Last of the Shrimp-Shrimp Salsa Verde

 Another recipe gleaned from the pinterest board from the cooks at Delish. I have fixed a few of the recipes on that site and have not failed on one.

I changed a few things of course but it is still absolutely delicious!

Shrimp Salsa Verde -inspired from Delish

1 lb cleaned and deveined shrimp

1 cup white rice

1 cup Salsa Verde (home made or jar)

2 tbl taco seasoning

1 tbl finely chopped cilantro

2 garlic cloves - crushed

1/4 c shallots (I used finely chopped red onion)

Salt&Pepper

1 tbl olive oil (or salted butter)

Really amazingly simple recipe. 

I sprinkled taco seasoning on the shrimp after they were cleaned and tossed to get them coated then let them sit in the fridge while the rice cooked.

Prepare rice however you need. We have the rice cooker and it takes about 30 minutes for it to cook and half that time for the shrimp. So I started the rice first, set my timer for 20 minutes then started the shrimp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heat oil/butter in large skillet on medium heat,  add the shallots/onion, heat through then add garlic and cook till fragrant. Add in the shrimp, stir and cook until no longer translucent, sprinkle some of the cilantro and dump the salsa verde in, stirring and continuing to heat it through making sure the shrimp is mostly pink.

 

Turn heat off, spoon a generous helping of rice, sprinkle more cilantro on, spoon on the shrimp and salsa and enjoy!

That's it! So amazingly simple! The salsa verde is my homemade version that has a lot of lime flavor in it, if you want to make cilantro lime rice, that's good too. I didn't feel any more lime was necessary with the salsa being so limey.

The salty shrimp flavor is an excellent balance to the tart and spicy flavor of the salsa, if I did it again I would use more shrimp, we're big eaters and this was nice for an entre if we had other side dishes to fill in.

We are getting down to the bottom of our supplies so finishing up the shrimp on this dish was perfect. Plenty of chicken left and some hamburger plus one more pair of salmon filets.I cooked up two of the chicken breasts as chicken fingers yesterday and made pasta sauce with penne pasta the night before. Used some hamburger to make hot dog chili sauce, which is a first and frankly, not going to use 'Jeff's Hot Dog Chili' recipe again.

1 lb Ground beef

1/2 tsp Onion powder

1/2 cup Ketchup

1/2 (10 ounce) can Tomato sauce

1 dash Worcestershire sauce

2 1/2 tsp Chili powder

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Black pepper, ground

1/2 tsp White sugar

1/3 cup Water

 Ketchup AND sugar? Yuck.  Way too sweet with just the ketchup and didn't have that 'chili' flavor at all. I didn't use any sugar and may have used a bit too little tomato sauce but I used up what was in the fridge and then had to open another can so it had more of a tomato flavor. I had to add in more chili powder and a little cumin to give it more of a chili flavor as well. I made it because I'm running low on mustard for my hot dogs so this is servicing well for that. I'll be looking for another recipe instead or maybe use the base for my standard chili and leave out the beans and diced tomatoes. 

 

More cooking adventures to come when we restock on supplies next week!

Miscellaneous things with leftovers.

 I almost forgot about the last thin chuck steak from the stroganoff until I was frying potatoes and baking chicken for another meal. Grabbed it out, coated it in the same breading as the chicken and it wasn't quite chicken fried steak. It was at least coated in flavor, I may have cooked it a bit too long I think but then inspiration the next day happened.

 'Open Face Cottage Pie'

Cold leather meat is difficult to cut but I did it into 1/2 to 1 inch pieces. Used packaged brown gravy, about a half cup or so of mixed veggies, and the pieces of meat. Added some Italian seasoning and a pinch of salt and pepper. Whipped up a small batch of mashed potatoes and voila! It was dang tasty! 

I use a lot of my leftovers whenever possible during the week because of my schedule picking up grandkids. Three days a week I don't have all day so it's a perfect opportunity to use what's in the fridge and using the last of supplies at the end of the month.

