Shrimp and Lobster Bisque

Here is the other dish that I had cooked up for my Media Noche meal. Shrimp and Lobster bisque. A good way to bring in the new year with some yummlicious soup. It does a body good. I wasn't sure how to make bisque of any kind. Again I didn't want to fuss too much in the kitchen. I searched the interweb and found several recipes from simple to elaborate to some had that many  ingredients. So what I did was nix and match to my own preference and the result was a delicious taste shrimpy and lobster soup. This one is definitely a keep.

Shrimp and Lobster Bisque

1 Large Lobster Tail or 1 c cooked lobster meat (chunks)
1/2 lb shrimp with shell and devained
3 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 12oz can evaporated milk
1 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch (dissolved in 1 Tbsp water)
3 Tbsp fine chopped fresh parsley (Plus extra for garnish)
1 Bay leaf
2 Tbsp Tomato Paste
2 Tbsp Paprika
1 Tbsp Worchestshire Sauce
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/2 small onion - fine chopped
6 c water (to make broth)

Place the six cups of water in pot and bring to a boil.

Remove the shells from the shrimp and the lobster and set the meat aside. Place the shells into the pot of water and let the rolling boil for a good 30 minutes to get the delicious flavors out. Then remove the shells and set the broth aside.

Give the shrimp a rough chop. In a saucepan, melt the butter. Add the onions and saute for 3-5 minutes. Add the lobster meat and the shrimp and cook over medium to low heat for 3- minutes or until the meat has a nice pink and white texture. Stir constantly to avoid bringing.

 Add the evaporated milk and tomato paste. Again stirring constantly. Season with some salt and pepper.

Add the mixture into the broth. Add the cornstarch. Keep stirring. until the soup has combined and slightly thickened. Add bay leaf, worchestshire sauce and paprika.  Simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Best serve fresh and warm.

Shrimps & Scallops with a White Wine Broth

So this was the lovely dish I wanted to post yesterday, but couldn't due to my internet fiasco. What a bummer that's been. But much like many an afternoon, i spent some quality time in my local Panera sipping on some fresh brewed coffee with my laptop on the table, answering emails messages, catching up on blogs. I swear the people that work there know me by now. haha...

Anyway... I asked my mom the day before Mother's Day what she would like to eat. I asked sometimes early in the afternoon. Several hours later...still no decision. But I waited patiently and patiently and patiently. Ain't I a loving daughter? Finally...Pasta. Scallops. Shrimp. Ok, so brain turns and what do you get? Angel hair pasta with sauteed shrimp and scallops in a white wine broth.

Delicious? Why...it's pasta-licious. Sorry...that last bit was corny.

 Serves 3-4

Shrimps & Scallops with a White Wine Broth

1/2 box angel hair pasta
6 oz diced tomato
2 large garlic clove - rough chopped
5 oz evaporated milk
1/2 tbsp oregano
salt to taste
pepper to taste
1/2 c white wine
1/2 lb shrimp - deveined and shelled
1 lb scallops

In a sauce pan, heat a small drizzle of olive oil and saute the garlic for 30-60 seconds. Add the shrimp and scallops and saute until the shrimp have turned a nice shade pink and the scallops are slightly whiter in color. Some of the juices will be released. Stir several times to cook all the seafood.

On a high to medium heat, add the wine and bring to a slight boil. When the wine has reduced slightly, lower the heat and add the evaporated milk. Add the tomato and oregano. Stir occasionally. Let it simmer for a good 15 minutes. Season with a little salt and pepper to taste.

While that cooks, bring a small pot of water to a boil. Season with salt and cook the pasta until al dente roughly 8-10 minutes.

Place some of the paste in a large enough plate and ladle some of the shrimp, scallops and sauce over. Serve warm.

Bake Lobster Tails

Today is Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of the Lenten season in Catholicism. It lasts until Easter. For this year it's Sunday, April 4th and includes fasting on Friday's as well keeping the day meatless. Don't worry I won't go into a whole thing about it. If you want to know the history you can google it. There's tons of information out there on the interweb.

One of the things about lent is to sacrifice something(s) during that time. Sacrifice being things that you do that you're willing to give up or live without. 40+ days isn't so bad. Before I know it, Easter is already here. Time has been going by really fast lately that I tend to lose track of what day of the week it is. So what did I give up? For me, it's food related. First is meat. Instead of just meatless Fridays, I'm going the whole lent meatless. No chicken, beef, pork, duck. I don't mind going vegetarian with an occasional fish or seafood dish here and there. I need to have some sort of protein. Besides, a lot of my cooking already involves veggies. The second thing I decided to give up is...chocolate! Gasp!! What?! Yes. I shall give up chocolate for the time being. But being an admitted choc-o-holic that will be quite tough and probably drive me nuts. That means no spoonfuls of nutella to snack on. Sigh. And no chocolate chip cookie or that slice of chocolate cake on a film or tv productions. Darn! I ain't worried though. I like to look at this as a way to help me better my eating habits, too. (Sort of...hahaha)

Alrighty...now onto number two of my Valentine's/Chinese New Year meal for the single. I had gotten a couple lobster tails to accompany my little ramen shiitake alfredo dish. I don't have lobster often. Maybe once a year. The kinds I usually eat are the steamed versions. I've seen them grilled, but I had put ol' Georgie away for the time being and didn't want to lug him out again just for this. So my only other option left was to bake them. Plus, that gave me some time to finish off making my alfredo sauce and boiling up the ramen noodles.

