SHRIMP IN BLUE CHEESE SAUCE OVER RICE

SHRIMP IN BLUE CHEESE SAUCE OVER RICE

I have been a bit lazy in the kitchen recently and decided I wanted a full bodied meal, bursting with flavor.  What to make?  With not much time and a day before food shopping day, I knew it might not be that great or exciting.  Off to the freezer and there were numerous bags of shrimp (bought for only $4.99 a pound at the Asian market on sale).

I found a huge piece of blue cheese, some light cream and I came up wih this recipe.  It is very rich and a little goes a long way. 

To be honest, I would make half of the sauce as I had allot leftover as I dished it  with lots of shrimp and little sauce.  So I wasted some sauce for sure!

4 cups water

12 large shrimp in shells

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup long-grain white rice

2 tablespoon butter

2 tablespoon flour

½ cup light cream

¾ cup milk

5 ounces blue cheese

Good squirt of Hot Sauce of your liking

4 sprigs Italian flat-leaf parsley chopped

Bring water to a boil. Stir in raw shrimp in shells and boil just under a minute. Drain shrimp RESERVING water. Peel shrimp and reserve.  Place all shells back the water and boil on medium heat for 4 minutes.  Drain and keep 2 cups of liquid.

Boil 2 cups of reserved liquid and put ¾ cup rice in and stir.  Reduce heat to low and simmer 20 minutes until rice is cooked. Fluff the rice and season with salt.

Melt butter and stir in flour and cook 1 minute.  Place in milk and cream and stir until creamy.

Add cheese (all but a small amount to top the plates)  in a pan  and cook on low heat until melted.Squirt hot sauce in sauce and mix.   When rice is cooked and sauce finished add the shrimp to the sauce and stir until heated through.

Serve sauce a top the rice and sprinkle with parsley and bits of blue cheese.  Serves three/ four.

TIPS:

·        Shrimp will cook more in the sauce. Therefore, under-cook in the water (just enough to make peeling easy)

·        Sauce is good on spaghetti or polenta

GRILLED LAMB CHOPS

GRILLED LAMB CHOPS FOR GREEK EASTER

As many holidays are defined by the food served, we can also define the Greek Easter as one huge long Big Fat Greek Feast!

The first meal of the Easter celebration is taken after midnight church service of the Resurrection which breaks the 40 day fasting of leading up to the Easter Festivities. The following day is full of cooking, eating, laughing and friends and family joining together.

Picture this: A whole lamb  roasting over hot coals with garlic permeating the air, big bowls of Greek salads, dish after dish of fresh spring vegetables roasted, fried eggplant and zucchini sprinkled with Parmesan cheese; soft sweet Easter bread baking in the oven, family arriving with platters of spinach and cheese pies, children running and playing under the bright spring Grecian sun; everyone taking turns preparing and contributing to the communal meal ..THE EASTER FEAST on the holiest of all the Greek holidays.

Easter….what a wonderful time for family and friends to gather and celebrate the end of lent with a traditional lamb meal.

I have only my husband and myself to cook for this year, so a big whole lamb is not even a thought. But I will make tender grilled lamb chops which have been marinated in olive oil, lemon, rosemary, garlic and oregano. A few of the traditional side dishes will make it to our table, which of course includes a Greek salad topped with delicious feta cheese, spinach pie, roasted potatoes the red dyed eggs to crack offering the person whose egg does not crack, Good luck for the year!

4-6 loin Lamb chops  (T-bone in them) about ¾ ths of an inch thick
2 tablespoon of olive oil
Juice of one lemon
2 garlic cloves minced
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 sprig rosemary (needles only)
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine oil and spices in a blender.  Blend until smooth. Wipe and pat dry the chops.he run on both sides of the chops. Refrigerate at least 2 hours.

Marinated in a plastic bag in the refrigerator

Remove from refrigerator and let sit ½ hour to come to room temperature.

Heat grill pan or grill till just about smoking hot.  Grill first side three minutes and second 2 ½ minutes for medium rare.

Serve with a lemon slice


                                                                           KALO PASAK TO ALL!

As always be your own Creative Dump Cook and change this recipe to what YOU have on hand!

STUFFED SQUID Kalamaria Yemista

STUFFED SQUID  Kalamaria Yemista

I was coming back from our new home and found a remarkable Korean International Market (Assi International) on the way and decided to go in and see what they had to offer.  It is amazing!.  I consider myself a “foodie” but so much of what they had were items I had never seen before accept in cook books and on cooking shows and some items I never heard of or saw before. Their fresh vegetables and fruit section in particular were most outstanding.