Almost Carnitas Pork Roast-Crockpot version.

It's almost carnitas because I didn't have all the ingredients needed (I never seem to have oranges on hand when I need them) and didn't have time to marinate overnight. Instead of making tacos we put the meat on the rice. I only got a picture of the finished meal because what's to see? Meat cooking? So here's what I used:

 Cartnitas Seasoning+:

 

 1 tablespoon light brown sugar

 1½ teaspoons kosher salt

 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

 1 teaspoon cumin

 1 teaspoon oregano

 1 teaspoon coriander

 ¼ teaspoon cayenne, or to taste

 

 1 yellow onion, peeled and quartered

 1 heaping teaspoon minced garlic (3 or 4 cloves)

 2 limes juiced, about ⅓ cup juice (discard the spent halves)(I used bottled lime juice about three tbl.)

 2 tsp lemon juice

 2 bay leaves

 

I took the (2 or 3 lbs maybe?) bone in pork butt shank (whatever the heck it was called) and was going to just score the skin but ended up cutting all the meat off in large chunks and taking the tougher outer skin off, leaving a good portion of the actual fat. Put those pieces in a bowl with just the spices and coated them thorougly. Quartered the onion and dropped those into the crock pot. Added the juices to the bowl of meat and tossed again, then dropped it all into the crock pot, moving things around so some of the onion was on top. Add the two bay leaves and crushed garlic on top. Be sure to have your crock pot plugged in..... only lost a half hour of cooking on that one, cook on high for 4-5 hours or until meat pulls apart easily.

Cook a batch of plain white rice, break up the meat into smaller chunks, spoon onto rice with the juices in the bottom, bits of onion and all that good stuff (remove the bay leaves). Absolutely delicious! More than enough meat and rice left over for the next day when I made...... 

Carnitas Soup

Leftover carnitas meat

1 c frozen mixed veggies

1 c beef broth/bullion (+3 tbl water)(or veggie broth or chicken, whatever)

1/2 c rice

1/2 can Rotel

 

Using the leftover meat and chilled juices/fat (about a cup or so) warm up in a saucepan. When that is warmed, add in the rice and stir around so the rice absorbs the juices. (Blogger is being a booger about putting photos in after publishing)

Add in the half can (1/2 c) Rotel. Stir and heat through then add in the cup of bullion/broth plus a little extra water. It honestly was delicious and reminiscent of chicken tortilla soup.

 

The Rotel I used was the fire roasted version so it was spicy but very good. I was going to use left over tomato sauce but decided on the Rotel. 

 

 

 

Two days of left overs from two meals. That's four days of food out of very little supplies. That's my kind of cooking when you're having to be frugal. Frugal gourmet has nothing on what this tiny kitchen can do!

And it happened! Stroganoff Recipe cooked!

 First of all,  I apologize for the very oddly and annoying spacing on the photos and text if anyone is viewing this on other than a standard computer. I noticed recently that I can view the blog posts in editing preview mode in different formats, accommodating all platform configuration is beyond my technical knowledge. 'Dangit Jim, I'm a cook not a code writer!'

Now then, if you have the room to have two pans on the stove at the same time. And you have the recipe in a cohesive format, which I didn't, couldn't find my copy of the recipe so had to take screen shot of my rewrite here in order to have it handy. 

 

As disgusting as that may look to some, I can guarantee you it is delicious! A few notes about my process on this as the recipe is already posted. Fixing this amount, there is enough for two more servings of the sauce. So 'Recipe serves 4 helpings'.

I  used a full 8 oz container of sliced 'baby bella' mushrooms so had to cook those before I even cooked the meat because I didn't trust the cooking process to do it and it would add liquid to the final product. Rinse and dry the mushrooms, used a teaspoon of olive oil in the pan and cooked them until most of the liquid had cooked off then moved them to a plate until they were needed. 

