Crawfish Cornbread

I posted about making crawfish cornbread for Thanksgiving, so I thought I’d share the recipe in case anyone is interested. I got the recipe from Taylor’s mom, who got it from someone else, so I have no idea of its original origins.

It’s sort of like a corn pudding with crawfish, cheese, and a little spice.

Crawfish Cornbread

1 pound frozen crawfish (thawed, drained and rinsed)
1 stick melted butter
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp Tony Chachares seasoning (or more, 1 tbsp isn’t too much for my taste)
1 can cream style corn
1 box Jiffy cornbread mix
3/4 cup chopped onions (frozen will work)
3 eggs
chopped jalapenos (1/2  a small can drained, or more if you like it spicy)
2 cups of grated cheese (one to mix in, one to top the casserole)

Mix all ingredients (except 1 cup cheese) in a large mixing bowl. Pour into greased 9×13 baking pan. Top with 2nd cup of cheese. Bake at 350 for 1 hour. Makes 8+ servings.

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Thai green curry shrimp

Yesterday I made  Thai Green Curry Coconut Shrimp with Basil from Skinnytaste.com. It was so good I wanted to eat it all in one sitting.

Since I can’t leave well enough alone, I did things slightly different from the recipe, but nothing crazy.

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp oil
• 4 small scallions, whites and greens separated, chopped (I used 6 green onions, because when I compared to the picture, it didn’t seem like what I had was enough)
• 1 tbsp Thai green curry paste (or more to taste) (I ended up using two tablespoons, but didn’t add the second until after I added the coconut milk and tasted everything)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced (I used two tablespoons of dried minced garlic, reconstituted with a few tablespoons of warm water)
• 1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined (from 1 1/4 lbs unpeeled)
• 6 oz light coconut milk
• 2 tsp Thai fish sauce
• 2 tbsp fresh basil, chopped (I just used about 8 big basil leaves)
• salt to taste (I didn’t add any salt and the taste was just fine)

Directions:

1. Heat the oil on medium high heat. Add green onion whites and curry paste and cook for one minute. (It’s ok if you accidentally add the garlic here too, just make sure it doesn’t burn.
2. Add shrimp and garlic. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
3. Add coconut milk, fish sauce and simmer 2-3 minutes making sure the shrimp is fully cooked. (Taste the sauce at this point to decide if you want to add more curry paste. I added 1 extra tablespoon here, when the original 1 tablespoon wasn’t enough.)
4. Remove from heat and add green onion greens and basil then serve over rice. (This is also good to eat without rice as a sort of soup.)

This was my second time making Thai Curry, and it was absolutely delicious. I will definitely do this again.

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Mr. B’s Bistro BBQ Shrimp

You gotta make this. Mr. B’s Bistro BBQ Shrimp

Mr. B’s is a fabulous restaurant in New Orleans, and the recipe is one of their house favorites. It’s not BBQ in the traditional sense of the word, but is so rich and delicious. Like their site says, don’t be afraid of the amount of butter. I promise you won’t be sorry.

Just don’t forget an extra stack of napkins, it gets a little messy peeling the shrimp!

I included the link to the original recipe earlier, but I’m also including the recipe below too in case they ever take the recipe down. It’s that awesome.

• 16 jumbo shrimp (12 per pound, about 1 1/2 pounds), with heads and unpeeled
• 1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
• 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons cracked black pepper
• 2 teaspoons Creole seasoning
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cubed
• French bread as accompaniment

 

In a large skillet combine shrimp, Worcestershire, lemon juice, black peppers, Creole seasoning, and garlic and cook over moderately high heat until shrimp turn pink, about 1 minute on each side. Reduce heat to moderate and stir in butter, a few cubes at a time, stirring constantly and adding more only when butter is melted. Remove skillet from heat. Place shrimp in a bowl and pour sauce over top. Serve with French bread for dipping.

Yield: 4 appetizers or 2 entrees

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Mushroom risotto

When we were in Italy, my friend Cherrye’s husband, Peppe, made us salmon risotto one night. It was so heavenly, and I made sure to pay careful attention to his cooking methods so I could make my own risotto at home.

Of course, several weeks have passed, and admittedly that night we drank copious amounts of cheap italian wine and home-made limoncello, so I found a recipe that seemed similar to use as a guide. You can check it out here.

You can make almost any kind of risotto using this general recipe. Just use a different broth and substitute vegetables or meat for the mushrooms.  It would be easy.

First, prepare the broth. I made 6 cups of vegetable broth. But you could use chicken, beef or mushroom. Taste the broth to make sure it has good flavor. The first rule Peppe taught us is that each part of the risotto must taste good on its own. Put the broth aside, keeping it on low heat.

