Marinated Grilled Shrimp

These shrimp were amazing! I do not have a picture but I had to blog the recipe anyways. My mom tried this recipe and the shrimp tasted like they were from Outback! You have to try this wonderful recipe.

Ingredients:
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup olive oil
¼ cup tomato sauce
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
2 pounds fresh shrimp, peeled & de-veined

How to:
In a large bowl, stir together the garlic, olive oil, tomato sauce, and
Red wine vinegar. Season with the basil, salt, & cayenne pepper. Add
Shrimp to bowl and stir until evenly coated. Cover and refrigerate for
30 minutes to 1 hour….stirring once or twice.

Thread the shrimp onto the skewers, piercing near tail and near head. Discard remaining marinade.

Lightly oil grate. Cook shrimp on preheated grill for 2 to 3 minutes per side.

I suggest a big piece of garlic bread and a nice juicy steak to go along with this wonderful shrimp fish.

Lobster and Shrimp Bisque

I bought a lobster tail at Publix because they were on sale. I wanted to make sure I cooked it before it went bad, and this is what I ended up with.

I searched different recipes for a lobster bisque and then looked at what was in my fridge. I didn't have celery like most seafood bisques start with, so I used carrot instead. I didn't have old bay or Creole seasoning, so I used a combination of my favorite spices that I thought would work: salt, pepper, bay leaf, paprika, thyme, Cayenne pepper, and fresh parsley.

So here is the recipe that I came up with.

Ingredients:

1 small onion, minced

1 large elephant garlic clove, minced

1 1/2 cup carrot minced (I used carrot strips you get for salad and whizzed in the food processor)

4 tablespoons of butter

1/3 cub all-purpose flour

3 cups chicken stock

2 cubs milk

3 lobster tails, steamed and meat cut into pieces (I only had one tail this time around)

1/2 pound of shrimp, steamed and meat cut into pieces

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon of paprika

1 teaspoon of Cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon of dried thyme

salt and pepper to taste

parsley for garnish, and to make the flavors pop

Also, Parmesan cheese for topping (everything tastes better with a little cheese)

What I did:

Start by steaming the shrimp and lobster tail until pink and done. Before close lid on steamer make sure to salt and pepper them, and squeeze some lemon juice on top; I also threw the half lemon wedge into the boiling water of my steamer to infuse some more lemon flavor. I used frozen shrimp; you can take them right out of the bag and steam them.

Once steamed just cut the seafood into chunks and set aside.

Start a large pot on stove over medium heat. Melt the butter. Add the garlic, onion, and carrot and cook for 5 minutes. Then add the flour and cook for 2 more minutes. This will make the rue that will thicken the bisque.

Add the chicken stock and bay leaf and whisk everything together to get the lumps out and let cook for 10 minutes. The bisque will thicken considerably; should coat the spoon after cooking.

Then add the seafood, milk, and all the seasonings. Let cook for another 10 minutes.

If soup starts to boil some after you add the milk and other ingredients just turn down the heat and get to a nice simmer; don't want to kill the bisque.

It took a couple of pinches of salt to get the blandness out, and once I added the thyme into the mix this soup tasted really good. I wish I had bought more lobster tails to put into the soup. I would definitely recommend 3 lobster tails, because they shrink when steamed.

Once the soup is done I chopped some fresh parsley and added to the bisque. I ladled some in my bowl and topped with a little shredded Parmesan cheese. I also had a sweet biscuit left over from when my grandma came down from Kentucky last week; she made her famous biscuits for breakfast that Sunday and it was fantastic. The sweet biscuit with the hot seafood bisque was really good together.

All in all, this nights supper wasn't too bad; and note to self: buy a better camera so you can see the food the way I see it.

Memorial Day Grill Out

This memorial day my family and I grilled everything you can imagine. The main dishes were jumbo shrimp with a jalapeno-toasted garlic vinaigrette and skirt steak kabobs with red chili paste and Teriyaki glaze. For the side dishes we had a mixed grill of vegetables, including: zucchini, yellow squash, Brussel sprouts, romaine lettuce, scallions, and portabella mushrooms.

The grilled shrimp with vinaigrette idea came from a Bobby Flay recipe from FoodNetwork.com. Bobby used prawns and habanero's, but we used jumbo shrimp and jalapenos.

Here is the recipe for the shrimp vinaigrette:




Ingredients:
1 tablespoon canola oil, plus 1/2 cup
6 whole cloves garlic, peeled
salt
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 to 1 1/2 jalapenos, seeded and chopped
2 teaspoons honey.

What to do:
Pour the tablespoon of oil into a skillet over medium high heat and saute the whole garlic cloves until golden brown on all sides. Then add the browned garlic and all other ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth.

We greased up the shrimp with olive oil and topped with salt and pepper, lemon juice and fresh chopped parsley. We grilled the shrimp until tender and juicy. Top the shrimp with the vinaigrette and get ready for a tasty extravaganza.


