Grilled Shrimp and Red Pepper Sauce
Last night’s dinner was Grilled Shrimp Skewers With Roasted Red Pepper Sauce. The sauce is much like a romesco sauce without the tomatoes. I was in the mood to grill something, and a close friend recommended this recipe, where all the elements are grilled. INGREDIENTS: For the Red Pepper Sauce: 2 large red bell peppers ¾ cup whole toasted almonds 1 Smoked paprika ¼ teaspoon ground cayenne 3 garlic cloves, minced Salt and pepper 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil Lemon wedges, for serving The rest: 1 ½ pounds very small potatoes, unpeeled 3 medium red onions, unpeeled and quartered 1 ½ to 2 pounds fresh Gulf shrimp, or use frozen Extra-virgin olive oil DIRECTIONS Coat the red bell peppers with olive oil and blister on thee grill. Let cool and cut into strips,...
Don’s Creole Sauce
Saturday night’s culinary creation centers around my creole sauce, which I worked up years ago after a trip to Aruba where I had a wonderful meal with the local creole sauce with some grouper. The meal planning actually began with the thought of mussels in a garlic/butter/wine reduction, suggested by a close friend, but the lack of mussels in Colonial Beach area forced a change of direction. This sauce can be served with any seafood, my standard usually is grilled mahi mahi. But I decided to just see what was available and work from there. That resulted in the obvious need to include one of the area’s most popular seafood, the blue crab. To accompany the crab is a small fillet of blackened, pan seared cobia and a dozen white shrimp. This would be...
Catalan Salmon
Saturday night dinner was a new recipe for me, Catalan Salmon. This is a grilled Salmon fillet topped with delightful orange-based sauce and almond slivers. I served with avocados and a Cacio e Pepe Corn on the Cob. In a perfect world the avocados would be sliced wedges, but mine were pretty ripe and didn’t slice well. A close friend of mine suggested roasted asparagus as a side dish, but there was no asparagus to be found, so I switched gears to the corn (also suggested by said close friend). THE SAUCE (I halved the recipe) 1 1/3 cups sliced almonds 1 1/3 cups extra virgin olive oil, plus 2 tablespoons for brushing the fish 1/3 cup sherry vinegar 2/3 cup orange juice 1/4 cup grated orange zest, or as needed 3 tablespoons capers, drained, rinsed, and finely...
Grilled Sea Scallops with Beets and Cucumber
What’s for dinner Saturday night? Grilled Sea Scallops With Yellow Beets, Cucumbers and Lime. This is based off a New York Times recipe a close friend recommended. I picked up some sea scallops at our local seafood shop (Shady Lane Seafood) and decided (at $26 a pound) to pan sear them in a cast iron skillet, not wanting to lose a single on in the grill. My friend suggested using shrimp as a more budget friendly alternative. I couldn’t find yellow beets, so I used red. INGREDIENTS (I halved the list below since I was cooking for one, and used 6 scallops). 3 medium yellow beets 1 pounds large dry-packed sea scallops (about 12 scallops) Salt and pepper Extra-virgin olive oil 1 cup finely diced red onion 4 tablespoons lime juice, plus more for finishing...
Don’s Fancy Cucumber Salad
What, Leftovers Again? Actually, the chicken smoked on Sunday was destined to be ‘leftovers’ through the week. But tonight’s star is the humble cucumber salad…very much a product of leftovers. I had a spare cucumber from Saturday night’s cucumber/beet dinner. And from charcuterie night yesterday, I had pickled onions and red bell peppers. When I looked in my fridge tonight to figure out dinner, the idea of the cucumber salad was pretty obvious. You don’t need the pickled elements, just give the onion time to ‘soften.’ If you have a jar of roasted red bell pepper, just use that. If you don’t…shame on you. They belong in every fridge. While cucumber salad is the world’s easiest side, here’s my...
Shrimp and Egg Noodles
So…that just happened. One of the best things I’ve ever eaten just fell together. I had no solid plans for dinner. I had some shrimp. I bought some Carb-nada on my last Publix run. I had a friend give me some garlic chives. There was a bit of cream from a white pizza a week ago. The list continues. So I had 3 burners going. In the sauces side I got some Kerrygold butter cooking diced sweet onions, then put in some garlic. Before too long I put in some Pino Grigio and let it reduce. In a skillet I melted some Kerrygold with a sprinkle of garlic powder, this would be for the shrimp. In a sauce pan I got some water boiling, this would be for my Carb-Nada egg noodles. I put in a splash of olive oil, as I am wont to do with pasta-like boils. I went to my...