Quick & glorious shrimp and side salads

J was so in love with this dinner, she insisted that I blog about it. I resisted because there's no mystery here, except for great ingredients and attention to cooking. I have to give credit to Weavers Way for the fresh and juicy shrimp, and to the garlic-infused olive oil. I crushed a few cloves of garlic and soak in a small measuring cup with 1/4 c olive oil. Stir and let it sit for awhile (hours if possible), then discard the garlic. Do this to get great garlic flavor without burned bits of garlic in the dish. Use any leftovers in salad dressing.

• 0.7 lbs shrimp (around 15), peeled to the tail and deveined.
• olive oil to coat bottom of pan
• 1 tsp hot paprika (or maybe cumin for variety)
• a few wedges of lemon
• some wine

I used a cast iron pan. Get it very hot before adding oil, then make sure the oil is hot before adding shrimp. Lay shrimp in a single layer. Add fresh black pepper and paprika. When shrimps start to show a little gold and release from the pan, turn them over, add more pepper and paprika. Don't overcook! Plate the shrimp and add a little salt. Toss wine and a squeeze of lemon into the pan, scape any bits off the bottom. Let it foam up and reduce. Pour over shrimp, add more lemon if you want. This shrimp is so good, you don't even need the sauce.

I served this alongside various prepared salads from WW co-op that I doctored up:

• Lentil salad: I added chopped scallions and served it on top of lightly dressed radicchio
• Steamed green beans (cooled), chopped tomato and crumbled feta with basil in a vinaigrette
• Beet salad: for J only (I hate beets), I did nothing to it

Accidental Soup

It cooled down suddenly and we felt like soup. Plus, I couldn't think what else to make. I pretty much just used what was in the fridge, as canned tomatoes and chickpeas had been used in a curry the night before. This turned out great. Serves two as the main dish, 4 as first course.

• 1/2 vidalia onion
• 5 cloves garlic
• 1-2 stalks celery
• 2 cubes vegetable bouillon (unsalted)
• 1 small zucchini, sliced thin or halved and sliced
• 1-2 cups diced tomatoes (canned)
• 1/2 can/cup chickpeas, rinsed
• 1/2 c Israeli couscous (pasta)
• salt
• black pepper
• 1 t cumin
• 6 leaves fresh basil, chopped
• large handful baby arugula
• 2 T grated parmesan or romano cheese
• 1 seeded mini-baguette, sliced at an angle about 1/2 inch thick (about 8 slices)
• 1/4 c good olive oil, divided

Saute onion in olive oil. When soft, add garlic and celery and cook a couple more minutes. Then add at least 2 cups water and the veggie bouillon cubes. When cubes are dissolved, add tomato, mushrooms, chickpeas, cumin, salt, pepper, couscous and zucchini. Cook at least 10 minutes, adding water when necessary. While the soup is cooking, crush 2-3 cloves garlic in a small bowl and swish around with olive oil. Brush oil on bread slices and bake at 450°F in toaster oven. Watch carefully.

When the zucchini is soft and couscous is al dente, add basil and arugula and cook another minute or two. Ladle into bowls and sprinkle parmesan or romano. Serve bowls on dinner plates and transfer toasts to plates.

J's likes and dislikes

This is just a list to help me remember:

LIKES

• Flax cereal
• Steak: strip, sirloin (but can be tough), filet mignon
• Chicken: marinated with an acid, coated and sauteed
• cold milk, chocolate milk
• sandwiches: roast turkey, provolone, romaine, pepper spread or peppadews, balsamic vinegar or something to moisten & perk up
• artichoke hearts from jar or can
• pork loin, esp in garlic/mustard & breadcrumb/parmesan/herb
• mango salsa
• kidney beans

DISLIKES

• club steak
• boring chicken
• chutney on turkey and cheese sandwiches (tired of it)
• fresh artichokes -- too hard to eat
• cold fruit, berries
• whole wheat couscous

Blueberry Pancakes and Three Hummingbirds!

Last night a ten-year-old friend came for a sleepover. After we got rid of his mom and her partner, we made two great pizzas (will post on pizza another time) and salad for dinner. This morning we got up, played video games and lazily headed down for breakfast, famished. H requested pancakes, but we were out of maple syrup. We did have a pint of fresh New Jersey blueberries, though. Personally, I find blueberry pancakes a bit disappointing: the pancake is a little soggy right around the blueberries, and the berries are liquified and have no texture (they also stick to the griddle). With this recipe I solved that problem and the lack of syrup as well.

Pancakes (makes 4 servings)

• 1 2/3 c unbleached white flour
• 1/3 c buckwheat flour
• 1 T baking powder
• 2 T sugar
• 1/2 t salt
• 2 c milk (2% this time) add another 1-2 T if you like them flatter
• 1/4 c rapeseed oil or mix of oil and melted butter
• 2 whole eggs

Syrup

• 1 pint blueberries
• 2 t lemon or to taste

Heat griddle to 350°F.

Mix dry ingredients in large bowl. Whisk together wet ingredients in smaller bowl and add all at once to dry ingredients. Mix, but don't overbeat -- it will have small lumps (I use a heatproof softly cupped spatula).

Spread a small amount of butter or oil on the griddle, wait a minute for it to get hot, then add batter with a ladle. Turn when the bubbles stop filling in (this recipe makes them pretty thick, you may not get many bubbles. Check the bottoms).

