Bon Appétit, Mes Amis (original) (raw)

I made this for dinner last night with my mother. Alfredo's one of those things that's so easy to make, but we only do it a couple times a year. This is in no way a light dish, let's be clear. The key is to leave the sauce alone, with minimal stirring, so the cream can thicken.

INGREDIENTS
Pasta
1 stick butter
10 cloves garlic, minced (with 1 tbsp. reserved)
2 c. heavy cream
1 - 1 1/2 lb. raw shrimp, shelled and deveined
1 - 1 1/2 lb. mushrooms, rough chopped
1 c. shredded Parmesan, plus more for the table
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Lemon zest (optional)
Parsley, minced (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. Set your pasta water to boil with a healthy pinch of salt and cook the pasta by package directions throughout this process. It should be ready in the strainer just a few minutes before everything else.

2. Melt the stick of butter on medium-high and add all but the 1 tbsp. of garlic. Saute until fragrant, about 30 seconds, then add the cream and stir to combine. Let that come to a simmer and stir only occasionally while the cream thickens.

3. Melt about 1 tbsp. of butter or fat of your choice in another pan on medium-high heat. Add the remaining garlic and saute for about 30 seconds. Add your mushrooms and saute until done, about 5 - 8 minutes. They may release a lot of liquid; you want to cook this down.

4. Check your sauce. It's thick enough when you can coat the back of a spoon easily and it's noticeably lost moisture. Take it off the heat and add your Parmesan, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine.

5. Add the shrimp to the mushrooms. It may take longer, depending on how big your shrimp are. Mine were huge so it took about 3 - 5 minutes to cook them.

6. Take the shrimp mixture off the heat. Pour your sauce into the shrimp and mix well.

7. Shake out your pasta and put it in a large pasta bowl. Pour the sauce-shrimp mixture on top and toss to combine. Now would be the time to garnish with the zest or parsley.

I used Trader Joe's lemon pepper pappardelle and it was fantastic. The shrimp were huge tiger shrimp from Costco, but you can use whatever. I used chanterelles, which are both hard to find and expensive, so use whatever. I suggest oyster mushrooms as a substitution.

• Current Mood: tired

My friends and I made this for dinner the other night and it was fantastic. Risotto doesn't have to be stirred constantly like most chefs claim; the key is to make sure it never dries out too much without babying it so much that you delay the absorption.

INGREDIENTS
1 lb. sweet Italian sausage, casings removed
1 medium onion, medium dice
8 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp. fresh thyme
3 bell peppers, medium dice
1 lb. crimini mushrooms, destemmed and quartered
1 lb. asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1" pieces, blanched
2 tbsp. fresh sage, minced
2 c. arborio rice
4 c. chicken stock
1 bottle of white wine
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Dollop or two of cold heavy cream
1 c. grated Parmesan
3 tbsp. flat leaf parsley, minced

DIRECTIONS
1. Brown the sausage and break it up in the pan until it's mostly cooked through. Remove from pan and reserve some of the fat for cooking.

2. Saute onions over medium-high heat until translucent. Add garlic and sautee for about 1 minute. Add thyme and bell peppers. Continue sauteeing for about 3 minutes.

3. Add mushrooms. Sautee for about 5 minutes. Take this time to heat your chicken stock on the stove so it's steaming but not boiling. Add the asparagus and sage and stir to combined.

4. Add the rice and stir until it's well distributed. Sautee for about 2 minutes. Begin adding stock, one ladle at a time, and letting it absorb in between. Stir occasionally. After every 2 ladles, add 1/4 - 1/2 c. wine.

5. Continue this process until all liquid is absorbed, after about 20 minutes, begin checking the rice for doneness. Risotto should have no bite to the texture at all, it should be completely soft and it may take some time. If you don't need all the liquid, that's fine. If you use all the wine and stock and still need more liquid, get more stock or move on to water.

6. Once the risotto is finished, take it off the heat and add the rest of the ingredients. The cream stops it from cooking and adds to the creaminess. Serve.

The wine we used was a $3 bottle of Charles Shaw Pinot Grigio from Trader Joe's. It's actually quite good, even to drink, and excellent for cooking.

• Current Mood: accomplished

This is in progress right now, so I'll update with my opinion on how it turned out later, and maybe, you know, refine it into an actual recipe. But it's actually something that has happened at my hand, for a change from my recent posts!

3 yukon gold potatoes
3 carrots
1 fennel bulb
1 whole chicken
~1/4 c. honey
1 blue moon winter abbey ale
s&p

Halved and quartered the potatoes, sliced carrots on the bias, sliced the fennel. Discarded chicken innards, save for the neck. Salted and peppered the chicken. Placed half the fennel inside the chicken, and the remainder of veggies in crock pot, in order listed. Leaned the neck on the side wall of the crock pot. Placed chicken on top of the bed of veggies. Set crock pot to high, dumped honey rather unceremoniously over the bird, trying to cover it somewhat evenly, lidded it, walked away. Two hours later, dumped the beer over the chicken. Marvelled at how raw it all still looked. Walked away again.

