Shrimp and Clam Risotto with Thyme butter

I love making risotto. It's time consuming, yes.  Also can be quite fussy. It's easy to over or under cook, and when seasoning I find it's never salty enough until suddenly it's way too salty. I think of Gordon Ramsay doing his "angry chef" bit, yelling at some hapless hopeful on many a cooking reality show - "THIS IS INEDIBLE! YOU'RE USELESS! DO IT OVER!". So it could be the challenge, or the fact that it is so creamy and decadent when you hit it right.

I was going to make a shrimp risotto from Martha Stewart, but she calls for a pressure cooker which I don't have. I started looking for variations, and saw one recipe that called for clam juice with the shrimp. Well why not add clams as well I thought. I started by cooking them almost through with the can of clams and fresh thyme.

Shrimp. clams, and thyme

I've seen a few recipes with tarragon, but SO can't eat/doesn't like tarragon so thought I'd try basil and thyme. I cooked the shrimp with thyme, and also made a little herb butter with more thyme and a fair bit of basil. The butter was added at the end to the dish, and also a little pat as garnish.

Shrimp and Clam Risotto with thyme butter

Other than that, it's a pretty standard mushroom risotto with less mushrooms and lots of shrimp and clams. Even though this was shaping up to be a seafood risotto, I can't help but put mushrooms in. Mushrooms and risotto is kind of like pork and apple sauce, or orange and chocolate. The pairing is just too good.

Next Time: maybe try different seafood combinations, maybe different herbs

Me: 9/10
SO: 9.5/10
SSO: 3/10

Mango Curry Shrimp Risotto with Broccoli & Tomato Slaw

Sometimes running out of something turns out to be good, especially when you're not expecting it. I'll get to this later. G&G were coming over for dinner (a.k.a. Gramma and Grampa, or Mom and Dad), and SO had come up with a great idea - risotto with shrimp. Browsed around for a recipe I liked, but as usual they were all not what I was looking for.  I didn't want mushroom risotto this time, the Martha Stewart one called for a pressure cooker, the Food & Wine version seemed overly fussy with butter and I didn't feel like saffron, Giada de Laurentiis' version sounded good but I didn't have fennel or arugula, and I wasn't going for lemony.  And on and on. Actually another thing I didn't like about virtually all the shrimp risotto dishes, they all called for throwing in the shrimp at the last minute and stirring until just cooked through. As my friend would say, BORING.

But then I thought, making risotto isn't rocket science.  Well as they say, it is easy to make a crappy risotto, very hard to make a perfect one. I'm not sure if "they" really say that, but that seems to be the general consensus. Judging by the number of risotto dishes that Mr. Angry Chef Ramsey throws in the trash, it could be true. That's tv though.  I'll just wing it.  There isn't a fixed amount of anything you need anyway, you just keep ladling broth a bit at a time until it is done. I'll fix the one thing I don't like though, I'll bake the shrimp.  One recipe tossed the shrimp in paprika. But.....I ran out of paprika! Who runs out of paprika anyway.

We have a friend who has been pawning every manner of Epicure product on us lately. I generally like their products, but I like making things from scratch. However, the little jar of "Mango Curry Dip" spice powder just sang to me when I opened the cupboard door. So I rinsed the raw shrimp, patted dry, and then tossed in a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper, and some of this mango curry spice. Put it on a baking dish, and it was ready to pop into the oven.

As for the rest, it's just risotto. Start with onion and garlic in butter, toss the rice in it, then ladle a scoup of broth at a time for 15 to 20 minutes until done. Luckily I still had plenty of home made turkey broth in the freezer, that'll do perfectly. So worth the effort! I also added a bit of wine early on, and an extra bit of the mango curry. Near the end, popped the shrimp in the oven with convection on to crisp it up a bit, and voila.  Near perfection anyway.

Mango Curry Shrimp Risotto

Seems almost like an afterthought, but we needed something fresh to go with the slightly rich and slightly spicy shrimp risotto.  I'm not a big broccoli fan, but chop it up finely in a slaw and suddenly it transforms.  Not sure why, it just does.  SO thinks I'm crazy on this topic (and likely many others) but I won't apologize, it is simply true. So it goes like this. Wash and finely chop some broccoli, finely dice some fresh tomato, and maybe some fine dice of English cuke as well. Add a little bit of your favourite salad dressing, and you're done. Very fresh, a bit crunchy, and a good counter point to the curry.

Broccoli slaw with tomato and cuke

Finally, I had to say something about the appetizer I put out. On our trip to the east coast this past summer, we picked up some awesome smoked herring, both pickled and dried at this place called Fumoir d'Anton in Les Isles de la Madeleine. Really tasty, and interesting part of the islands' history. Threw on some olives for SSO, in case you're wondering.

Herring from Le Fumoir d'Anton,
Havre-aux-Maisons, Îles-de-la-Madeleine 

Next Time: Hmmm. Maybe would add in some fresh Cilantro or even Mint leaves

Me: 9/10

SO: 9/10

SSO: 5/10

Quick week-day one hour Jambalaya

This was actually a Sunday Family Dinner recipe, but it turned out so good and was so quick, I'll make it on a weekday next time. We always have some sort of sausage in the freezer, and with the addition of a few basic veggies from the fridge - a delish dinner with lots of leftovers is 45 minutes away.

