Appetizer in a box

In our never ending quest for a quick fix for dinner, Boogie found a new little treat for us in the Kroger freezer case, Mussels in Garlic Butter Sauce from Bantry Bay Seafood, an Irish mussel producer. The 1 pound package was on sale for $2.99 and I figured, "how bad could it be?".

All 3 of us love mussels, but have only had them out, at restaurants and wedding parties. Yes, I know they're quite easy to prepare, and I have a great recipe for "mussels prodotto" that I saw Lidia Matticchio Bastianich make on a cooking show on PBS a few months ago. I think it is from her book, Lidia's Family Table. I also just stumbled on "Tapas of Mussels" on The 64 Sq Ft Kitchen blog. I will try them both soon.

In the mean time and until I have the patience to do it myself, the Bantry Bay frozen mussels weren't bad at all!

We fixed them as an appetizer a few nights after we bought them . They cooked up quite easily and we were very happy with the taste.

To prepare them, the sealed package is opened and dumped into a large saucepan:

After heating on high for about 4 minutes and simmering for another 2-3 minutes,
I just transfered them to a big bowl and sat them in front of the family.

The mussels were sweet and tender and the sauce was good, not too bold, not really bold enough, but pleasant. It wasn't anywhere near the heavenly broth my table was fighting over at the Scottsdale, Arizona "Bobby's, A Mancuso Restaurant" back in August, 2006, but it wasn't bad at all, and certainly worth the effort of scooping up and slurping from an empty mussel shell.

The package went quickly that night, and we've since tried the "Tomato and Garlic Sauce" variety. Boogie really preferred them over the garlic and butter, but he was out voted 2-to-1 on our last shopping excursion (still $2.99).

Better luck next time , Boog...

Enjoy,
Lorence

Garlic Lemon Shrimp Pasta

Yeah, let's hit all the good stuff at once - garlic, shrimp, pasta, and lemon all living in perfect harmony and with one goal in life: to make me happy.
This recipe is based on one of those old recipe cards I got from First Magazine years ago (early 1990's?). I haven't made it in a while, but I pulled it out last week when I was pressed for time. I always have a pound of shrimp in the freezer for emergencies, and I'd just been to the store and found some nice lemons at a decent price (for February), so I was all set (garlic is, of course, a staple...).

I usually use a thin spaghetti, and until recently my preffered pasta was Barilla Linguini Rigate. I can't seem to find it anymore and it's no longer mentioned on their web site. I've had to settle for their Spaghetti Rigati, which works ok , but it's a bit heavier than I like for this dish, although I think angel hair would be too thin. Such a delicate balance..

It's a pretty simple and quick recipe, and tastes even better as leftovers.

Ingredients:
½ pound spaghetti
3 large cloves of garlic, crushed, then minced
¼ cup of olive oil
2 Tablespoons of butter
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest (I used the zest from ½ large lemon)
2 teaspoons of fresh lemon juice (I used the juice from ½ large lemon, the same ½ that I got the zest from)
¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped

Directions:
Cook the pasta per package directions.
While the pasta is cooking, heat the oil and butter over medium heat in a large sauté pan.
Add the minced garlic and cook for about a minute.
Add the shrimp and cook until pinked through; that should only take a couple of minutes.
Add the parsley, lemon zest and lemon juice and toss well.
Be sure to time the finshing of the shrimp with the finishing of the pasta.
Drain the pasta and toss the drained pasta into the sauté pan of shrimp and garlic sauce, blending it well with the shrimp/garlic sauce.
Serve with a finish of a bit fine salt and fresh ground pepper, garnish with some thin lemon slices if you're into that sort of thing.

Sorry, no photo this time - too hungry.

Enjoy,
Lorence

I Made Butter! Sweet Cream Butter!

Today, I came across a very nice website called Indian Food Rocks, and on one of the pages there was a very nice entry on making Homemade Sweet Cream Butter. I read it and couldn't believe it could possibly be that simple to make fresh homemade butter. I decided to stop on the way home, pick up some heavy whipping cream and make some to have with dinner (Classic Stuffed Green Pappers).

IFR has a great description and some fabulous photos of the process. After getting the peppers into the water to parboil, I started the butter process. I didn't have a jar to put it in, so I used a 2 cup Rubbermaid container that I knew would seal tightly, then started shaking. And shaking. And shaking, shaking, shaking, shaking, shaking, shaking, shaking, shaking...I shook it alot, for about 15 minutes. At one point towards the end of the shaking, it seemed like there was just a solid mass in the container and nothing was moving around, so I shook it REALLY hard for a minute and all of a sudden the solid seperated out from the liquid and I had butter. Real butter. couldn't belive it - it really was that simple!

Here's the start: and the end product:
Ready for the table:


And here's how you can do it:

Pour about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream into a container that will seal tightly and not come loose even with vigorous shaking.
Close the lid (make sure it is sealed well!) and shake the bejesus out of it for a good 10 minutes. When I was shaking it, I was getting 300+ shakes per minute. After about 10 minutes, you will notice that the cream isn't moving very well inside the container. Don't worry, you're almost there, just shake harder. HARDER DAMN IT, HARDER! When it looks like there's a solid mass in the bottom of the container and just a bunch of milk sloshing around it, it's probably done. Wait... Shake it some more! Ok, now it's done. Pour off the liquid (buttermilk! You can save it to bake with, or make curry with or just drink). Put the butter into a container for use.
I refrigerated mine until the peppers were ready and we spread it on some store bought crusty bread. Mmmmmm....

since there are no presevratives at all in this, it won't keep long, but if you find it as yummy as we did, it won't be around long enough to worry about.

Enjoy,
Lorence

Chicken Breasts with Tomato Butter

I knew I was going to have to make something quick last night since we were heading to my son's school Christmas show, so I dug this recipe out a couple of nights ago for the small bit of night-before prep it requires. That prep is simply making a sweetly pungent tomato butter that tops a simple sauteed chicken breast. The dish itself was a fast cook, since all that's done is just pan sauteeing the chicken until done. The seasoned flour on the chicken makes for a nice thin yet crispy crust. The R.O.I. on that little prep was huge!

Chicken Breasts with Tomato Butter
The Ingredients::
4 Table spoons of butter at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon of finely minced garlic
1 teaspoon of tomato paste
1 teaspoon of chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup of flour
Salt and pepper
4 boneless, skinless thicken breasts
(try not to get the monstrously large., hormone laden type - they're too thick to be pan sautéed).
2 Tablespoons of olive oil

The Directions:
Combine 3 Tablespoons of the butter with the garlic, tomato paste and parsley.
Scrape the mixture onto a piece of plastic wrap and use the wrap to help form the butter into a cylinder. Wrap the cylinder tightly and chill.
Combine flour, ½ tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. pepper.
Dredge the chicken in the flour mixture.
In a large frying pan, melt remaining 1 Tablespoon of butter in the olive oil over medium-high heat.
Add the chicken and reduce the heat to medium.
Cook, turning once, until chicken is just done, about 10 minutes.
Serve immediately, topping the hot chicken with slices of the butter.

some variations to explore:
For the butter:
=Use Shallots instead of garlic
=Use sun-dried tomoato instead of tomato paste
=Add chopped black olives to the butter
=Substitute fresh basil for the parsley

For the chicken: (don't do too much here...the chicken should be kept simple)
=Add some cayenne tot he dredging flour for a bit of extra kick
=Try Penzey's Shallot Salt inthe dredging flour instead of your usual salt

This recipe came from "First for Women" magazine, sometime in the early-mid1990's. I have several recipes from this magazine but I can't find a single one online. I'll post a few more as I make them.

Enjoy!
Lorence