The meat I used was 'Bottom Round Boneless' steaks. So they were already sliced thin, all I had to do was slice them into strips. I also omitted using wine in it because I didn't have any and prefer not to have something hanging around like that I won't use. I'll have to find a reasonable substitute sometime.

 

I did remember to cut the meat across the grain to make them more tender but it was still chewy. This was due to the heat of the pan not working well. I would have to have that burner cranked up to 8 or 9 to really sear the meat well. So the flour coating helped to keep them moist but still chewy.

 

 

Onion and garlic were then added, I only used half a yellow onion but it's still fine. I also added two cloves of garlic and I approximated the butter. Another thing, I only had butter/canola oil soft butter which means it melted a lot sooner than regular butter would have. Next time I'll use actual butter. Oh and you'll also see there's a good bit of the 'schmutz' on the bottom of the pan, officially called 'fond' which is the flower and meat juice being cooked. That will get mixed in when the beef broth is added.

 

Meat, mushrooms and onions almost cooked down and then added in the broth and tomato past. If you have a deep frying pan like this, I advise using it. The sides on this was almost too shallow and had to stir carefully so I didn't slop over the sides. Make sure the tomato paste is mixed in thoroughly, as the fond is incorporated it will start thickening the sauce. A note about adding the sour cream, lower the temp of the sauce a bit so it doesn't end up separating. I noticed  It smelled wonderful! Just as I remembered. At this point, if I had a bigger stovetop I would have started the noodles but....

 

This is what I had to do. Move the mostly finished sauce to the back middle back of the stove to make room for the larger saucepan for the noodles. The egg noodles I got were an off brand and were more corkscrew than wavy but they worked. I used two cups of noodles and it was perfect for the two of us.

 

 

 

I had to crank up the burner to almost 9 because at 8 it was just barely bubbling. Maybe I'm impatient but this is an incredibly inferior and ancient stove and oven. The noodles took about 10 or 11 minutes instead of the '8-9 minutes' that the package recommended. 

I also added an extra garlic clove in the sauce and used two on the noodles with a Parmesan/Romano blend of cheese. Dried parsley as well, because that's what I do, make do with what you have. My SO,  is not a fan of sour cream nor parmesan cheese but I doused enough garlic in this to overpower any aversion. We have plenty of sauce left over and he says he'll be cooking some rice tomorrow to put it on. I would rather have noodles because that's how I've always had it.

It was worth all the kitchen juggling and having to go to the store for the missing ingredients (which were critical).  I have so many meals that I remember cooking when I was married and before when my parents cooked that I have missed the flavors that made my taste buds go all nostalgic. 

Fast and Simple Bow Tie Burger meal

 I can't call it Strogonoff, not quite hamburger helper just something I whipped up of the top of my head. It is likely so similar to other recipes out there it's not really  unique but I needed to write down the recipe because it's such a hit. I was going to use egg noodles but apparently I used those up in another dish a few weeks ago. Any ingredient with an asterisk, the measurement is approximate.

Bow Tie and Burger Skillet

 12 inch frying pan with lid

1 lb hamburger

1/2 box of Bow Tie pasta

1 tsp salt and pepper*

1 tsp Italian Seasoning*

1 Beef Bullion cube in 1 cup boiling water*(or 1/2 c beef broth)

1 pkg Beef gravy mix

1 cup water

1/2 tsp corn starch in same amount of water*

1/2 yellow onion diced

2 cloves garlic crushed

Instructions:

Brown hamburger in large frying pan on medium high heat, add a tiny smidgeon of oil if you want so it doesn't stick too badly to the pan. When that is mostly browned, add in the diced onion and 1/2 tsp of the salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly until onion is warmed through but not cooked. Open packet of gravy mix and sprinkle that on the meat, stirring and mixing thoroughly. Then add 1 cup of water and continue to stir and mix well. Add the garlic and Italian seasoning and stir to combine then put the lid on.

