Roma pasta
This is a classic Roman pasta dish. Back in the day before the New World, and tomatoes, were discovered, Italians ate their pasta without a heavy marinara. I read about this a while back, and filed it on my ‘things to try’ list. Cooking dinner tonight, I found my pork chops were bad (just bought them yesterday!) and had to come up with a quick plan B. My “plan B’s” usually involve calling Papa Vitos for a pizza, but I was hungry and didn’t want to wait 45 minutes to eat. Then I remembered the Roman Pasta story I read in the paper. I googled around for some recipes and then made my take on it. The recipe makes a meal for one, so increase as needed. Ingredients: Handful of dried pasta (I use about 1/5 a package of Barilla’s...
Larb
Thai Lettuce Wrap Use half the meat for serving of 4 Buy 1 fresh lime, 1 fresh lemon, fish sauce, brown sugar (or 2 packets from restaurant 🙂 , serano chile, crushed red pepper (available at Italian restaurants 🙂 ), vegetable oil, ground chicken breast, shallots/green onions or minced sweet onion, basil, cabbage, optional: carrot 2t. grated lime rind 1t. grated lemon rind 1/4C. fresh lime juice 1T. fresh lemon juice 1T. Fish Sauce 2t. brown sugar 1/2t. finely chopped serano chile 1/4t. crushed red pepper 1 t. vegetable oil 12 oz. ground chicken breast 1T. chopped shallots/sweet onion/green onion 1/2 C. coarsely chopped basil 1/2 head of cabbage, cored & halved Optional: grated or thinly slice carrots on the bias. Combine first 8 ingredients, stirring with a...
Grilled Romaine
This has been a recent addition to our grill, and we love it. Some of our friends turned us onto this. Ingredients: Package of Romaine Hearts 1 tablespoon Tuscon Herb olive oil 1 tablespoon 18 year old balsamic vinegar Directions: On a dinner plate swirl the olive oil and vinegar together. Cut the Romain heart in half. Coat all sides of the two halves. Put the hearts on a medium-hot grill and cook for a couple minutes each side. The leafy part should get brown and crispy. Who would of thought that grilled lettuce would taste so good!...
Grilled Greek Chicken
This is actually a marinade we’ve used for years on flank steak to make a Greek steak that we serve with roasted Greek potatoes. Ingredients: 2 packages of boneless, skinless chicken thighs (or whatever parts you like). This makes a lot, but love the leftovers for lunch or frozen for future meals. 1 gallon Ziplock bag 3 Tablespoons quality olive oil (we like California olive oils) Juice from 1 lemon 2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar (we like 18 year old balsamic) 1 tablespoon minced garlic 1/2 tsp course salt (kosher salt is good, or grind out some) 1/2 tsp course ground pepper 1 tablespoon dried oregano 1 tablespoon dried basil Directions: Put all the ingredients (except chicken) into the Ziplock bag. Mix it up. Add chicken. Mix it up again. Marinate at least...
Grilled Shrimp Perfecto
Grilled shrimp is the easiest thing in the world. To date, we would brush shrimp with some butter (actually, we use Earth Balance) and garlic and sprinkle some Tony’s seasoning on top. Then we’d skewer them (dampen bamboo skewers first) and toss them on the grill for a couple minutes. Easy and always good. 25 years of happy shrimp eating. THEN THINGS CHANGED. Ingredients Half a pound of shrimp. We use Royal Reds or Canaveral Whites, these are fairly large, but not jumbo. Half a pound gives us a dozen. Blood orange olive oil Black cherry balsamic vinegar Cayenne pepper Two bamboo skewers (soak them first. I just put them in a tall glass and rotate for several minutes) Directions Clean shrimp and put in a bowl. Add about a tablespoon of the olive oil...
Saffron Rice
For years we’ve been buying Mahatma’s Yellow Rice when we have a hankering for saffron rice. While it’s pretty good, it does tend to a bit salty for us. So this year we’ve started making our own saffron rice, and it tastes just as good, but vastly less salty. Plus, it’s about as easy to make as the packaged stuff. We already have the ingredients laying around. Another bonus is that it cooks in 15 minutes instead of 25. Ingredients Handful of diced sweet onion (about 1/4 of a medium onion) 1 1/2 teaspoons turmeric 1 pinch of saffron 2 tablespoons margarine or butter (we use Earth Balance) 1 cup jasmine rice 1 1/2 cups low sodium chicken broth (or water) 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic Instructions Melt butter/margarine in a saucepan. Add...