Their fish department was  marvelous  with many varieties of  fresh fish.  I came upon large squid and I could not pass up purchasing them.  I love squid in all sizes; small fried calamari and  squid salad and stuffed squid using the larger version.

The stuffing, made of rice, raisins, pine nuts, onions and herbs) is a commonly used one in Greece for grape leaves (Dolmades), mussels, tomatoes and peppers.

Squid have gained in notoriety in the USA, as many restaurants now serve fried Calamari.  This dish is made with the larger sized Calamari.

This sounds more difficult than it is and surely makes for a lovely elegant and different meal.

Preparation of the squid is the first thing to master.  Rinse well.  Squeeze out the eye balls and socket (yes sounds horrible, but it is easy). Be very careful the squid ink does not splatter you!  Pull off the head and tentacles.

Notice the cartilage at the lower right

Reach inside the body of the squid and pull out the thin long cartilage. Rinse all again.

Chop the tentacles and the onion.

1 1/2 pounds large squid

1/2 cup of olive oil

1 small onion chopped

1 head of garlic minced

1/2 cup of dry white wine

1/4 cup of rice

¼ cup raisins

¼ cup pine nuts

1/4 bunch of fresh parsley, chopped

¼ cup mint chopped

¼ cup dill chopped

1 teaspoon of salt

1/2 teaspoon of pepper

1 cup chopped tomatoes

Water to cover squid

Heat the olive oil and add the onions and garlic and sauté until translucent. Add the chopped tentacles, rice, and wine.  Simmer a few minutes.  Remove from heat. Add 1/2 of the pine nuts, raisins  and  herbs, salt and pepper.

Stuff the squid ( 3/4 ths full as the rice will expand) and place in a large pot where they can fit tightly.  Place the remaining herbs, pine nuts, raisins and tomatoes in a bowl and then pour on the squid. 

Cover with water  so the lcooking liquid comes about ½ way up  the squid. Cover and simmer for about 45 minutes until the squid is tender.

TIPS

• I had some shrimp and added to the sauce 10 minutes before serving.
• The stuffing is prefect for Tomatoes (use the inside of the tomato instead of the tops of the squid)

As always be your own Creative Dump Cook and change this recipe to what YOU have on hand!

Greek Stuffed Cabbage Rolls -Lahanodomathes

Lahanodolmathes:  Greek Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

I was not planning on making these today but it seems I broke my cardinal rule and ran out of one of my main pantry items, which I should NEVER not have on hand!  Canned tomatoes!  If it were summer, I would be able to rely on fresh tomatoes, but alas it is very early spring and fresh tomatoes just are not worth buying now!

So the planned spaghetti sauce with ground meat and tomatoes was out and plan B had to be hatched. I had in the refrigerator left over head of cabbage (from my corned beef and cabbage made for St. Patty’s day) and Greek stuffed cabbage rolls came to mind.

Created mostly in the Balkans, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, they are rolls made of cabbage and stuffed with various meats, vegetables and grains like rice and barley and boiled, baked or stemmed.  . Cabbage rolls come in various styles and tastes depending on the spices used and ingredients and my favorite is the Greek style or Lahanodolmathes!

These are very easy to make and if making them for a large group you need a little extra time to roll them all. Otherwise it is a simple meal and very tasty.  The key for mine is the DILL.

•1 pound of ground beef
• About 8 large cabbage leaves
•1 egg
•1/2 cups rice
• 4 tablespoon chopped Dill
• 2 teaspoon salt
 1 teaspoon minced garlic
•freshly ground black pepper (I always like allot)
•1 small onion, finely chopped
•1 teaspoon olive oil

FOR POT

Gr Beef, rice, egg, onion, basil,, garlic, salt/pepper

•1/2 onion chopped in 3 pieces. 1 carrot chopped in three pieces and 4 leaves of broken pieces of cabbage unable to be used in rolls
•water to just cover the rolls

Outer leaves of Cabbage

Boil a large pot of water and place the cabbage large leaves in for about 3-4 minutes until soft enough to roll and yet not break apart.

Combine all ingredients up to the ½ onion, carrot and cabbage pieces.  Mix well and use the tools given to you – your HANDS! So mixture is soft and all is incorporated well.  Roll into a ball about the size of a golf ball and smooth out into a log shape. Lay out the cabbage leaf and place the log in the middle.  Fold the two outer sizes in to over-lap the edge of the meat log. Roll cabbage leaf length-wise until the end.  In large pan lay the rolls seamed down tightly next to each other.