 Prep the bullion cube in the water while the meat and gravy cook, I use a glass 1 cup measuring cup and drop the cube in, fill with water and pop in the microwave for 3 minutes. Take lid off pan and add in half the cup of bullion or broth and stir some more with one more cup of water then add the pasta. Combine everything carefully, return the lid and wait for it to simmer up again, turn the heat down to low and set timer for 10 minutes. Check the consistency of the liquid and bow tie doneness. Set timer for another 5 or so minutes and ready the cornstarch and water. Taste for flavor, if needed add more salt, pepper or Italian Seasoning. Stir and add in the corn starch being sure to dribble it around don't just dump it in one spot. Stir to get that well combined, put the lid back on and check in another five minutes. If the bow ties are done, stir it up and you're ready to eat.

 

Seriously, this is not that hard but I saw someone comment on another site that if it involves cutting an onion it's not quick. If you want to bypass fresh, add in three tablespoons of onion flakes rehydrated in some water.  I didn't want to have maybe a handful or two of bow ties left over do just dumped what I had into the pan. If you want a smaller portion add in less bow ties so you have more meat than pasta.

Now, to give you an idea of my DIY seasonings collection here's what it looks like:

Repurposed various jars from just about anything I've used up. Everything has a label of course other than the pumpkin shaped ones. The two pumpkin looking containers I got from our community table, same with the Talenti gelato containers, the two silver capped ones on the left and the barely visible green plastic lid container behind the onion flakes. Repurposed bullion container and spice jars have been cleaned and labeled. I will have to post a picture of where all that lives in my kitchen. Seriously need more organization or at least cohesive containers, might have to troll through the thrift stores. I want to try and be consistent with glass containers because they last longer and don't absorb color and scent. 

Happy Cooking!

A few things here and there-Red Beans and Rice My Way

I tend to repeat menus because they are popular and easy to make. I did shrimp tacos again today which again were delicious, we did 'Enchilada Lasagna' and luckily there were leftovers. I've learned that I can make a dish that would technically feed six and we will have seconds and maybe thirds and still have some for lunch the next day or that afternoon. That's the way to cook and save on using your supplies too quickly.

So here is the way I fix the Red Beans and Rice. Previously I used to get the Mahatma version but I haven't been able to find it in the stores the last few years. Zatarain's is still good.

2 boxes Zatarain's Red Beans and Rice

     5 cups water

     4 tblspoons butter  

     1 can chicken or beef broth

1/2 (red or yellow) onion finely diced

2 cloves garlic mashed 

1/2 bell pepper "     "

(if you have it include two celery ribs and one carrot also finely diced)

1 package smoked sausage

2 tblspoons olive oil

1/2 cup chunky salsa (I used homemade) OR

1 can Rotel tomatoes

2 tblspoons chopped cilantro

1 tblspoon lime juice

Shredded cheese (optional as 'garnish')

I think that's all I put in there. I'm on autopilot when I do familiar dishes so backtracking to remember is sometimes a chore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Instructions:

Dice veggies, crush garlic and set aside in a bowl (if using carrots and celery separate those). Cut smoked sausage lengthwise then in slices about 1/4 inch thick.  Heat olive oil in dutch oven or deep pot on medium high heat, when shimmering add in the smoked sausage. Cook until starting to brown, add in veggies and garlic, cook until onion is soft. If using celery and carrot add that first and cook until fragrant then the onion, garlic and bell pepper.  Cook for however long the box direction say but check half way through and stir to loosen any rice that is stuck on the bottom.

 

 

I've discovered that browning the sausage and not just 'cooking it' gives a deeper flavor to the dish.  The box directions call for whatever protein you want, hamburger, chicken or sausage. Could even use pork, might have to try that next time. I think I've used chicken before.

