Szechwan Shrimp

I haven’t bought shrimp in a while because it’s so expensive, but I found myself really craving it the other day.

So I bought some.

I really don’t know how to say Szechwan but I do know that I think it’s yummy. I had a recipe bookmarked on allrecipes.com from one of those daily emails that they send out, so I thought I’d give it a try. Seemed simple enough.

The sauce starts out with some water.

Some ketchup…

Soy sauce (I prefer low sodium)…

Corn starch. I thought it was really interesting to mix it in with my sauce instead of later dissolving it in some water and adding it, but I like it this way better. Eliminates a step and makes the result less watery.

Honey…

Crushed red pepper flakes…

And ground ginger…

I like pretty pictures of ingredients not quite mixed up.

Also, then I went back and redid the whole thing because I realized I wanted more sauce than the recipe called for. We’ll come back to this.

Next, I turned to the shrimp.

I’d wanted more sauce than the recipe called for because I planned to incorporate broccoli, which wasn’t in the original recipe.

Sauté it all up.

Once it had started to heat up, I added the sauce. I figured it needed time to simmer, especially with that cornstarch in there.

To serve, just put some rice in a bowl

And spoon the shrimp and broccoli right on top. Simple as that!

A really nice weeknight dinner. Not a lot of effort or dishes, but a lot of flavor. Here’s the recipe, if you’d like to try it!

I know I’ve been behind in posting. I have term papers due. Enough said. I’ll be back on track soon!

Chicken Parmesan Casserole

Once again, I’m ignoring my own don’t-blog-other-bloggers’-stuff rule for this post. Chef John at foodwishes.com posted about what he called “the most popular chicken recipe video in the history of the Internet.” Um, of course I needed to jump on the bandwagon and try it for myself. And once I did, I realized that I needed to share it with you so that you will know how important it is for you to try this recipe, as well. It’s vital, actually.

It starts out easy enough. A bit of olive oil, minced garlic, and red pepper flakes in the bottom of a Pyrex dish.

I smeared it around with a pastry brush, then added some chicken breasts (Chef John added that you could give them a quick pan-fry first, but I chose not to dirty another dish. Sue me).

Followed by a jar of spaghetti sauce. I used Wegman’s brand “Grandma’s Pomodoro Sauce.”

Then some grated Parmesan cheese (I didn’t use fresh but it would have been better if I had)…

… and grated mozzarella (same deal as with the Parmesan)…

… topped by a bag of garlic croutons. This part is so important and awesome. Just pour the croutons on top, spread them out, and smoosh them down a bit with your hand. They will give the final product an awesome flavor and texture.

And then top with more Parmesan and mozzarella!

And with that, they go in the oven. I used a meat thermometer to monitor the best cooking time, since it seemed that a lot of commenters had trouble with that. When it was done, this is what my casserole looked like:

Here’s a close-up. Yummmmm.

To serve, just try to get a chicken breast out of the dish with the cheese and croutons over it intact. Eat any stray pieces right out of the pan with your fingers.

I served with some green beans and a garlic knot. Oh, it was so good. Those croutons added such a nice flavor and texture to the chicken. This was such a quick, easy meal, and it had such a restaurant-quality finish to it. I highly recommend that you give it a try!

Amatriciana

This dinner had its origins in a package of diced pancetta that I picked up from Wegman’s. I really love that store. It makes impulse buying happen far more often, but that’s a good thing. After all, it led me to this dish. I had planned to make Ravioli with Arugula, Tomatoes, and Pancetta, but I didn’t have any arugula and did a google search instead. Amatriciana is what I came up with. The recipe called this a “quick and flavorful classic,” so maybe it’s something Italians would know about, but  it was new to me.

Well, technically the recipe called for bacon, but all the reviewers said to use pancetta, so I’m assuming this is the “authentic” way.

I started off with the pancetta in a pan, cooking over medium heat. I really wanted everything to get crispy, since it would be sitting in sauce later and I didn’t want it to be soggy.

Oops, got too close with my camera and let the lens fog up.

For some reason, it got really bubbly, but you can kind of see that the pieces are getting crispy.

Or not.

Anyway… While it was cooking, I turned to some homegrown garlic from rural Virginia.

After I peeled a bunch of it, this is what it looked like. Each segment was small so this is not as much as it looks like!

The next step is technically to sauté chopped onions with the pancetta, but I didn’t have any. I moved right on to the garlic.

Here I am using my garlic press to mince it into the pancetta. It’s been so long since I’ve done this instead of using the canned stuff!

