What Did You Eat?

PPN: Linquine With Smoked Clams And Spinach

Ever since I became anemic, every meal I prepare is vetted to make sure it contains a lot of iron.  I take iron supplements twice a day, but I've always believed that vitamins and minerals are best for your body if consumed in food.   I was surprised to learn that mollusks are one of the highest sources of iron, beating out liver and beef.  This was a happy discovery because I love clams, oysters, and mussels.  Too bad I can't get my hands on cockles, they may be the highest iron source of all.  The fact is, I've never seen a cockle in my entire life, but  like most kids, I learned about them from the folk song Molly Malone.

I've long enjoyed eating smoked oysters, mussels, and clams.  So, this recipe seemed like it would taste very good, plus it contains the requisite high levels of iron from the smoked clams and spinach.  It was delicious and took barely ten minutes to prepare.

Scallops With Edamame Salad And Puree

I usually have a bag of edamame in the freezer.  I love the taste and they take only three minutes to cook.  This dish uses a 16 ounce bag to make both a salad and puree.   Combined together, they provide a good contrast in textures, smooth and crunchy.  I topped the puree with pan grilled scallops, but salmon would taste good as well.  You could also substitute fava beans or sweet peas, if you prefer.  I enjoyed this dish. It looks like spring to me, which exerts a strong influence on me lately.  In two weeks, it will officially be spring.  I can hardly wait.

PPN: Prawns And Coconut Laksa With Vermicelli

This is one of those recipes that can be very hot, or mild, depending on how many chilies you add.  I'm feeling quite pro-chili right now. My sciatica acted up recently, making it unpleasant to sit or lie down.  If I do either, a searing pain flashes in my hips when I walk, accompanied by me yelling a long string of obscenities.  However, my foul mouth has been silenced (for now).  I used a capsicum patch last night, containing capsaicin, the chemical found in chili peppers that causes the burning sensation when you eat the hot varieties.  When applied topically, capsaicin overwhelms neurons , making them unable to report pain for an extended period of time. It doesn't work on every type of neuron, but the capsicum patch vanquished my pain all night long.  Yes, it felt like a hot heating pad was strapped to my back, but better that than a sciatic nerve making sleep impossible.  I've always loved chilies, but now they've assumed superhero status for me.

Presto Pasta Night: 5 Minute Udon Soup

It's damp and cold here, with a steady drone of rain day after day.  The supersaturated ground feels like pudding, sucking at my shoes when I go outside.   And my sinuses decided to join in the fun, mimicking the rain outside.  Thank God for jiffy udon soup.  It cooks in two minutes, and easily accommodates leftover odds and ends of food.  Here's a great place to use up the lonely veggies, scraps of meat, tofu, or seafood languishing in the fridge.  In this case, I garnished it with shrimp, snow peas, shredded spinach, and scallions. 

This is my submission to Presto Pasta Night, which was started by the wonderful Ruth at Once Upon A Feast. Each Friday Ruth has a recap of wonderful pasta recipes from bloggers from all over the world.  So, do stop by and check it out.

PPN: Shrimp With Orzo, Capers, and Currants

Have you ever had a song that repeats itself in your mind, over and over again?  That's my problem for the last three days.  It's the Charles Trenet song, Boum, sung in French, that Absolut Vodka uses in their new pillow fight commercial.  I hum it, hear it in my dreams, and didn't realize I was singing it at the grocery store today, until I noticed people shooting me that, "You're weird" glance.  Or maybe they were amazed at my pathetic French pronunciation.  If I were better at computery things, I'd have Boum as my background music for this post.  If you know it, sing along as you consider the dish I made today, adapted from a Mario Batali recipe. His uses squid, Israeli couscous, and caperberries, which weren't available at my neighborhood grocery.  I substituted shrimp, capers, and orzo, which produced a delicious and simple dish to make, without much chopping or many ingredients.   So, it's perfect for when you're tired, but still want a good meal.  Boum. 