Ingredients

Crust
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
½ cup butter, melted
¼ cup granulated sugar
Cheesecake
1 cup heavy cream
16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 (6 ounce) can frozen orange juice
1 can sweetened condensed milk
Garnish
½ cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
*Optional, fresh berries

Directions

Crust
Mix together the graham crumbs, sugar and butter and press into an 8 or 9 inch pie plate. Set aside.
Cheesecake
Chill the bowl of a stand mixer and the whisk attachment in the freezer for 10 minutes. Remove from the freezer, pour in the heavy cream and whip about one minute until stiff peaks form.
In a large bowl, using a hand or stand mixer, mix together cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk and orange juice. Fold in the whipping cream.
Pour into the pie crust and chill for at least one hour.
Garnish
Chill the bowl in the freezer for 10 minutes.
Remove from the freezer and add heavy cream, sugar and
vanilla. Whisk on high speed until medium peaks form, about one minute.
Spoon a dollop of whipped cream and fresh fruit onto each serving.

i decided to add a humor post, since it's food-related and because basically i've been using this journal as a place to dump recipes from cookbooks i'm probably going to offload, or at least get them somewhere else *visible* so i might actually *make* them. ;) so, to break that up a bit:

from The Natural Healing Cookbook by Mark Bricklin and Sharon Claessens

Clove Tea

Makes one serving

3-4 whole cloves
1 c. water

Before preparing your favorite herbal tea, flavor the water with cloves.

Place the cloves in the water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil. Remove cloves, then prepare tea as usual.

Variation: Add a cinnamon stick, or substitute one for the cloves.

Warm Golden Milk

Makes two servings

1/4 t. (6mL) turmeric
4 whole cardamom seeds
1/2 c. (125 mL) water
1 c. (250 mL) whole milk
honey

A sophisticated, deeply soothing nightcap.

Boil turmeric and cardamom seeds in water in a small saucepan for eight minutes. Meanwhile, in antoher pan, bring milk just to the boiling point; turn off heat. Add turmeric mixture, remove cardamom seeds, and serve with honey to taste.

from Kidney Health Gourmet by Nina Kolbe

2 c. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked
1/2 c. green onions, chopped
2 oz. jalapeno Monterey Jack cheese, coarsely shredded, divided
2 T Parmesan cheese, grated
1 t. chili powder
black pepper to taste

3/4 c. milk
1/4 c. fresh cilantro
8 oz salsa verde
10 corn tortillas
cooking spray

Preheat oven to 375F.

Combine chicken, green onion, Jack and Parmesan cheeses, chili powder, and pepper in a bowl.

Place milk, cilantro, and salsa verde in a food processor or blender and process until smooth.

Wrap tortillas in a paper towel and microwave 1 minute until soft and warm.

Grease an 11x7" baking dish; pour 1/3 salsa verde mixture into bottom of dish. Arrange 4 corn tortillas in dish and top with half the chicken mixture. Repeat layer with remaining tortillas and chicken mixture, ending with a layer of tortillas.

Pour remaining salsa verde mixture over the tortillas and sprinkle witht he remaining 1/4 c. Jack cheese.

Bake at 375F until bubbly.

Serves 4.

per serving (prepared with lowfat milk): 311 calories, 32g carbohydrates, 24g protein, 9g fat, 350mg sodium, 295mg potassium, 430mg phosphorus

from Kidney Health Gourmet by Nina Kolbe

1/2 # ground turkey
1 c. onion, chopped
2 t. oregano, ground
2 t. cumin, ground
3 @ garlic cloves, minced
1/4 t. black pepper
8 oz. canned refried beans

8 oz. whole green chiles, drained and cut lengthwise into quarters, divided
4 oz. monterey jack cheese
1 c. corn, fresh or frozen
1/3 c. flour
1-1/3 c. milk
2 @ eggs, lightly beaten
2 @ egg whites, lightly beaten
hot sauce, to taste

green onions & fresh cilantro to garnish

Preheat the oven to 350F, cook ground turkey and onion in a nonstick skillet over medium heat until browned, stirring to crumble. Remove from heat. Add cumin, garlic, pepper, and beans. Stir well and set aside.

Arrange half of the green chiles in an 11x17" baking dish. Top with half the cheese. Spoon mounds of turkey mixture over the cheese gently, leaving a 1/4" border around the edge of the dish. Top with corn. Arrange remaining green chiles over corn and top with the remainder of the cheese.

Put flour into a bowl. Gradually add milk, hot sauce, eggs, and egg whites, stirring with a whisk until blended. Pour over casserole.

Bake at 350F for 65 minutes, until set. :et stand 5 minutes, garnish with green onions and fresh cilantro. Serves 6.

per serving (prepared with skim milk): 334 calories, 39g carbohydrates, 12g fat, 19g protein, 309g sodium, 327mg phosphorus, 462mg potassium.

from Kidney Health Gourmet by Nina Kolbe

1 c. sour cream
1/2 c. basil pesto
3 T grated parmesan cheese

Combine all the ingredients and mix well to blend. Chill, serve with raw vegetables.

per 1 T serving: 33 calories, 4g fat, 9mg sodium, 9mg phosphorous, 22mg potassium