Calypso Shrimp - don't mess with Betty!

Work is clearly starting to overtake me, as I'm cooking recipes off the sites I manage for a living. I don't fit into the standard audience profile for these properties, but I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't take my own medicine now and then.

I ended the day like many of my consumers wondering "what do I make for dinner". Knowing I had a pound of shrimp in the freezer, I pulled up this recipe for Calypso Shrimp. I should have just trusted Betty and followed the recipe, but I had to start mucking with it by switching out the Old El Paso salsa for a spicy mango habenero variety because I wanted more hot & sweet in the citrus bean salsa (didn't work - dish needed the salt of a traditional mild chunky tomato salsa to counter-balance the sweetness of the oranges). I also, on a whim, picked up some imitation lobster meat that was on sale and mixed that in with the shrimp. Big mistake. The crap cooked down, shredded up and basically ruined the dish. The shrimp themselves, however, were very nice!

Sorry Betty, sometimes I can take your stuff up a notch, but I over-reached this time.

Holy Guacamole Kids!

I'm thrilled to see that guacamole season is back! I took a short cut this winter when I was in desperate need of a guac fix by using a jarred guacamole mix by Frontera brought home by the BF. It was good (tangy and citrus-y), but couldn't hold a candle to my home-made version. I have been known to pack a mortar and pestle in my suitcase when traveling for extended vacations where I would have access to a kitchen. Because of my penchant for making this while on vacation in exotic locales, it brings me a certain level of instant "Zen" when I make this at home. Play with this set of ingredients and see how it suits ya . . .

DM's Guacamole

2 ripe Haas avocados (the small leathery ones) pitted, cubed and scooped from shell - here's a video that teaches you the technique: How to Dice an Avocado: Easy Cooking Tips & Techniques
1 medium jalapeño chili, finely diced (seeded if you want your guac mild)
2 cloves garlic - minced
2 Tbls finely minced red onion
1 tsp coarse kosher salt (or to taste)
1/4 cup coarsely chopped red onion
1 - 2 roma tomatoes - seeded and diced
4 - 6 dashes Mexican Hot Sauce (like Cholula) or Tabasco Sauce
3 - 4 dashes Worcestershire Sauce
1/4 cup fresh cilantro - chopped
Juice of 1/2 fresh lime

Method:
1) Place the diced chili, garlic, minced red onion and salt in a mortar bowl - grind with pestle until a wet paste starts to form and the items seem well mixed (Touch a bit to your tongue and swallow. If you feel a slight burn in the back of your throat, it's just right)
2) Mix paste with the avocado - mash and mix until incorporated, but avocados still a bit chunky
3) Add chopped Onion, hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce and stir to combine - taste for salt - add more if needed
4) Stir in tomatoes and cilantro. Sprinkle with lime juice.

I prefer to serve these with "Garden of Eatin" blue corn chips, but this goes great on chicken burgers as well.

Social networking for Foodies - Grouprecipes.com

As if there weren't already enough social networking sites out there, a new site has popped up that I had to try out, despite already having a MySpace site & profile that I sorely neglect. This new site, Grouprecipes.com is focused on connecting foodies to each other. The site is heavy on the web 2.0 stuff (tags, stumbles, groups, etc) but they do allow folks to upload their own recipes and swap info in a free-form fashion with each other as well as form sub groups around specific food topics. I've already set up a basic profile as well as joined the Southern Cooking and the Mexican groups. I haven't submitted any recipes yet, but have already started tagging and saving a few new things I'd like to try. I've also started feeding some of my favorite restaurants into the site with my personal reviews. Seems to still have a relatively low user base, but I'm curious to see if it takes off once the site is out of beta.

Gourmet Convenience

In an effort to do more cooking at home to stem our spiraling restaurant meal expenditures, I've been relying more on the type of convenience food products by which I make my living marketing to the masses. Here are a few highlights of things that have proven indispensable recently (none of which are manufactured by my employer):

Big Bags of Quick Frozen Chicken Breasts: My local Trader Joe's has great prices on bags of frozen chicken fillets. On Sunday or Monday night, I'll throw them in a bowl of cold water for about 30 minutes to thaw, drain and sprinkle them with kosher salt, fresh ground pepper and ancho chile powder and broil them on high for about 6 minutes per side. I throw them in the fridge and use them for quick protein boosts after my work-outs, chop them up to throw into tacos, pasta sauces and salads or whatever.

Boxed Risotto: I've discovered these delicious Lundberg Risotto mixes that cook up in about 20 minutes that are hearty and elegant enough to jazz up a simple oven roasted salmon or pan seared pork chops. Just toss up a simple spinach salad and you've got instant fine dining.

Stuffed Pasta: Somewhere during that Atkins/South Beach madness, I forgot how much I enjoyed a simple plate of refrigerated ravioli or tortellini finished with a nice chunky rustic tomato sauce or gorgeous pesto toss. I've rediscovered how easy it is to buy these vacuum packed boxes of filled pasta and keep them in the freezer for whatever, whenever. Again, Trader Joe's to the rescue for dinner tonight when I took some fire-roasted veggie stuffed ravioli from my freezer, boiled it up and tossed it with Trader Joe's jarred vodka sauce (studded with chunks of pre-cooked chicken breast). I accompanied it with some frozen french-style green beans with slivered almonds. Dinner took 15 minutes to cook up and went over very well.

Better Than Boullion: The blow-hard celebrity chefs and Alton Brown tell you "if you're going to use boullion, you might as well use water." Not true. My BF's mom turned me on to these refrigerated jarred concentrated paste-style bases that comes in chicken, beef and other proteins. Just a tablespoon of this stuff in a quart of boiling water opens up a world of fast gourmet possibilities from decadent rice to luxurious sauces. I don't waste my time with canned/boxed broth where there's always extra to throw out anymore.

