This Shrimp Recipe is Light and Easy.

So, there I was at the City Market in Cortez, Colorado picking up the ingredients to make an Alfredo sauce. I had already purchased pappardelle elsewhere; now I wanted to combine it with shrimp, broccoli, sugar snap peas and cover it all in Alfredo sauce. That was the plan, until I got home and decided, "I don't want Alfredo sauce, I want something different!"  Now what, was the question indeed.

I still wanted the shrimp, definitely the sugar snap peas, but broccoli and pasta just didn't seem enticing at the moment.  Digging around the fridge, I found a red bell pepper and diced it up; in the pantry I found a jar of chopped shitaki and oyster mushrooms in brine (drained that off).  Hmm, now what, I thought, perhaps a stir fry?  Rice, sigh, rice is a bore; but wait, instead of water, why not cook it in broth and soy sauce...and a new plan was finally born.

The dish I ended up with was so light and yet, packed with flavor; it was hard not to eat the entire skillet full.  It was also very, very easy to put together.  The ingredients in the skillet finished cooking up just as the rice was done; no waiting for one, while the other got cold.  I love when a plan, turns into a plan which ends up delicious!  Oh, the other ingredients I had purchased to make an Alfredo; you know I'll come up with something else eventually.

Shrimp, Vegetables Over Rice

 Ingredients:

2 Tbsp. canola oil

½ cup diced red bell peppers
1 cup chopped mixture of shitake and oyster mushrooms
½ lb. sugar snap peas
½ tsp. garlic powder
½ tsp. ground ginger
½ lb. large shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 Tbsp. lemon juice

 

Ingredients for the Rice:

1 cup rice (white, long grain wild, brown)

1 Tbsp. butter (or butter substitute)
1 and ¾ cups vegetable broth
¼ cup soy sauce

Preparation:

 

 

 

In a medium saucepan, on high heat, bring the rice, butter, broth and soy sauce to a boil.  Stir, reduce heat to low, cover, let simmer for 15 minutes.  Turn off heat, uncover and fluff up rice; any excess moisture will evaporate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While rice is simmering, heat the oil in a 12 inch skillet over medium-high heat; add in bell peppers, mushrooms, snap peas, garlic powder and ginger; mix and cook for 3 minutes.  Add in shrimp, cook for 5 minutes; shrimp will begin turning pink, stir in lemon juice, cover and remove from heat.  Let mixture settle for 3 minutes; serve over rice.

 

 

Makes four servings.

Mary Cokenour

Oh So Easy Shrimp, Veggies and Pasta.

The most difficult part about making a pasta recipe is choosing the pasta. Do you want tubular; long and thin; long, flat and thin; curly; wavy; a shape such as a bowtie or shell; yada, yada, yada? There are so many choices in the world of pasta and it basically depends on what shape you feel like looking at on your plate, and forking over into your mouth. For this recipe I chose pappardelle; a broad, flat, long pasta that is shaped into a "nest" when drying; once cooked though, it's snakes alive!

Shrimp and Vegetables over Pappardelle

Ingredients:

3 Tbsp olive oil

1 large zucchini, cubed
1 large yellow squash, cubed
1 medium onion, chopped
1 (8 oz) package Pappardelle
water to cook pasta
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 lb. large shrimp, shelled and deveined
2 cups tomato vodka cream sauce**

Preparation:

In a large skillet, heat oil on medium-high heat, sauté zucchini, yellow squash and onion till the edges just begin to brown.  While waiting to brown vegetables, heat water in a large pot and cook Pappardelle until al dente.

Add the garlic, salt, pepper and shrimp to the vegetables; mix. 

When the shrimp turns opaque, drain the pasta and place a serving on each plate.   Spoon sauce over the pasta and top with the shrimp and vegetable mixture.

 

 

Makes 6 servings.

** Recipe for Tomato Vodka Cream Sauce

Tomato Vodka Cream Sauce

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp butter

¼ cup diced onion
1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes
1 cup heavy cream
¼ cup vodka
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
½ cup grated parmesan cheese
¼ cup grated Romano cheese

Preparation:

In a large skillet, medium-high heat, melt butter and sauté onion until translucent. Add tomatoes and cook until liquid reduces by half; stir frequently to keep from sticking or burning.

Add cream, vodka and pepper flakes; bring to a boil; reduce heat to low; add in cheeses and let cook 10 minutes to let sauce thicken.

Makes 4 cups.

Mary Cokenour


 

Hiding Vegetables is not exactly a new concept.

So someone did a study on children and came up with the conclusion that if you hide vegetables in the meals you create, the kids won't know. Not exactly a new concept, especially for people who are good cooks and creative in the kitchen. Where was I when the grant money for this study was given out!?!

It doesn't work for just children, but for adults who don't like or won't eat their veggies. Personally, I'm very picky about what vegetables I eat, so I have to come up with recipes that can fool even me; and I'm the one who cooked the dish!

One vegetable I dislike is eggplant; I don't like the texture and it tastes bitter to me. I have only tried it in dishes where it has been fried in oil, and being the sponge that it is, the eggplant is oily in taste and texture. However, they do have nutritional value, low in calories and high in fiber, so how to include them in a recipe without having to fry them?

Well, two dishes I know how to make are Eggplant Lasagna and Eggplant Parmigiana which both involve the use of homemade pasta sauce.  Wonder what it would be like if I used the eggplant in the sauce as an ingredient, like tomatoes?  After a bit of trial and error, I discovered that it worked very well indeed, and the eggplant substituted as a thickener for the sauce instead of having to use tomato paste.

Even though the sauce works well with any pasta, I like to use a ribbon pasta such as Tagliatelle or Papardelle.  I leave the sauce chunky and any eggplant chunks have absorbed the flavors of the sauce itself, so no bitterness.  Being a homemade sauce, I control what I put in it; salt and sugar, like in jarred sauces, really have no place, since the ingredients used already contain them naturally.

Vegetarian Pasta Sauce

Ingredients:

1 large onion, chopped

1 large red bell pepper, seeded and chopped

2 medium eggplants, peeled and cut into 1” cubes

3 (28 oz) cans crushed tomatoes

3 Tbsp Italian herb mix

4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

¼ cup grated Romano cheese

Preparation:

Set a 6-qt crock pot on low; put all ingredients into crock pot, mix thoroughly and let cook for 8 hours. 

Use an immersion blender or a potato masher in the crock pot to break up some of the eggplant chunks; this will thicken up the sauce.  The sauce will be chunky; if a smoother sauce is desired, use the immersion blender or potato masher until desired consistency is achieved.

Makes 5 quarts.

Mary Cokenour