When those are cooked down a bit, add in broth, water and butter. Heat to simmering then add in the red beans and rice, stir to mix well and wait for it to come to boil again. Turn down to low simmer and put lid on pot. When timer is done, add in the salsa or Rotel, chopped cilantro and lime juice. Stir everything well, sometimes it's a bit more soup like but the rice and beans will eventually absorb the water. If you follow the directions it calls for 3 cups of water per box, I substitute 1 14.5 oz can of beef broth and use 5 cups of water to compensate for the extra liquid in the rotel and the broth.

That bottom picture is after we each had a bowl full.  Still lots of left overs on that as well. 

I also made chicken fingers and managed french fries and a salad, I was on fire in the kitchen that day! I did make a mistake with the breading though. I bought a huge box of bisquick and added a little more baking soda and a whole tablespoon of my seasoned salt. Waayy too much salt, it was all I could taste on them so I will be scaling back on that idea next time. 

I had the cajun seasoning out but don't remember if I actually used it. That is a cup of bisquick I think two teaspoons or maybe a table spoon and a half of the seasoned salt. Ranch dressing for the chicken and ketchup for the fries. Overall a really good meal and as long as I have chicken breasts I'll be fixing that.

Enjoy!

Frustations of the Electronic Age- Salmon and Rice

I set out to make this blog as an alternative to all the other websites on Pinterest that I have gathered many recipes from. Especially the ones that have so many ads you can't even read the recipe in one shot. I am purposely not citing the original post author for the rice because I did a few things differently and frankly, not going to send anyone else there to be as frustrated as I am.

A supposedly simple rice dish that had so many scrolling ads that were across the full width of my screen I couldn't read the recipe ingredients and instructions. I would scroll to the ingredients but the main window ad (you know the type where it's in the background and the main page has a window that scrolls past it). I would stop at the ingredients, measure out the next one, look at the page and it has entirely reset to somewhere else. I have to stop and scroll down or up and find the ingredients again, which the aforementioned window ad has now obscured the lower three. Repeat five or six times. I was able to screen capture the instructions at least and will attempt to replicate the ingredients for the rice so you don't have to go through the frustration I did. Just the rice instructions and ingredients took me an hour, your results will be much less. I seriously almost threw my ipad a few times.

Implements needed:

Medium saucepan with a lid

Baking sheet with aluminum foil for easier clean up

Oven Baked Salmon and Rice 

3 or 4 salmon filets or one full piece

1 tblspoon teriyaki sauce (I used the Panda Express Mandarin Teriyaki)

1/4 cup Italian Dressing (Olive Garden Classic Italian)

Spray oil

Savory Rice

1 cup white rice, rinsed

2 tbl unsalted butter (separated)

1 tsp Soy Sauce

1 tbls Worchestershire sauce

1 tsp dried parsley

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 yellow onion diced fine

1/2 tsp ground pepper

1/2 tsp Italian seasoning

1/2 tsp lemon juice

1 can Chicken Broth (14.5 oz) 

 

Before starting: clean and pat dry your salmon add the Italian dressing to a gallon plastic zip bag and coat thoroughly. Squeeze out all the air and put on a plate in refrigerator until time to cook. (can be done an hour or more ahead of time).

 

The salmon is simpler than the rice despite the label for the rice being 'Super Easy'. Right. 

Because the salmon (supposedly) cooks so quickly I started the rice first.

1. Place rice and 1 tablespoon of butter in a saucepan that has a lid. Heat over medium high heat until the rice starts to brown slightly.

 

2. Add onion and garlic, cooking until softened and fragrant

3. Add remaining ingredients except the remaining butter (remove pot from burner and add chicken broth due to heat of the pan). Stir and bring to a boil over medium high heat, then cover and reduce heat to simmer. (I had to go from 6 or 7 on my knob to Lo then back up to 2). Cook for 15 or 20 minutes, do not lift lid to stir.