These tails are relatively easy to make. Just give them a light rub of extra virgin olive oil or butter. Cooking time depends usually. 6 oz or smaller would relatively cook in about 8-10 minutes. I have gotten a couple 12 oz Caribbean tails. If I ate that at a restaurant I would have ended up paying a hefty price just a single meal. Heck, I'm glad I did them at home instead. Saved me some money. Anyway, I stuck a couple skewers to keep the tails from curling. I coated them lightly with some olive oil and baked it at a 400˚F oven. Delicious with a couple lemon wedges.

Baked Lobster Tails

2 6-12 oz lobster tails - thawed or fresh
olive oil or butter


Preheat your oven to 400˚F

Baste the lobster tails with a little olive oil or butter and place on a roasting pan or baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes 15-20 minutes for 12 oz tails.

Serve with a side of lemon wedge and some melted butter.

Broiled Ginger Teriyaki Salmon

There's this one sushi place I love to go to in Pasadena, CA., called Afloat Sushi. It's one of those conveyer belt places. They have theirs in little boats floating on water. Once of the items I always have to get is the flame broiled salmon teriyaki. It's chunk of salmon flame broiled and basted with a teriyaki sauce. I always end up eat two of those. Along with a salmon skin roll.

I bought a nice long fillet of sockeye salmon from the farmer's market. Divided it for two. I simple seasoned it with salt, pepper and minced garlic. Placed it in the broiler for a couple of minutes giving it an initial cooking. At that time I made a ginger teriyaki sauce. It includes fresh ginger, soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, rice wine vinegar, some ground pepper and tomato ketchup. After the first few minutes, I basted the salmon with a thick layer teriyaki sauce and broiled it for another couple of minutes letting the sauce coat the fish. I basted it one last time right before serving. The final result was a tender flaky fish with a slight firm crust. So good.

At the request of my lovely mom, I served this over some sauteed asparagus with white wine sauce. I think I got her hooked on that sauce!!!!

Serves 2.



Broiled Ginger Teriyaki Salmon
2 salmon fillet
salt
pepper
1 garlic cloves - minced

Teriyaki Sauce:
3 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp grated or minced fresh ginger
1 garlic clove - minced
1 tbsp tomato ketchup

(To view the white wince sauce click here)

Preheat your broiler.

Combine all the ingredients for the teriyaki sauce until sugar dissolves and slightly thickened.

Season the salmon fillets with salt, pepper and the minced garlic. Place the salmon on a lightly geased baking sheet and set into the broiler for 2-3 min.

The baste well with the teriyaki sauce. Broil for another 2-3 min.

Remove from broiler and serve.

Pan-Seared Scallops with White Wine Sauce

Sundays are usually when I try to make an elegant meal. But I had some place I had to be on Sunday, so I made the meal on Saturday night instead. I had bought some fresh diver scallops from the farmer's market that morning and I had been craving for some for quite a long while. I haven't really cooked with scallops before, so was nervous as to how it would turn out. I wanted to pair it with some kind of sauce and a vegetable.

Luckily, I had some thin asparagus in the fridge I've been planning on cooking. I researched the interweb as to how long I cook scallops. These scallops aren't cheap and I didn't want to blow it. So I prepared them, removed the cartilage which is the part that is attached to the shell and seasoning with some salt and pepper. Plus, a little coating on the top and bottom with panko crumbs. I cooked this meal in three stages. First, I sauteed the asparagus, then pan-seared the scallops for 3-4 min per side, and finally made the sauce. A white wine sauce.



One of the perks of being a featured published with Foodbuzz is being able to sample and try out various food products. I had recently received this large box of white wine from Black Box Wines. I felt it a perfect time to bust it open and use it for the sauce. I did pour a little extra to have a few sips while I prepared the meal. I like a little glass of wine every now and then. Besides, I haven't cooked with wine on this blog yet. I don't drink white wine often. I'm more of a red wine-kind of gal. It comes in a box with one of those push-button pour spouts. It's pretty neat. No opening a cork here, Just put your glass under the spout and press the little button, which surprised me as I was a bit skeptical about drinking wine from a box. I'm not a wine aficionado, but this coming from a red wine person, I did enjoy the taste of it. Now I'm trying to find any excuse to drink it or even cook with it. There's enough wine in it for 4 750ml bottles. That's quite a lot of wine. (*insert mischevious smirk here*)

Anyway, the sauce was made with white wine, unsalted butter, garlic, dry parsley, a dash of rice wine vinegar. The smell of it was intoxicating. I couldn't wait to pour it over the scallops. A good tip to know about cook with wine. ONLY cook with wines that you would drink. If you don't like the taste of a certain wine, don't use it. Simple as that.