Let it cook for maybe 30 seconds…

And then move on. The recipe said to use two cans of stewed tomatoes – I used diced. Just add them to the pancetta/ garlic/ onions (if you have onions, that is), along with some crushed red pepper flakes, and simmer for 20 minutes or so.

Meanwhile, boil some pasta. I used fettuccini.

Just before serving, stir a tablespoon of fresh basil into the sauce. I think this stuff is almost as good as fresh. This was my first time really using it. If you’re using dried, I would put it in a lot sooner so the flavor can be released.

I took a picture after it was stirred in, but that one’s blurry, so this picture will have to suffice.

Drain your pasta when it’s done…

And then mix the sauce into it.

And there you go! I topped with some shredded Parmesan and served with some green beans and a garlic bread stick from the freezer aisle. Delicious!

The pancetta lends a smoky, salty flavor to the sauce, and the red pepper flakes are subtle but present – this isn’t spicy, but you do taste the spice. It’s simple, but it’s pretty good. And relatively healthy, if you overlook the pancetta grease.

A good recipe, and one that I’ll be making again (assuming Wegman’s continues to make it easy to find pancetta!).

Here’s the recipe.

Penne with Vodka Cream Sauce and Garden Green Beans

I had another one of those days where the mental image of what I wanted for dinner hit me while I was in the car on my way home. I was already planning to stop by the grocery store to pick up some Airborne for my almost-sorta-kinda-sick hubby, so I just picked up a few extra things while I was there.

But I was already hungry by the time I got home, so I thought I’d indulge in a little pre-dinner snack. I sliced up some fresh French bread and dipped it in some fancy dipping oil with sundried tomato and basil as if I was at an Italian restaurant, except I was leaning over the counter to eat, using my apron as a napkin, laughing at my puppies as they played, and rocking out to the Pandora app on my tablet. Other than that, just like eating at an Italian restaurant.

Also, I was drinking wine, a delicious malbec that my friend brought over the night I made crumb-coated chicken thighs.

This penne dish has something for both hubby and I. I love the creamy pasta sauce, and he loves the sweet Italian sausage. It’s a pretty good compromise, so I’m not sure why it’s been so long since I’ve made it. Anyway, start by taking off all the casings on the sweet Italian sausages before you do anything else. I use twice as much sausage as the recipe calls for because when I’ve made this in the past, hubby has told me that he liked everything except that it didn’t have enough sausage.

Plop it in a big skillet with a healthy dose of olive oil and heat it until it’s browned.

While that’s going on, start boiling your penne. Honestly, I seriously thought about halving this recipe, but then I admitted to myself that I didn’t want to deal with that. I was tired and craving carbs, so if the recipe called for a whole pound of penne pasta even though I was only planning on serving hubby and myself, why the hell not?

That sausage is starting to look and smell pretty amazing. Someday they’ll figure out how to share scents over the Internet, but for now you’ll just have to do with a picture. I’ve just added a bunch of minced garlic and half a teaspoon of red pepper flakes to make it zippy.

After the garlic has started to brown a bit, add a big 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes. Bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for a while.

While it’s doing that, you can start prepping your sides. First, I saw something at the grocery store that I just HAD to pick up. This is why you should never shop when hungry.

That’s a giant scoop of garlic bread spread. I don’t think it has any actual butter in it, just butter-flavored things, plus garlic and what looks like parsley or some other green leafy thing, but it just smelled delicious. I think this is what frozen Texas toast is made from. I guess making my own would have been better, but this was just so easy and tasty.

There’s that French bread again. I guess I didn’t take pictures of it slathered with my garlic bread spread. Use your imagination.

And then I wanted to make some green beans. I’ve had this on my list of things to blog about for forever but haven’t because it’s somewhat unremarkable.

First, steam some fresh green beans.

After about 5 minutes, put it in a bowl. Add olive oil, salt, pepper, white wine vinegar, Parmesan cheese, and parsley. Last time I made it, I realized that it called for too much Parmesan cheese – it was overwhelming.

I was more careful this time.

Both times, I used minced garlic instead of sliced and did not pick it back out after a while, like the recipe says to do. Sue me.

Turning back to the pasta, it’s ready.

Add some vodka and some heavy cream to the sauce

Once it’s mixed in, add in that pasta and stir for another minute until everything is well-mixed.

Isn’t that nice? The sauce is creamy and has a bit of a bite to it, which you can chalk up to the crushed red pepper flakes.

As for the green beans, they weren’t as good as I remember them being the last time. Is it because I bought the beans from the farmer’s market last time, but from the grocery store in January this time? Because I used more cheese last time? Because I used regular white vinegar last time instead of white wine vinegar? Because I ate all that bread an hour before eating this?

Eh, who cares. It was all tasty.

Especially that garlic bread.