Then start the base for the risotto. Heat your pan up to medium heat. Add one tablespoon of butter to a big pan. Then add about half an onion, diced. Cook the onion until it is soft but not quite caramelized (but I bet if you did caramelize it, it would taste good too).

In a separate pan, add one tablespoon of butter, and a tablespoon of minced garlic. Then add your chopped mushrooms. I used a whole pound, but honestly half a pound would have been good too. I did half a pound of sliced white mushrooms and half a pound of chopped Portobello mushrooms.  After the mushrooms start cooking down, taste them you can add another tablespoon of butter if you want. Don’t forget, the mushrooms should be delicious enough to eat on their own. Here’s a blurry shot of the onions and mushrooms starting to cook. 

Then when the onions are cooked how you like them, add in your arborio rice. I used 1 and 1/2 cups. Stir around until the rice starts to get a little translucent. Then add in half a cup of white wine and stir until the liquid is almost absorbed.

Meanwhile don’t forget to keep an eye on the mushrooms. You can even add in half a cup of white wine to them too.

Don’t go to far away from the risotto. Now is the labor intensive part. Add a ladle full of the broth into the rice and start stirring until most of the liquid has been absorbed. It’ll look kind of like this. You can see a little bit of liquid still, but it’s not runny.

Then add another ladle full of broth to the rice. Same story, keep stirring until mostly absorbed. Then add another ladle. You’ll keep doing this using most of the broth.

When the risotto has more than doubled in size, and seems like it’s almost done, taste it to see if it’s ready. When it’s done, it should be al dente and have a little texture to it, but it shouldn’t be crunchy. If it’s just a little under cooked you’ll start getting ready to add the mushrooms in.

I drained the liquid off the mushrooms but you could add it all in to the risotto if you wanted. (It was all black and gross looking if you ask me.)

Dump the mushrooms in and add another ladle of broth. This will probably be your last ladle (there may be a little broth still left, that’s ok as long as your risotto isn’t crunchy). Stir until the liquid is mostly absorbed. Taste everything and see if you need to add salt or anything.

You can turn the heat down and step away for just a minute now. Grate up about 1/3 cup of pecorino romano cheese, toss it in the pan and stir well. Last, add one tablespoon of butter and stir it in and taste. The butter adds richness, so if you think it could be a little more rich, add one more tablespoon. If you aren’t sure, just go ahead and add it. You won’t regret it.

And now you’re ready to enjoy.

Yes, it was a somewhat labor intensive process, but honestly, the cooking part wasn’t too bad. I probably took more time cleaning and cutting the mushrooms than I did getting the onions, mushrooms and rice started cooking. If I had to guess, I think I got everything done in just over an hour. Not too bad if you ask me. Even Taylor (who isn’t a major mushroom fan) thought it was delicious. And ate leftovers for lunch the next day.

That’s success!

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Aiming low egg breakfast

So I saw this breakfast recipe a couple of weeks ago, and have been dying to make it. Finally this morning I did.

Honestly, I took it as less “actual recipe” and more of “suggestions” of what to do with some eggs, butter and seasoning. Here’s the recipe I followed. http://aiminglow.com/2011/09/brilliant-breakfast-for-less-than-brilliant-mind/

But of course, I changed it a little bit. What I did was, melt a tablespoon of butter under the broiler in my toaster oven, then add two eggs, a little milk, chopped red onion, some fresh chives, fresh cracked pepper, and romano cheese. I cooked it for the suggested 3-5 minutes but wasn’t sure it was done enough. Being all nervous about raw eggs, I cooked it for almost 10 minutes total, poking it with a fork several times after about 5 minutes.

Here’s the halfway mark of cooking. I forgot to take a picture at the end and anyway it looked kinda messy in the end after all my fork poking. But more or less, in the end the egg will be solid and the top and edges of the eggs will be browned.

End result, delicious! You may want to add some salt or try different herbs. But I really liked it. It probably will be easier to do several of these in your big oven, but if you’re doing just one or two, a toaster oven works just fine.

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Pizza

You should make this.

Homemade crust (follow the Pioneer Woman’s recipe. (I like the crust crispy, so I bake it before I put toppings on.)

Take a small can of tomato sauce, and add a few shakes of salt, italian seasoning, and a drizzle of olive oil. Spread over the crust and top with prociutto, buffalo mozzarella, red onion, and fresh from the garden yellow cherry tomatoes.  Bake for about 10 minutes at 400 degrees or until the cheese is bubbly and melted. Top with fresh from the garden arugula, fresh grated parmesan and crushed red pepper.  

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