Archive for the ‘Seafood’ Category

Shrimp and Pine Nut Pasta

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

 

Every month the newest issue of Cooking Light comes out I get very excited.  As I have mentioned before my issue gets delivered to my mom’s house in the states so I can only get it when I go down for a visit.  I have a ritual when I comes to reading this magazine which entails flipping through the magazine quickly glancing at all the recipes and articles.  The second time through the magazine I look at all of the recipes and starting thinking about the ones I want to make.  My third pass through the magazine involves reading all of the articles that I previously skipped over. 

My favourite part about this magazine is that after I have made my three passes through the magazine and decided the ones I am going to make the upcoming week I put it on the shelf with the rest of them and wait for the day I come back to it for inspiration.  Some weeks I don’t make anything from Cooking Light and other weeks I am a crazy person and make 2 or 3 recipes.

The recipe I was inspired by this time was for Shrimp and Pine Nut Pasta from the October 09 issues.  I am always looking for recipes that have protein besides chicken and beef.  Growing up in the Pacific Northwest and than moving to the West Coast of Canada I have always lived near the sea and therefore have grown to love seafood.  This dish caught my attention because of it’s simplicity, I could just tell it was going to be a wonderful dish.

This dish will not disappoint you and I really recommend trying it out.  I look forward to taking this dish and added a bit of myself to it.

Shrimp and Pine Nut Pasta

Courtesy of Cooking Light

8 ounces uncooked spaghetti

12 ounces peeled and deveined shrimp

2 tablespoons pine nuts

1 cup skim milk, divided

1 tablespoon flour

1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/2 cup grated fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese

1/3 cup chopped fresh basil

1/4 cup torn fresh basil leaves

Bring 4 quarts water to a boil in a large saucepan. Add pasta; cook 7 minutes. Add shrimp to pan; cook 3 minutes or until shrimp are done and pasta is al dente. Drain; keep warm.

While pasta cooks, heat a small nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add nuts to pan; cook 2 minutes or until lightly browned.

Combine 1/2 cup milk and flour in a large saucepan, stirring with a whisk until well blended. Place pan over medium heat; gradually stir in remaining 1/2 cup milk. Stir in mustard and nutmeg. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium-low, and cook 5 minutes or until mixture begins to thicken, stirring constantly. Stir in salt and pepper; cook 1 minute. Add drained pasta mixture, cheese, and chopped basil, tossing gently to combine. Sprinkle with nuts and torn basil.

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Posted in Pasta, Seafood |

Long Overdue Sushi Making

Sunday, December 20th, 2009

First Sushi RollMaking SushiFinished Sushi Roll

I do have to confess something about this post, it is a bit overdue.  We made sushi back in July!  I have had every intention of writing about it but one thing or another kept me from doing it, mostly out of laziness.  I have had the pictures in my inbox for the entire time saying to myself as long as I keep them in plain sight then I will eventually write the post.

I am happy to say I am finally writing the post.

Sushi is a food that my love for it comes and goes.  For many years I enjoyed it and then I got to the point where although I didn’t hate it I felt like I could only have a couple pieces before I was done.  Well I am back to a love of sushi and thought it was about time to make my own.

Sean and I have some wonderful friends in Qualicum Beach who are gracious enough to give us their daughter Amy’s room whenever we want to come visit, which is not nearly often enough.  We have been hearing for year’s about Erik’s homemade sushi and with my renewed love of sushi we decided to get all the makings and roll ourselves some sushi.

What I loved about this whole process was that Erik and Danielle got all the different ingredients together and then we just went about creating any sort of roll we wanted.  We had tuna, avocado, cream cheese, salmon, crab, cucumber and some spicy sauce.

Erik explained the importance of good sushi rice and the whole process that goes into it, little did I know that the rice was so important.  He then showed us the basics of rolling both with rice on the inside and on the outside and then we were creating our sushi.

Sushi towerSushi Tower 3Sushi tower 2

As we made our tower of sushi I thought that there was no way we were going to be able to eat all that food.  Little did I know that Amy and Lydia, Erik and Danielle’s daughters, were such huge sushi fans and that when challenged Sean and Erik will egg eachother on until they have stuffed themselves sick.  Thanks to these two things we finished all the sushi and were ready for a bit of a nap.

We had a wonderful visit with the Weisner family and hopefully there are many more sushi visits in our future.

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Posted in Seafood |

Red Pepper and Shrimp Risotto

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

Shrimp Risotto

After a successful first attempt at risotto I was excited to experiment with other varieties of this great dish.  I just wasn’t sure how to incorporate different ingredients but still getting that creamy taste of the risotto.  I figured that shrimp would go nicely with the risotto and so now it was just a matter of figuring out the rest of the elements to the dish.

A few months ago after picking up Giada De Laurentiis’ Everyday Italian cookbook I made roasted red peppers for the first time.  They were very easy and give a great taste to any dish, I figured they would go nicely with the shrimp.  Just adding some chopped onion and a little garlic I was ready to make the risotto.

Since I was going to be cooking with shrimp I decided that vegetable broth was going to be a better fit than chicken broth, it worked out wonderfully.  My second attempt at risotto, complete with an entirely improvised recipe, turned out great.  The only thing I might do differently next time would be to add the shrimp at the very end to keep from over cooking.

Now that I am slightly obsessed with risotto I hope to keep finding different things to mix with it.  Each time I make it I will find the elements that work and those that don’t while at the same time building my confidence in improvising.  It is always fun trying new things.

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Posted in Seafood |