I'm finding that by just putting the right things in my pantry and freezer, I'm able to throw together some fittingly high-end meals without letting my weekly grocery budget stretch into the triple digits. I get my new meal plan from my trainer soon, so we'll see how long this affordable trend lasts. The protein shakes are already chilling in the fridge . . .

3 days of Mexican

This was not planned, but I've just completed a three day Mexican series - sort-of . . .

Friday:
After the Of Montreal concert at First Avenue, my companions and I dropped in at the Chevy's "Fresh Mex"; downtown for Margaritas and snacks before braving the "Y'all Come Back Saloon" - a local institution that never ceases to be popular with the boys. I had eaten dinner earlier in the evening, so I ordered the "Guac My Way" which was promised to be a table-side fresh preparation of Guacamole just as I wanted it. The cheerfully flirtatious server bounded over with a tray of fresh avocados and various accoutrements so that he could try to match my taste preferences. I asked for it chunky, spicy, a touch garlicky and a some salt for good measure. To my horror, his bowls contained garlic powder, very sad looking chopped tomotoes and no salt to speak of. In the end, it ended up bland and tasteless despite his best intentions. After sucking down the 12oz "Blue Agave" margarita, I decided to forgive him and Chevy's for their transgressions. It was just confirmation that if I want a good bowl of Guac - My way - I have to make it myself.

Saturday:
In preparation for my Sunday dinner, we decided to drop by the Midtown Global Market to pick up some things that I didn't trust my local grocery store to carry in good quality (ripe plantains, Mexican queso fresco, and fresh tomatillos). We were pleasantly surprised to see how busy the stalls and shops were on a Saturday night. We opted to cap off our shopping with dinner at "A la Salsa"; - one of the few sit-down establishments in the market that has been getting rave reviews. I started the meal with the first of my 2for1 Mojitos which tasted much like the kind I get when I'm in Mexico or the Caribbean - light on the lime, balanced on the mint and sugar, and just enough rum to make it worth the while. We moved on to the first course of Tostones con Camarones where they took thick fried planks of plantains and topped them with perfectly grilled shrimp topped with this delicious spicy mango salsa. My main course, a Pollo en Mole Poblano - a delicious quarter chicken covered in a rich, ever so slightly sweet mole sauce with two savory tamales on the side - was a delicious exercise in simple complexity. I love a good mole poblano that can balance out the sweet, the chocolate, and the various spices to make it a brain-tingling experience. The A la Salsa folks did not disappoint.

Sunday:
I cooked for us tonight and reached for my friend Rick Bayless for inspiration. I live and die by his "Mexican Everyday"; cookbook so I picked two recipes for this meal: Gulf Coast Rice Pilaf with black beans and plantains supporting Spinach/Mushroom Enchiladas in Salsa Verde. While the pilaf was very good, the enchiladas again stole the show. The sauce is a simple mixture of fresh tomatillos, garlic and jalapeno chilies reduced and then balanced with some stock and crème fraiche. Although the assembly is messy (you dip the tortillas in the sauce, roll in the filling and serve, rather than rolling in the fillings, saucing and baking before serving) the result is fresh, fragrant and intoxicating. I paired this meal with a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon that I opened yesterday, but kept fresh in my newly refurbished "Pek Supremo" wine preservation system. More on that in a future update.

Wide Mouth Kitchen Aid / Big Mouth Turk-Mex Burger & softening those hard buns

I had a notion of experimenting with creating a Mexican inspired turkey burger for dinner Wednesday night. Here's what I threw together:

1 lb Ground Turkey
1 Jalapeno Chile (seeded & quartered)
1/2 Yellow Onion
3 cloves of peeled garlic
Ancho Chile Powder
Chopped Cilantro
Kosher Salt

To get the seasoning particulates preped to go into the meat, I wanted to inaugerate my brand new Kitchen Aid Wide Mouth 12 Cup Food processor. I had been lusting after this thing for months but could not justify replacing my current relatively new and functioning Cuisinart food processor/blender with a $270+ appliance. Luckily, my Mom (God bless her soul) recently sent me a Christmas gift (yes, it's March) of a Giveanything.com gift certificate for $100. The merchants on "Giveanything" are divided into categories like "Stores you know" and then there is everything else. I found a deal on my mixer at a place called efendos.com (clearly not a "store you know") Despite being a tragically ugly site, they offered a great deal on the processor I want. After my gift certificate, and the $20 rebate, I barely spent $80 bucks on a new, quieter and uber sexy food processor - did I mention this thing has 3 different integrated work bowls, the biggest feed tube in its class and a handy accessory case to keep it all organized? Heavenly . . . . back to the food.

Anyway, I threw everything but the meat into the mini bowl of the processor and chopped it finely, added it to the meat and made up 4 thick patties. While those were under the broiler, I reached into the cabinet for the Brioche Buns I had bought at Trader Joe's on Sunday. To my horror, they were hard as rocks. Yelling my dismay to my BF in the next room, I had him Google up a solution for our hard buns. Here's what we did:

Brush top of buns with cold water
Wrap tightly in Aluminum foil
Heat at 300 Degrees for 10 minutes

Woila! Dinner was saved. The BF loved the flavors in the burgers. I found the onion and garlic too overpowering so I suggest you turn those down (1/4 onion, 1 - 2 cloves garlic per Lb of Turkey max) and plus up the salt a touch. Further, even though we were able to resucitate the buns, it's best to freeze the devils until the day you need 'em to get the best flavor and texture.