Wash the blueberries. In a small saucepan on med-low, add about 1/3 of them with a small amount of water, just to keep them from burning. Add lemon juice. You can also add a little honey or jam. Just before serving, add the rest of the blueberries,. They will warm up a little but keep their shape, taste and consistency. Turn off burner.

While we were eating on the back porch, we had the usual morning display of birds fighting for turns at the nyger seed feeder -- baby house sparrows, goldfinches and downy woodpeckers. Jeanne cleaned out the birdbath (a new addition: large shallow bowl on 2' stump, with a large rock inside) and the catbirds came to it immediately. Then we got a surprise: three hummingbirds at once in our small (20' by 20') yard. One got into a tiff with another and drove it off. It happened too fast to see if any were male (We had a male in early summer but at this time of year we normally have only females and juveniles). This is the first time we've been sure that there were three different hummers. Since I first planted native monarda (red bee balm) in the late '90s, it's been spreading throughout the mostly shady back part of the yard and has made it a magnet for hummingbirds. In my first ten years here I almost never saw hummingbirds; now it's pretty much guaranteed if you wait five or ten minutes. J's theory is that our yard is a territorial borderline. Or possibly, the third just strayed or is getting ready to migrate? We'll keep an eye out to see if there's a male around. Sorry girls, they're just so much prettier with that ruby red throat.

Scallops and Asparagus

What could be better than sauteed scallops and delicate spears of asparagus? The only thing we needed was a piece of crusty bread to sop up the extra sauce. Did I mention that I have high cholesterol and avoid cooking with butter? It's unnecessary in this dish, but if you want to add a little to the sauce to make it richer, go ahead.

2/3 lb dry (untreated) sea scallops, Jersey fresh

1/2 lb asparagus, preferably narrow spears

2 T olive oil

black pepper

Sauce

2 T orange juice (or juice of a whole blood orange and omit the lemon)

juice of 1/2 large lemon

1/4 c or more, white wine

dash salt

Heat two sauté pans (if possible, use cast iron for the scallops and keep it on high). While they are heating, snap the ends off the asparagus and break in half, dividing into two piles of ends and tips. Thoroughly rinse the scallops and dry on a paper towel (this dish works only for dry, untreated scallops; wet scallops give off too much water in the pan and won't caramelize). Grind fresh black pepper over the scallops.

Add olive oil to both pans and wait until it's very hot. You can add a little smashed garlic, but take it out after a minute so it doesn't burn. Add asparagus ends to one pan, shake/stir now and then.

Into heavier pan, place scallops pepper side down, leaving space around them, and grind more pepper on top. Turn them once, only after they have formed a golden crust.

Add tips to asparagus, squeeze a little lemon over them and a tiny bit of sugar and some salt. Stir occasionally. Test, and if done early, done turn heat way down and leave in pan to stay warm.

When scallops are golden on both sides, remove to plates and quickly add the sauce ingredients to the pan. It will bubble up. With a spatula, scrape the pan so little bits of scallop dissolve in the sauce. When it is reduced by at least half (a minute or two), pour over scallops.

J mentioned that we should have had something to sop up the extra sauce. A piece of bread, some couscous, or roasted or mashed potatoes would have been great.

Taste of China

Our outstanding meal last week in Toronto was at Taste of China. After an early evening at the Art Gallery Ontario (free Wednesdays from 6:00 PM to 8:30) we walked over to Chinatown and tried this place (338 Spadina Ave., 416.348.8828). They specialize in live seafood, with a wide range of fish, shellfish & bivalves available (I avoided looking in the tanks). The patrons were nearly all Chinese, and there was a Chinese blackboard with specials on it. Around us people were eating dishes heaped with whole fish, lobster, mussels and oysters. But this evening we were craving green vegetables! We decided to trust our waiter to help us out. He brought us two dishes, both excellent: garlic shoots and tiger shrimp in black bean sauce, and snowpea leaves and king mushrooms in garlic sauce. I hadn't had either of these vegetables before. The snowpea leaves were similar to spinach. The garlic shoots were tender, crunchy and a bright green, sort of a cross between shallots and asparagus. The shrimp was perfectly done -- extra juicy and flavorful, with a light touch on the black bean sauce. I'm going to look for these ingredients next time I'm in Chinatown (Philly) and will edit this entry when I make them!

Green Mango Salad

I was in Toronto last week. A most memorable dish was this salad at Happy Thai on West Queen West. (I was the only customer there for a late lunch, so needless to say the service was excellent as well.) I tried duplicating it at home, but my dressing just wasn't the same. It was good though! My recipe for two follows:

Salad

• Green (slightly hard) mango, sliced into fat matchsticks (one small or 1/2 large)
• 1/3 sweet red pepper, also sliced in thin strips
• some red onion, sliced a bit chunky
• crushed peanuts
• whole roasted cashews (ok to use salted)
• cilantro, some chopped fine and some for garnish
• cucumber and orange slice for garnish
• large piece of lettuce for the base
• optional: carrot, sliced into very fine matchsticks

Dressing

• juice of 1/2 lime, or to taste
• 1 tsp Thai fish sauce
• 1 tsp sugar dissolved in 2 tsp warm water
• 1/2 tsp spicy toasted sesame oil, or to taste, since this is the source of hot peppers
• 1 tsp pickapeppa (I wanted to get tamarind flavor in there somewhere, since I didn't have any in the house)

Arrange the salad ingredients on the plate, then whisk together the dressing and pour over.