For the beef:
Ingredients:
Skirt steak

chili paste

Teriyaki sauce

Worcestershire sauce

grill seasoning

What to do:

Marinate the skirt steak rubbed in chili paste, Worcestershire sauce, and grill seasoning for at least 30 minutes. After marinating, cut into strips. Fold each strip over to conserve some of the marinade inside the fold, and then skewer with a wooden kabob soaked for at least 30 minutes in water.

Grill the meat kabobs until fully cooked and then sprinkle teriyaki sauce on top.

For the mixed veggi-grill:

List of veggi's:

zucchini, sliced into wedges

yellow squash, sliced into wedges

Brussel sprouts, cut into halves

romaine lettuce, whole leaves

scallions, and

portabella mushrooms, sliced

What to do:

Spread out all veggi's except the mushrooms onto a sheet pan and coat with extra virgin olive oil. Then sprinkle with salt and fresh cracked pepper (it really makes a difference). Add the zest of a lemon onto all of the veggies followed by the juice of the lemon. Finally sprinkle on some chopped parsley.

For the mushrooms coat with extra virgin olive oil and Worcestershire sauce. Then sprinkle with salt, pepper, and fresh chopped parsley.

After everything is seasoned throw all the veggies except the lettuce on the grill. Make sure to get char marks on all the veggies as this adds tremendous flavor! I don't think I could eat Brussel sprouts any other way. After the veggies you can wilt the lettuce on the grill.I hope you try this mixed grill feast!

Shrimp Marinara

This is a family favorite recipe. My mom wanted a different kind of pasta. She was watching Robin Miller on food network and came across this recipe.

The crushed red peppers add such a kick of heat, and the shrimp after simmering in this simple sauce just pop with flavor in your mouth.

What we use:

1 pound spaghetti noodles
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 shallots (sometimes you can get already minced shallots in a little jar in grocery store!)
2 cloves garlic (sometimes you can get already minced garlic too!)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce
1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined

What we did:

Cook the pasta in some boiling water for 7-10 minutes; drain and leave in pot until sauce is ready.
In a skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat.
Add shallots and garlic to skillet and saute for 1 minute.
Add oregano, basil and red pepper flakes and stir to coat.
Add the diced tomatoes and tomato sauce and bring mixture to a boil.
Reduce heat, cover and simmer 10 minutes.
To the simmering sauce, add shrimp, cover skillet and simmer for 2 minutes, until shrimp are bright pink and cooked through.
Pour sauce over spaghetti.

This goes great with parmesan cheese grated over top! I even shave thin slices right on the plate, then add the pasta and sauce over that. Then by the time you get to the bottom of the plate you have a nice melted surprise of cheese on bottom.
And don't forget the garlic bread... enjoy!

Christmas Dinner 2007

This was our Christmas dinner for 2007. Our tradition is to be non-traditional, so we never have turkey. By the time Christmas rolls around we are turkey'd out.

This year we had Christmas Crab. Kroger had a special on Alaskan king crab. Each leg you see in the picture is a pound of crab. We each got one leg a piece. Above is my mom's plate, and we used kitchen shears to crack open the leg meat, which you see in one huge piece in the top right photo.

We also grilled large shrimp and scallops, and I made garlic spinach.

Crab Legs:

Ingredients:
4 Alaskan king crab legs
1 bag of crab boil
Large pot full of water

How we prepared it:
To prepare the crab legs we got a huge pot of water to almost boiling, and then we threw in the crab boil bag, which you can find around the fish section of any grocery store. Once the water was colored with the crab boil we put the crab legs in. They were in the water at least 20 minutes, at least 5 or more of those minutes were spent at a rolling boil. The legs come out bright red, and if you look at the knuckle meat you can tell if it is done.

Garlic spinach:

Ingredients:
2 bags of spinach
4 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon (one big pinch) of crushed red pepper flakes
2-3 tablespoons of light or extra virgin olive oil

How we prepared it:
The garlic spinach was easy to prepare. In a large skillet with deep sides you pour light or extra virgin olive oil two times around the pan. We chopped the garlic and threw that in the oil over medium high heat. We then added the crushed red pepper flakes. We let those flavors meld until the garlic start to turn a little brown, and then we added 1 bag of the washed and dried spinach.
Cover the skillet with a lid and let it wilt some, then with tongs just start tossing the spinach in the garlic oil until everything is coated; this helps the spinach wilt.
When that spinach is wilted add the other bag of spinach and do the same until all the spinach is wilted.
If there is any access water at the bottom of the skillet I usually pour the spinach into a colander to drain it off; nothing worse than watery spinach.

Shrimp and Scallops:

Ingredients:
4 large shrimp
4 large scallops
Lemon juice
Old bay seasoning

How we prepared it:
Cut the large scallops in half.
Squeeze lemon juice over all the seafood and then sprinkle on the old bay seasoning.
Flip and sprinkle some more seasoning.
Then grill the seafood until shrimp is pink and scallops are firm.

That was our Christmas dinner. We also had some baked potatoes and garlic bread, although I don't really remember eating too much of that. Hope you try this seafood feast with your family.