WHB: My Favorite Meal, Shrimp And Crab File Gumbo

In my family, seafood gumbo is the ultimate dish to prepare and eat. Gumbo is always an event, because it's absolutely delicious, labor intensive, and loaded with familial memories.  Not a complicated dish, it has definite quirks. You must prepare a dark brown, (or black, if you're a gumbo master) roux, which can take an hour or two of constant stirring. And there are the shrimps, massive amounts of them, which require teams of people, peeling and deveining until you feel your sanity start to slip. The kids had the job of peeling shrimp, and I'm convinced that the major reason people have children in my family is to ensure a steady pool of shrimp laborers.  Until my mom died, I never put the gumbo together. I never had that honor.  I just peeled shrimp for hours until I wanted to scream, while my mom and her sisters argued the finer points of sauteeing the vegetables, or the proper color for the roux.  Try peeling 20-40 pounds of shrimp.  The last time my cousins and I did that amount, about 15 years ago, we wound up fighting and throwing shrimp at each other. When I was a child, gumbo was a cheap dish to prepare.  My grandmother would go to the docks and buy shrimp for less than a dollar a pound. And she caught her own beautiful blue crabs.  Now, gumbo is quite pricey to make. I made a pot of it for Thanksgiving and wound up paying almost $200 for the shrimp and crab.  Small wonder that I rarely make it now. 

WHB: Artichokes Stuffed With Shrimp (Parsley)

I can't remember exactly when I first had stuffed artichokes, but it was probably during the time I was living on the Gulf Coast and shrimp was very cheap.  We would go to the docks, where the shrimp boats unloaded their freshly caught crustaceans, and buy large amounts of the shrimp for as little as fifty cents a pound.  Then we went home, divided them up into plastic bags, and froze them.  This recipe started out long ago, probably in Louisiana, as a reliable family dish made with stale bread and cheap shrimp.  Back then, shrimp wasn't fancy food, it was a basic source of protein, like inexpensive ground beef.  Well, shrimp certainly isn't cheap anymore--I paid $9 for a pound.  But, it was worth it.

Presto Pasta Night: Oven Baked Shrimp And Orzo

I've mentioned that we are enjoying a visit from my Mother-in-law, Bunty.  She's an enthusiastic supporter of my blog, but we've always had very different preferences in food.  Bunty likes plain fare and is suspicious of food that's been "tricked" up with things like garlic, herbs, and spices.  And those are the very things near and dear to my heart.  So, my challenge has been to prepare food during her visit that will appeal to both of us.  I was a little nervous when I decided to make this dish for Presto Pasta Night, an event created by Ruth at Once Upon A Feast.  I think it's a simple recipe (compared to those I often make) but it has garlic, saffron and fresh oregano in it, items Bunty would never use.  Indeed, as I was preparing the dish, she looked at the cookbook and asked me, with alarm written on her face, "What's saffron?? Is it spicy??"  Knowing that she would soon read that six cloves of garlic were also in the recipe, I gently removed the cookbook from her hands and told her, "I can't let you read the recipe because it may scare you.  Trust me, you will like this dish."  Then I said a silent prayer that my assertion would prove to be true.  To my relief, she enjoyed it very much, eating two servings.

WHB: Shrimp Salad Rolls With Tarragon Dressing

I think my Stomach Beast may be weakening.  And that is certainly a relief. He's still there, but a tamer animal.  Thank you to everyone who left such nice messages of support.  I'm ready to start reading all your blogs again and take part in the bloggy world.   I may even start to enjoy eating.  That would have been a good thing on Monday, when I grilled some shrimp and tucked them into rolls, slathered with tarragon dressing.  Bob assured me the shrimp rolls were delicious, but I couldn't appreciate them, due to my tender tummy. 

I do know that the tarragon dressing was wonderful and I'll certainly make it again to use with other seafood.  It reminded me again how much I love fresh tarragon, with it's mild licorice flavor.  For years I thought this herb was useless, because I had only tried the dried version.  But, fresh tarragon is marvelous and if you see any in the store, try it in a recipe and you'll be delighted.  By the way, tarragon is also good for an upset stomach, so maybe it has tamed the Stomach Beast? 

Last week I wasn't able to take part in Weekend Herb Blogging, which was very annoying, to say the least. But, this week I can and happily, it's when the lovely founder of WHB, Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen is hosting it.  Perfect!

Fast Food: Sea Scallops With Golden Raisin And Shallot Vinaigrette

One day a week we eat take-out food from  restaurants, usually Mexican or Thai.  The food is good, but the fact that a meal magically appears with no work is a thing I greatly appreciate.  On other days I can't make the meal magically appear, but there are recipes that I manage to prepare in 15 minutes or less, and that can be a very good thing indeed.  This recipe is a hodge podge of ideas from the new Cindy Pawlcyn cookbook, Big Small Plates.  I had bits and pieces of ingredients--sea scallops, golden raisins, shallots, and kale.   An odd fellowship, but it produced a good, quick, and healthy meal. The scallops were seared quickly and served with a raisin and shallot vinaigrette.  Frankly, I could have made a meal just on the kale, which was delicious and a nice contrast to the sweet scallops.  Far back in the corner of the picture is a mound of couscous, which is always good to have on hand for quick meals.