minutes. Add precooked noodles and cook 5 more minutes. Remove from heat and add parsley, salt and pepper to taste.
Optional: Serve with lemon wedge and add squeeze of lemon juice if you want… ( I know that sounds weird, but it’s nice)

Potato and Cheese Pierogi

Making pierogi is actually pretty easy (and fun)…
This recipe makes about 40 of these, serving size is about 3-5 per person,
…more if you are a glutton… so you can freeze a bunch for later.

Ingredients:
Dough:
-3 cups all-purpose flour plus additional for kneading
-1 cup water
-1 large egg
-1 teaspoon salt

For filling:
-1 1/2 pound russet (baking) potatoes (about 3 big potatoes)
-6 ounces coarsely grated medium to sharp Cheddar (2 1/4 cups)
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-1/4 teaspoon black pepper
-1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

optional:
half an onion, chopped finely and sauteed in 1 T butter
cayenne pepper

In a medium sized bowl, place flour. Make a small well in the middle of the flour. In another bowl, combine eggs, salt and water, and add to flour. Turn onto floured board and knead until dough is firm and well mixed. Cover with an overturned bowl or plastic wrap and let rest 15-20 minutes.

Make filling while dough stands:
Peel potatoes and cut into 1-inch pieces. Cook potatoes into a pot of boiling salted water until tender, about 8-10 minutes. Drain potatoes, then transfer to a bowl along with cheese, salt, pepper, and nutmeg and mash until smooth. (can add other stuff like sauteed onions, garlic, cayenne pepper or whatever) (I know you want to add milk, but don’t… it will totally fuck shit up… BUT if you have some left over after filling the dough, then you can and make mashed potatoes.. or add milk and flour, and make potato pancakes.. oh, the possibilities, my god.)

When mashed potatoes are cool enough to handle (which is about 5 min…), spoon out a rounded teaspoon and lightly roll into a ball between palms of your hands. (Flour your hands a little so they won’t stick) Transfer ball to a plate and keep covered with plastic wrap while making more balls til you finish the filling.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough 1/8-inch thick.
Using a 3-inch round cutter (a glass works), cut the dough into circles. You can stack them up to start your assembly line. So put your dough circle down, put a ball of potato stuff on one side, and then fold the other side over. Pinch edges together with your fingers to seal completely. (If edges don’t stick together, brush them lightly with water, then seal; do not leave any gaps or pierogi will open during boiling and make a pain in the ass mess, and you’re left with boiled dough with no filling. sad face.) Move to a lightly floured kitchen towel (not terry cloth(or just lightly floured parchment, which you would do if you’re going to freeze it, and then you don’t have to get a towel dirty) and cover with another towel to keep from drying out. (You don’t really have to, unless you are cooking them later, or you’re super slow.)

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add pierogi, stirring once or twice to keep them from sticking together, and cook 5 minutes from time pierogi float to surface. While pierogi are boiling, you can sauté some onions and mushrooms or whatever as a topping. Transfer cooked pierogi into a saute pan with a little butter (and a tiny bit of oil to keep the butter from burning) and cook until lightly browned.

Sprinkle a little fresh parsley over them and serve with mushrooms and onions and sour cream.

To freeze, do so before cooking… just put a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet lay out the pierogi, but don’t let them touch each other, or they will stick together.. Put in freezer til frozen (usually about an hour) and then take out and put into freezer bags. When you’re ready to cook them, just throw them into the boiling water and cook as noted above.

*Note: Do not cut out and stack too many dough circles too long ahead of time or they will end up sticking together and then you’re fucked and you end up having to roll out the dough and cut them out again. Trust me on that one.

Star Wars Year by Year: A Visual Chronicle

Got this unexpectedly in the mail today.. Super neat spread on the Vader Project…

Baked Salmon with Blueberry Sauce

So salmon seems to be what my market always has around, and as a fishietarian, it seems to be one of the easiest ways to get my protein and all that Omega vitamin stuff. I’m just one to marinate it in some soy, ginger and garlic and broil it, but i thought maybe I could use a little variety and saw this recipe while trolling the web.
Verdict: it’s not bad, but I realized that I don’t particularly love blueberries, which is something I always forget until I am eating them. My housemate says it’s really yummy though.