Normally recipes call for Andouille sausage and fiery spices, but there isn't any reason you can't just use Farmer sausage like what happened to be in our freezer. I toned way down the fiery seasoning as well so SSO wouldn't melt. It may not be Jambalaya but it sure tastes awesome. I actually used the "Emeril's Essence" seasoning I've had in my cupboard for a longtime but never paid attention to. I did a bit of googling and turns out it is simply a Creole seasoning mix - a basic combination of paprika, onion powder, pepper, cayenne, oregano, and a couple of other things.

Quick week-day one hour Jambalaya

Next Time: not much I would do differently

Me: 10/10
SO: 10/10
SSO: 5/10

Shrimp Laksa

Another great idea from my SO.  This has to be one of my first Malaysian dishes. According to Wikipedia, it is a Chinese Malay dish, so therefore you would find various types of this in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. I had to improvise a bit since we didn't have all the usual ingredients that you would normally put in this dish. Most notable in their absence was lime, lemon grass, and rice noodles. What did I substitute? Well lemon juice mostly, although I also added Kaffir Lime Leaves as well.  As for the noodles, well I added the only thing I had which was gluten-free spaghetti. They are actually made partly from rice, but they taste like conventional spaghetti which is not ideal.

Further research revealed that there seem to be two main classes of Laksa - curry based, and tamarind based. I opted for the curry form. I don't have Tamarind on hand, maybe next time. I ended up blending about 5 recipes, since they all had either ingredients that I didn't have or found undesirable, or used overly complex methods. I didn't have carrots, fish cakes, or tofu puffs;  I didn't want macadamia nuts or mushrooms; I didn't feel like manually grinding 19 spices or simmering and de-boning a whole fish; and finally I didn't have or want ready-made curry paste. This may turn out to be Kraft Dinner for a Malay, we'll see.

Shrimp Laksa

The prep turned out to be a bit involved, but mostly because of all the ingredients. If you just used shrimp paste and curry powder it would go faster. But the actual cooking was very quick, and in the end a nice hot soup is both satisfying and fortifying.

Next Time: Make sure I'm not missing ingredients beforehand, esp. lemon grass and lime. Maybe try tofu puffs as well.

Me: 9/10
SO: 9/10
SSO: 9/10 (liked the plain shrimp and pasta - no sauce)

Shrimp Fried Rice

I love this recipe because it is quick and easy, but also because I can generally make it anytime with ingredients on hand. I always have rice, frozen shrimp, and enough random veggies to make up the rest. It didn't end up tasting like your typical fried rice from your usual Chinese take-out joint - but that could be a good thing, well different at least.

So I started with the last half of a red onion, one large carrot, a few celery stalks, and a can of bamboo shoot sticks. I always seem to have either bamboo shoot or water chestnut lying around. Now that I think of it, I think I threw in a tomato as well, seeded and diced.

From there, sauteed it up for a bit, and added some lemon juice, and a fair bit of light soy sauce. Added in the thawed raw shrimp.

Finally, tossed it and fried it up for a bit.

Next time: I would add ginger, and maybe try different spices such as maybe 5 spice

Me: 7/10
SO: 7/10
SSO: 4/10

Pasta with Shrimp, Feta, and Basil

We seem to be doing a lot of pasta lately.  But then again this blog is more about what we eat on a daily basis, and not so much about the special, planned-out exercises you might do on a weekend.  I have done a few themed small-plate dinners though, which I'll talk about another time. In any case, this is one of our favourite dishes - right up there in the top 10, if not top 5.  So easy to make, and great for leftovers as well.  This may sound crazy, but when I take it to work the next day I would put the pasta and shrimp in a tupperware, and the feta, basil, and lemon in a separate tupperware. Microwaving the whole lot ruins the fresh basil and the feta melts into gloop.

Spaghetti with Shrimp, Feta, and Basil. The lemon
garnish is not optional!

I'm not sure when we started making this or where we got it from. As usual, it likely was based on something found via web search and then modified for what ingredients we happened to have. I've seen similar recipes after a quick search, although some seem to add what looks to be random spices to differentiate.  I saw one that was loaded with dried oregano, dried basil, and garlic powder.  Seriously?  Gotta draw the line there.  This one really keeps it simple, focusing on just a few flavours that meld well together.

There are two absolute "must do" things with this dish, otherwise you might as well not bother. First, fresh basil leaves. We get these little basil plants from the supermarket for $2.99. That is the same price as a small plastic container of leaves, but it produces more and lasts longer. No brainer. The second must is the lemon wedge. The spritz of lemon just somehow ties it together. You could arguably substitute goat cheese, and pretty much any pasta really, but the lemon and basil just have to be in there. We only had boxed spaghetti on hand, but fresh linguine or fettuccine would be great. A bit of freshly ground pepper and you're good to go. Forget the tomatoes, never mind the garlic (well, maybe on that), chuck the salt (feta has you covered there), and certainly no parmesan.

Next Time: fresh pasta would be better

Me: 10/10
SO: 10/10
SSO: n/a, but would guess 3/10