Shrimp and Cheese Grits

Clearly, I need to work on my presentation of foodie pictures taken to highlight my achievement of yumminess, but this was just too good not to include.

Cheese Grits:

*Jim Dandy Instant Grits (it's all they've got at the local store..), serving size for six

*Three ounces of Velveeta, cubed

*Water (according to serving size, minus a half oz)

*Milk

*Seasoning-- A Tablespoon of each: Garlic Salt, Montreal Salt Season, Coarse Sea Salt

*Cheese-any good hard block cheese, grated or cubed-two ounces

*Tablespoon of butter

Cook the grits according the directions. I like to stir mine with a fork after I pour the grits into the rapidly boiling water so they don't clump. I put the seasoning in with the dry grains prior to adding to water so they boil and seep flavor into the grits. I don't know if that's scientifically or culinarily accurate, but it works for me. 

When the grits begin to thicken, I add a dash of milk to make them good and creamy. Next, the cheese, Velveeta, and butter go it. Stir quickly and thoroughly, then cover your pot and let the mixture thicken. 

Shrimp:

*Deveined/Tails Removed Shrimp, frozen or fresh-one pound

*One jalapeno

*Garlic Salt

*Olive Oil

*Course Season Mixture-Salt/Pepper

*Shallot, finely diced

*Freshly Ground Pepper, coarse

Rinse and drain fresh or thawed shrimp. Dice jalapeno and shallot, then add to shrimp in bowl. Season with spices, then coat with olive oil. Set aside in refrigerator to marinate. 

When ready to cook shrimp, drain excess juice, and sautee in large pan. Make sure each shrimp has room to cook. Stir frequently. They are done when they are pink and curled, but not completely touching end to end. 

Serve shrimp on a mound of hot, delicious cheesy grits, top with freshly ground course pepper, and enjoy! 

Slow-Cooker Lamb

I have two vegetables that I've attempted to master, without success: artichokes and eggplants. Tonight, I achieved my mastery with eggplant. It was an effort based on impulse, much like the rest of my cooking (hence the name, "Scratch and Sniff"), and I'm glad to say, ended in happy tummies.


These are the ingredients I decided to play with:

*Lamb stew meat
*One jalapeno, diced fine
*1/4 sweet onion, diced fine
*Shallot, the butt end left over from another recipe
*Flour, enough to coat the meat prior to browning in oil
*Spices-curry, ground cloves, cinnamon, turmeric, garlic salt
*Butter, one tablespoon
*Sweet diced canned tomatoes
*Eggplant, peeled, diced into apprx one inch cubes, and soaked in salty water for apprx 45 minutes
*Coconut Milk-one can
*Dash of Chicken Broth
*Olive Oil (assume that's in all recipes I cook with, unless it's some sort of baking dish)

Before deciding exactly what I was cooking, I had lamb stew meat. I love lamb, and wanted to do something savory and sweet and delicious with it. I diced the large stew chunks into smaller, bite-sized pieces, then coated them with at least two tablespoons of curry, a tablespoon of ground cloves, about a teaspoon of cinnamon, a DASH of turmeric (I'm still trying to figure that flavor out), and some garlic salt. {Garlic salt has more salt and less of that heavy garlic flavor that stays on your breath for the next three days... It's just a favorite of mine. Salty, but better. I digress.} Flour-about four tablespoons-and some olive oil went into the bowl with the meat. Everything was stirred together and then allowed to sit for a while to meld the flavors.

Having made a quasi-decision about what sounded/smelled good, I first diced the onion, amid some tears, and the medium sized jalapeno. It was not too fiery, based on the amount of oil it released as I cut it up, so I left a lit bit of the veins and seeds in this time for a bit of heat. Into the sautee pan they went with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, until the onions were transparent and the jalapeno was less...raw. This was achieved with medium heat. I dumped these in the slow cooker, already set on low heat for six hours.

The meat/spices/flour mixture went into the same non-stick pan, and I browned the meat on medium-high heat in a few more tablespoons of olive oil. The dash of chicken broth and tablespoon of butter helped keep the floury meat from becoming a muddled, burnt mess in the bottom of the pan once the oil dispersed. When the meat had browned up nicely, I added it and the can of sweet diced tomatoes to the onion/jalapeno mixture in the slow cooker.

The peeled, cubed eggplant, which had been soaking in salty water to remove the bitter taste, was drained and tossed in the now empty pan to crisp for a few minutes. Since the stove had been on for quite a while at this point, I turned the heat down to a little below medium heat. Once the pieces had a slight browned appearance, I added them to the slow-cooker mixture.

The final addition to the slow-cooking concoction was a can of coconut milk. This was for thickness, creaminess, and the marrying of flavors. I cooked this wonderful group of ingredients on low for six hours. Even my daughter, who literally turns her nose up at EVERYthing unless it's stuff-crust cheese pizza, tater tots, or macaroni and cheese, ate a bowl of this. I served it with smoky basmati rice.

The flavors that stood out most--the stars of this performance--were definitely the semi-hot jalapeno, the ground cloves, and the coconut milk. I need an inspirational name to highlight this happy Scratch and Sniff success!

Cauliflower, Veal, and Noodles

So apparently, I like cauliflower a lot these days. I've discovered a fabulously easy, nutritious way to cook it, which I'll describe in a moment. This particular meal was, as usual, an experiment in flavor combinations; luckily, the experiment paid off! Unluckily, I liked it so much, I found I'd gained weight when I stepped on the scales this morning. If I can keep myself away from the left-overs, I'll pay cucumber and tomato penance. If not, maybe I'll just throw my scales away.