 

(Start the oven, prep your salmon and pop it in the oven at this point)

4. Remove from heat without lifting lid and let rest for 5 minutes.

5. Remove lid add the remaining butter and lemon juice, stir or fluff with a fork, put lid back on to keep warm.

 Salmon filets

While rice is cooking preheat oven to 425 and line sheet pan with aluminum foil or parchment, if using foil, spray with oil to coat area where salmon will be cooking. Take salmon out of fridge and, using tongs, place fillet on your baking sheet/foil. Drizzle meat with teriyaki sauce and spread to cover all surfaces. When oven is ready place on middle rack and set time for 15 minutes.

The beauty of this pair is the rice will be done about the same time as the salmon. I had to look up the timing and temp for cooking the salmon and it turned out it needed to cook about 8-10 minutes per inch of thickness. That to me is hard to figure.  Only one of my pieces was about an inch thick and it wasn't uniform. So I had to wing it and set the timer for 15 minutes. 

As the salmon is cooking you can rest for a few minutes because the rice won't be done. Don't stir the rice! It's rice, it's supposed to cook with the lid on. Just a reminder.

When the timer goes off, tend to the rice first. Stir and fluff as needed then pull salmon out and test with a fork for flakiness. You can use a thermometer if you wish and it should be at least 145-150. 

Serve rice and salmon, as pictured at the top, add some of the lemon juice on everything as well.

This being rather simple, you can also have a side of broccoli, green beans, salad or whatever other veggie you want. I forgot that so it was a very simple meal. It really is delicious, both of them were spot on and tasty, just not very filling.

Rave review from the partner on the rice. He gave me a glowing review knowing I had such a hard time with the rice recipe. The salmon is my own concoction cobbled in my brain based on other recipes I've seen. Since salmon has such a distinct flavor you don't want to overdo the seasonings. I found the Italian dressing had the right tart/sour profile and then the teriyaki gave it that rich sweet flavor. 

Enjoy! Let me know if you fixed this!

 

 

More use of leftovers...of the pork kind.

  So, trying not to make too many new dishes at the end of the month so there's room for new stuff when we go the store. I did pull out one of the pork butt (I think) roasts (store had a good price for two in a package). got it all set up for Christmas Eve meal and we ended up eating something else that night.   I had multiple plans for this meat so *thought* I had pulled out the pork rub seasoning container but after slathering the meat I realized I had used the taco seasoning. No big deal but there is a different flavor profile, I did take down the pork rub anyway and added that to the mix.

Doesn't look like much of course but I didn't do anything other than the meat and rubs. No liquid at all. No extra garlic just the rubs and let me tell you... it turned out perfect. Cooked it on high for about six hours to perfection. The bone pulled right out. Plenty of juices in the pot which I spooned and basted it. I couldn't turn it over because it only had one flat side so basting happened.

It is fantastic meat. I just wanted a basic flavor for it so I can use it in multiple situations but it really tastes perfect with barbecue sauce on a sandwich. That will be happening next time. 

On New Years Eve we had sandwiches and something else, I have been feeling lazy about fixing large meals being the end of the year. Although I looked up carnitas recipes and since the meat is already cooked I had to wing it on my own.

Like I usually do. Carnitas tacos courtesy of a stop at Von's for guacamole, sour cream and salsa. Make it myself? Nah... I have salsa in the fridge I made but needs to be tossed. We picked up a little container of salsa that had a more roasted flavor, took a a few generous large spoonfuls of the pork in a saucepan and a heaping spoon ('tablespoon' not the measuring spoon type) and heated that all through. It was perfect. Amazing flavor and got rave compliments from my partner and foodie extraordinaire. We each had four tacos on plain white corn tortillas with lettuce and the rest of the fixings. 

If you can't make your own salsas and guac or spice mixes, go with what you can do.I don't trust avocados from the store any longer and the prices they're asking is not worth it. Salsa is a slam dunk but sometimes you want to just toss things together already made.  Like my enchilada sauce, I tried making some on my own and gave my partner an asthma attack because of heating the spices in the pan too hot. So you do you, what it is about is making something flavorful, filling and enjoyable. 

The greatest compliment for a cook is someone asking for seconds or going back for third helpings.