Didn't take more that 20-25 minutes to make. I drizzled the sauce slowly over the scallops making sure it coated each one, then sat myself down by the table and enjoyed this delicious meal. My knife easily sliced through the scallops and was deliciously tender. Tasted fantastic with the sauce and asparagus. It was one of those "I wish I had made more" type meals. I am no longer afraid to cook scallops.


Serves 2.



Pan-Seared Diver Scallops in White Wine Sauce

4 Medium-Large Diver Scallops
1 bundle (2 dozen) thin asparagus (cut into match stick size)
2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
4 Tbsp panko crumbs
salt
pepper

Sauce:
1/2 c white wine
1 tsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp dry parsley
2 garlic cloves (minced)


Pat the scallops dry with a paper towel and remove the tough cartilage on the side, if it has not already been removed. Season with salt and pepper and coat the ends with the panko crumbs

In a skillet, heat 1 Tbsp of the olive oil and saute the asparagus for 3-5 or until tender. Season with a little salt and pepper.

Remove the asparagus from the skillet into a plate and cover with foil to keep it warm.

Heat the other tablespoon of Olive oil and sear the scallops 2-4 min on one end then flip and sear the other side 3-4 until cooked through.

Remove from the skillet and on to another plate, cover with foil to keep warm and let it rest.

Wipe the skillet clean with a paper towel and reheat. Melt the butter and saute the garlic for roughly 30-45 sec. Then add the white wine and rice wine vinegar. Add the dry parsley. Let it simmer on medium to low heat for roughly 5-8 min. Stir occasionally. If you see the scallops release some of their juice onto the plate at it to the sauce.

Putting it together:
On a plate, Place the asparagus on the bottom, then lay the scallops on top. Drizzle over the white wine sauce including the garlic bits.

Grilled Shrimp Skewers

It's grillin' time again. For this go around, I made some shrimp with pineapple skewers. Who wouldn't love some shrimpy goodness? Unless you're allergic, then you're excused.

These little shrimpies were marinated in a simple soy sauce, lemon and garlic mixture That I marinated for a little over an hour. Skewered it with some fresh cut pineapple and grilled away. The smell around the house with the shrimp and pineapple cooking away. It was tempting not to take a bite, but I slightly burned my tongue on a lone shrimp that had no skewer to attach to. I couldn't resist. Don't tell me you haven't tried taking a bite or a sip of something right from the cooker, only to give the tongue a beating. No matter how many times I say "I won't do that again," I always do.

I served this with a side of Little J's Potato Salad. Little J, being one of my nicknames. Recipe for that coming soon. I also used some of the leftover marinade as a dipping sauce.

This will make roughly 6 skewers.



Grilled Shrimp Skewers

1 lb Shrimp (deveined and shelled)
Pineapple chunks
1 c soy sauce
Juice of one lemon
1 large garlic clove (minced)
6 Skewers

Marinate the shrimp in the soy sauce, lemon juice and garlic for at least 30min to an hour. This may be done in advance.

Prepare your grill.

Soak the skewers in water for at least 30min. This will prevent the sticks from burning while on the grill. Skewer a shrimp and pineapple on the stick, alternating each until you reach the top.

Cook the shrimp until they turn a nice shade white and pink. Roughly 3-5 min per side depending on the heat of your grill.

Serve warm.

Garlic Shrimp & Crab

Last May, I traveled to the Philippines to visit family and the day before we left to return to the States, we had a big family dinner at this restaurant (I think it's called Seafood 88 or something like that) near my cousin's law office. It was a nice sort-of upscale type restaurant. You can bring in your own meats and seafood and they'll cook it anyway you'd like. Two of the dishes that really stuck with me that night was the delicious crab and shrimp.

The crab was boiled to perfection and the shrimp was not rubbery at all. You could actually bite into it without having to fight it. Both were tossed in a garlic sauce that was made some spices (cumin maybe? or a touch of cayenne) and a hint chili peppers. So it had some heat to it, but not so much to make your mouth feel like it's on fire. It was just the right amount, where it gives you a little kick and you go. "Oh, where did that come from? I like it" No milk needed afterwards. The bright red color in the photos below are how they actually looked when they served it. My mom, who usually stays away from any kind of spicy food, ate and loved it.

To this day I can't forget those dishes. I've been trying to find a places that can match up to that, but no luck. If anyone can suggest otherwise, I'm all for it.

Me, being so hungry that night, totally forgot to take some photos, but as it just so happens that my cousin took a couple of shots of the dishes before everyone devoured it. Just looking at them makes my mouth water. How could you not resist those?