Ingredients:

2 wild salmon fillets, skin on
2 Tbsp butter
2 cloves garlic, minced

Blueberry Sauce
1 Tbsp cornstarch
juice from half a lemon
5 oz. fresh blueberries
2 Tbsp Crema Di Balsamico
1/2 cup chicken broth (i used vegetable broth)
1 tsp fresh thyme
black pepper to taste
2 Tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 400°F.
In small bowl, mix butter and garlic.
Pat salmon dry with cloth or paper towel, then rub with butter and garlic mixture. Season with salt and pepper.
In small bowl, mix lemon juice and cornstarch until combined. Pour into small saucepan along with remaining sauce ingredients except for the butter, which will go in just before serving. Bring sauce to a simmer and continue to cook on low for 20-30 minutes. The sauce will reduce by approximately half the volume.
Place salmon skin side down for bake for around 10 minutes, or until done.Salmon should spring back just slightly when pushed on.
Stir butter into blueberry sauce to finish and pour over salmon fillets just before serving.

I served this over wilted spinach, but I think roasted potatoes might work better with the blueberries… but then again, I just don’t really like blueberries, so use your own discretion.

Homemade Wheat Thins

I love Wheat Thins… it’s one of the food products from the states that I miss most… No offense to my Brit friends, but most of your crackers just make me sad. So when I came across this recipe for them somewhere in the online world, it became necessary to try it out. They taste similar enough to make me happy.

Ingredients:
• 1 1/4 c. whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 tbsp. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. paprika
• 4 tbsp. margarine
• 1/4 c. water
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Combine flour, sugar, salt and paprika in a bowl. Melt the margarine and stir in. (I tried a batch with butter as margarine skeeves me out, but it doesn’t work, so processed buttery tasting whipped oil it is)  It will be kinda wet and crumbly. Add the water and vanilla, stirring until it makes a smooth dough.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Divide the dough into two pieces to make it more manageable to roll out . Lightly flour your work surface and rolling pin (I used my housemate’s giant thermos)  and roll the dough into a large rectangle, about 1/16th thick. Cut into squares with a pizza cutter. Put the squares on the baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt if you want. Repeat with the rest of the dough.

Bake the crackers one sheet at a time, until crisp and brown, about 7-10 minutes, Checking on them often to make sure they don’t burn. Take them out, cool them and then eat all of them in one sitting.

Vegetable Soup

So an evening of art shows left me with a bit of a friday hangover. Wanted something healthy and I had a bunch of vegetables around, so I made soup. I used v8 instead of vegetable broth, because it’s hard to find here in London, and I didn’t feel like making a broth since I needed such a relatively small amount. Also, I know some people are weird about okra, but it totally makes the soup better and it’s not all slimy.

1 lg can of chopped tomatoes, including liquid
2 lg cans water
1 small can vegetable broth or v8
3-4 potatoes
3 carrots
corn
okra, cut
fresh green peas
celery sticks
those little french green beans

Bring tomatoes, stock, and water and 2 celery sticks(uncut) to boil.

Add potatoes and carrots.

Add some celery salt, onion powder, salt and pepper to taste.

Boil 5 more min.
Turn down to a low simmer.

Cook for about 30 mins

Add corn, peas, and green beans.

Cook for 30 min. more.

Add okra.

Cook for 30 min more.

Should be done by now.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

so yes, i am a lazy blogger. so here is a recipe for the cookies i made yesterday

Combine:

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Stir and set aside.

Mix:

1 cup butter (slightly melted)
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups chocolate chips

1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

In a large bowl,  mix the partially melted butter and sugars until the mixture is fluffy and forms little peaks. (You melt the butter a little so that it, in turn, melts the sugars more, resulting in a lighter cookie) Beat in egg and vanilla. Mix 3 or 4 minutes. Mix in flour slowly and then stir in the chocolate chips and nuts.

Drop by small spoon onto lightly greased baking sheet. Bake at 350ºF (190ºC) for about 12 minutes. Cool for a couple of minutes on the baking sheet and then put on paper towel to finish cooling.

Makes about 3 1/2 dozen

Mymo, Pure Evil Gallery, London

Jeff Soto, Stolenspace, London