Place an inverted plate on top of rolls. Cover with water and bring to a boil and then turn heat down to a simmer and cook on low for about one hour.  Remove plate and place rolls on plate and serve with Avgolemonono Sauce 

AVGOLEMONO EGG-LEMON Sauce:

3 egg yolks
 1/3 cup lemon juice

 1 cup hot cabbage broth

Whisk the yolks and slowly add the lemon juice.  Keep whisking and add slowly (not to cook eggs) the broth. 

TIPS:

To make is easy to get the large leaves off the cabbage head in tack, stab the middle of the cabbage with a long tonged fork.  Lower into boiling water and simmer a few minutes Remove the outer leaves as they become tender and repeat the same action to get the leaves off easily.

The Sauce is excellent on chicken breasts and stuffed grape leaves.

When placing a plate on the pot (inverted) please make sure there is room around the edges so it does not get suctioned down and then it becomes almost impossible to get off.  ((Believe me it was a terrible experience!)

As always be your own Creative Dump Cook and change this recipe to what YOU have on hand

BOILED CORNED BEEF DINNER

In honor of Saint Patrick’s Day and the big sale on corned beef brisket, I am making a boiled corned beef dinner.

Simple and easy, it is a meal all in one!  The corned beef brisket comes in a package with a spice package included. I like to “spice it up” a bit more and then add the traditional vegetables.

I corned beef brisket (with spice pack inside) about 2 ½ pounds

3 white potatoes peeled and cut in 1/4ths

15 baby carrots

½ head of cabbage in chunks

1 onion cut in 1/4ths

1 bay leaf

6 whole cloves

1/8 teaspoon allspice

½ teaspoon garlic powder

Ground pepper and salt to taste

water to cover meat by about 1 inch

Place all in a large stew pot and bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 3 hours until the brisket meat is tender to the pull.

TIPS:

Serve in a bowl with juice from the pan poured over all
Remember to take the bay leaf out!
Leftover beef makes an amazing sandwich sliced thinly and piled on rye bread with Russian dressing and coleslaw..YUM!.

Breakfast Smoothies

A smoothie,  or smoothy, is a blended beverage made with fruit and juice. Usually fresh fruit is best but frozen fruit can also be substituted.   In addition to fruit, many smoothies include ice, vegetables, milk, honey , peanut butter, ginger and yogurt. They are very filling, full of nutrients and vitamins and are a good healthy way to start a day. Blended in a blender they become thick and smooth as the name implies.

This one was taught to me by my daughter and is the staple "smoothie"in our house.

2 cups spinach
1/2 cup lettuce
1/8 teaspoons chopped ginger
3 cups juice of choice
1 green apple skinned and chopped roughly
1/2 avocado

Place all in a blender and blend away!

My husband likes banana in his, so I add a few frozen pieces of banana.

TIP:
Banana Ice
  Slice bananas and place on cookie sheet.  Freeze until hard and place in a zip lock baggy and refreeze.  Once ready to use take out what portion you need and keep the rest in the freezer. 

Add to baggy and refreeze

Using frozen Bananas slices instead of ice makes for a tastier smoothie.

 As always be your own Creative Dump Cook and change this recipe to what YOU have on hand

Baked Fresh Trout

Baked fresh whole trout

2 whole rainbow trout fish (about 1 pound each)

2 lemons

$ large sprigs fresh dill chopped

Sea salt

Pepper

Olive Oil

1/2 cup white wine optional

Preheat oven to 475 F ( if you wish to place the fish on a rack it will yield a crispier skin.)

Rinse the fish under cold water and pat dry. I took off the head (cutting behind the gills straight down) but you can leave the head on for a nicer table side presentation. .  I was multi tasking and used the head and some scallions ends and shrimp shells in the water to make a fish broth.

Slice one of the lemons in half and the other into rounds thinly.

Lightly sprinkle the cavities of the fish with salt,  pepper, and chopped fresh dill.and  then place half of the lemon slices inside on top of the salted/peppered cavity.

 Optional: pour white wine around fish.

Place on rack in the prepared pan. Sprinkle lightly with olive oil.  Spread dill sprigs over the skin and top with remaining lemon slices. Sprinkle lightly with paprika. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes at 375 degrees. 

TIPS:
Garnish with remaining lemon, cut into wedges, and a dill sprig.
If you roll the lemons first before cutting them they will produce more juice.
Leave heads on the fish ifyou are presenting  the whole fish on platter to guests.

 As always be your own Creative Dump Cook and change this recipe to what YOU have on hand