Ingredients you'll need to make this surprise success:

Small shell noodles (I prefer mixing varieties for visual and textural interest)
Fresh ground veal
One quarter of a large sweet onion (Vidalia is always best), diced and divided
One jalapeno, washed, seeded, and diced
Olive Oil (always)
Garlic Salt (pretty much always)
One head of cauliflower, washed and broken into florets
Medium heat Hatch Chili queso


The very first thing I did in this cooking endeavor was stare at a recipe for Veal Stroganoff. To my chagrin, I discovered that a key ingredient was missing from my fridge: sour cream. It's pretty hard to make a stroganoff without sour cream. So I started water boiling for noodles (as a pre-schooler grew increasingly adamant about wanting noodles for dinner) and began forming a plan for possible combinations of the ingredients I had and wanted to use. See the above list, if you're wondering what they were.

I pre-heated my oven to 350 degrees and prepared the cauliflower first. The leaves at the base are edible and actually pretty tasty. The only part I throw away is the hard stem. All of this went into a glass baking dish with about a third of the diced onion, after which the mixture received liberal dashes of oil from my nifty new cruet. Sprinkled garlic salt finished off the job, and into the oven it went.

Meanwhile, I heated about a quarter cup of olive oil in the pan, meaning to saute the onions, then add the meat. Instead, I got distracted by a toddler rummaging through the trash, and tossed the meat in first. The heat was set on medium, and I let it cook for a bit while I cleaned off Naughty Baby's hands. Once she was securely fastened in her high chair and nibbling on those cardboard-like teething wafers (because she seems to be PERPETUALLY teething), I broke up the meat so it could get brown and crumbly the way I like it. After it was mostly cooked, I added the rest of that diced onion and all of the diced jalapeno. Just prior to turning off the heat, I jacked it up to high and let the veal get nice and crispy.

The water for the noodles was at an almost roiling boil at the point (little girls are not patient enough to ever achieve the bubbling of waters chefs insist on for perfect noodles). In went some salt, then the noodles. I know a proper chef insists that you baby-sit pasta as it's cooking--constantly stirring--but I've got other fish to fry, and my family never complains about gummy pasta... I'm not sure they'd notice.

The cauliflower didn't seem to be cooking quickly enough at 350, so I upped the temperature to 400 degrees and set the timer for another 15 minutes. Also, I doused the little white gems with more olive oil. That extra heat and time (they'd been in for about 20 minutes by then) really achieved the perfect texture.

The cauliflower, noodles, and meat went into my bowl; I added about a tablespoon of the queso, and declared my concoction a success.

Indian Night...(sort of)

I heard this wonderful interview with an Indian woman about cooking on NPR last week. She talked about food in a way that made me thing of senses-color, texture, flavor, smell. I could listen to her talk forever. If I could eat what she described, it would be even better. She talked about the history of tandoori and described flavors as "gorgeous." That's someone I want to know.

Here's what I concocted as a result:


Ingredients:

Ground Lamb
Onions and Jalapenos, sliced thinly and sauteed in olive oil
Spice Mixture: heavy on the curry, cinnamon, garam masala, chili powder, and a dash or two of garlic salt
2 TBSP Teriyaki Sauce
Cooked Smoky Basmati rice, made with garlic salt and chili powder


I sauteed the onion and jalapeno in olive oil--apprx 1/4 cup--on medium heat until the onion was soft and translucent. Toss in apprx. a TBSP of the Spice Mixture for flavor. Remove from saute pan, add ground lamb. Cook thoroughly, mixing and stirring constantly. Add rest of Spice Mixture (apprx. 1/8 of a cup). Once mostly brown and cooked, turn heat to high to crisp meat crumbles. Continue stirring, and add onion/jalapeno and cooked rice to mix in meat and oil. Stir until all ingredients are hot and slightly crispy.

I found that the final result needed teriyaki sauce to add a bit of flavor. The amount of Spice Mixture is based to taste, based on your preference. I found I wanted more chili powder and cinnamon over curry powder. I'd like to try this with cardamom in the future, as that was a featured spice in the Indian cook's descriptions.

Sweet and Spicy Shrimp With Rice

Ingredients:

Half of a Sweet Onion, apprx. half a cup, thinly sliced
One Jalapeno, seeds removed, thinly sliced
One Pound of Jumbo Shrimp, peeled and deveined
A quarter cup of Pineapple Juice
Garlic Salt
Coarse Sea Salt
Montreal Steak Seasoning
Quarter Cup of Olive Oil


Combine all ingredients in bowl to marinate overnight.

To cook, heat another quarter cup of olive oil in a sautee pan on medium. Remove onion and jalapeno slices from marinade mixture, and sautee in oil until onions are soft and translucent. Reduce heat to medium-low, then add shrimp. Stir frequently, flipping shrimp at least once to ensure equal doneness. When shrimp are pink, immediately remove from heat to avoid over-cooking.

Serve with Smoked Basmati rice cooked with garlic salt and chili powder. 

After I recovered from my coughing fit--that jalapeno was pretty strong--I found culinary joy. The sweet heat of the pineapple, onion, and jalapeno combined very nicely with the smoky flavor of the rice.

Little Lili gave the rice an enthusiastic yum-yum vote; she ate two bowls. I saved the introduction of jalapeno and shrimp for another day!

Baked Curry Cauliflower

This recipe qualifies as a hit, given Little Lili's enthusiastic support.

Ingredients:

One Head of Cauliflower, washed and chopped
One stalk of Sweet Bulb Onion
Olive Oil, enough to coat all ingredients prior to baking
Curry Powder, enough to cover the vegetables
Garlic Powder, to taste


Combine all ingredients in an oven-safe glass dish. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

Enjoy with all little ladies (and any other amenable folks) making yum-yum noises as they eat your serving.