Shrimp Alfredo Pizza

We have pretty much perfected our homemade whole wheat pizza dough - one packet of yeast in 1 cup of very warm (110-degree) water and a drop of honey allowed to "wake up" for about 15 minutes, then into a bowl with 3 cups whole wheat flour, lots of garlic powder, salt, and some basil and oregano, combined and kneaded until doughy and then allowed to rise near the warm oven (covered) for an hour. This recipe makes enough for 2 pizzas, and it freezes well too.

The champion of this particular pizza creation is the bag of frozen shrimp we always have on hand. Whether in fajitas, pasta, or grilled cajun-style over a salad, these frozen wonders are great for easy and quick weeknight cooking.

As usual, we pre-cooked our dough on our stone in a very hot 500-degree oven for 4 minutes. In the meantime, we cooked up the shrimp 2/3 of the way in some olive oil and seasoned them with some garlic powder, oregano, and basil. We removed the dough and topped it with some store-bought alfredo sauce, some big slices of tomato, fresh basil leaves, the shrimpies and topped it with some shredded mozzarella and fresh-grated parmesan. We popped that back in the oven for 7 more minutes, and then we had ourselves a nice creamy shrimp pizza with a divinely thin crispy crust!

Grilled Cajun Shrimp! And a New Blog Template!

We're coming up on our 1-year anniversary at Boston Chef, so we thought a little refresh of our template was in order... We added a few pictures that we've taken over the past year to the header. We threw in some of our favorite color - orange! - and changed the font around, etc... We're still tinkering with it, so tell us what you think.

Beautiful weekend in Boston - 69-degrees yesterday meant we got a little January tennis in... crazy. We're out on the back deck today, in between watching the Pats playoff game, and fixin' to make some Chicken Chili later with chicken breast, ground chicken, peppers, and our new Penzey's Cumin and Mexican Oregano.. Yum!

Speaking of Penzey's, the pic above was some more of our BIG freshwater shrimp covered in Penzey's Cajun Seasoning and oil and grilled on a hot grill pan until plump, juicy, spicy, and delicious!

Thanks for visiting, we'll be back with a post on that chili tomorrow. Go Pats!

Memorial Day BBQ Party

We had a Memorial Day party on Sunday with friends and neighbors stopping by to celebrate the start of Summer with some cold beverages and hot grilled food!

On the menu - Barbequed Ribs, Homemade Cole Slaw, Grilled Cajun Shrimp, Grilled Red and Italian Peppers, Brined-n-Seasoned Chicken Drumsticks, Grilled Asparagus, and finally... Hot Dogs! Our guests brought a variety of accompaniments, including a yummy Peach-and-Corn salsa with blue chips, Pasta Salad, and a delicious Key Lime Pie.

We covered the Ribs (see previous entry) so now its onto the rest of the spread...

We found a cole slaw recipe that was a supposed bite off of KFC Cole Slaw, so we thought that would be fun. Chopped up one head of cabbage into tiny strips, further chopped up some already-shredded carrots from a package, and chopped up very finely a 1/2 an onion. In a bowl, we combined a couple tbls of sugar, 1/4 cup milk, 1/4 buttermilk (this gave a great soury flavor), 1/2 cup mayonaise (diet? what diet?), a splash of white vinegar, big squeezes of lemon juice (ended up using 1.5 lemons), and good pinches of ground black pepper and kosher salt. In went the cabbage, carrots, and onions - combined very well - and covered and in the fridge. This was still hours away from BBQ time (the ribs had JUST gone on) so all those flavors had a good amount of time to meld into a sweet-and-sour slaw...

THEN we brined the drumsticks. Everyone knows how to do it by now - 8 cups water to 1 cup kosher salt and 1/2 cup sugar (I doubled that because of the sheer number of drumsticks). Also added to the brine: Texas Pete's hot sauce, liquid smoke, crushed bay leaves, and corriander. This sat in the fridge for two hours, then was rinsed well and put BACK in the fridge until they were ready to meet the heat.

Other prep work: peel the easy-peel shrimp (we had about 2 dozen), season them with our Penzey's cajun seasoning, and skewer them up. Cut the peppers into big pieces and oil-and-season them and let them sit. Par-boil the asparagus for 2 minutes, then ice-bath to shock them into submission (SUBMIT, ASPARAGUS!!!), and oil-and-season.

After the ribs appetizer came off (and was eaten), the shrimp appetizer went on next. Stacey did a great job grilling the shrimp while Michael joined the boys playing horseshoes in the back yard. Shrimp were delicious, passed around right on their skewers for people to snack on.

Then we did the peppers, which took maybe 10 or 15 minutes total to get some charred goodness, immediately followed by the drumsticks (which were quickly seasoned with salt, pepper, paprika, and some cajun seasoning). We did a turn-every-10-minutes technique with the chicken, until they were perfectly cooked - crispy on the outside and moist on the inside. I do believe we averaged about 6 drums/person consumption - Impressive! (kidding!)

Not long after that, the asparagus hit the grill and the beer began to hit us... Horseshoes clanked, laughter filled the air, we all ate and drank. Eventually, we cooked up the hot dogs. The neighbors stopped by for some food and a beer and at some point the cards were broken out (of course!)... I won a couple of hands and we ate some yummy Key Lime Pie.

Looking for many more days like this over this summer - Happy Memorial Day!

Shrimp, Peppers, Drumsticks, and Asparagus:


This is how I spent much of the day:


Mike wants peppers NOW!!!


Beth and Stacey approve:

Paella

A few years ago, we were shopping for a set of pots-n-pans to help with our burgeoning cooking habit, and we ended up going with a non-stick calphalon set from Williams and Sonoma. It was on sale that week and we had some gift certs, so we'd be getting a nice set for not much money. Over the past 3 or 4 years since that purchase, the set has served us well - we've used the sauce pan and big saute pan maybe hundreds of times, those two pieces are up for replacement.

When the box containing the set was brought up to the register and our gift cards were strewn all over the counter, we noticed an auxillary box was with our set. "We didn't want to buy that thing," we noted. "Oh, that comes with this set for this week only," came the reply. So we looked at the long, wide, flat box and read what it contained: 16" Paella Pan. And we thought.... "hmmmm... paella!??!?!"

The pan ended up being a great introduction to paella for us - we now make it pretty regularily. We also use the pan for sautéing big orders, like browning 8 or more chicken pieces and large-quantity stuff like that. This is a BIG non-stick pan with a BIG lid...


Paella is one of those dishes that is (relatively) easy to make - yet looks, smells, and tastes like a culinary masterpiece. It is a one-pan show, yet includes chicken, veggies, rice, shrimp, and a wonderful browned/burnt crust called Soccorat (spelling?). Originally, paella was the name of the pan that the dish was made in, now they've renamed the pan and left the name paella for the dish!

We procured a variety pack of cut up chicken - 3 wings, 3 drumsticks, 3 thighs - that we salt and peppered and sprinked with a little paprika. When your big pan (paella pan or just the biggest one you got!) is hot, add some olive oil and then add the seasoned chicken and brown on both sides, then remove.

Next, in goes 1/2 a big green pepper and 1/2 a big red pepper chopped up. Get those going for a couple minutes then add a large onion chopped.

Go, veggies, go!


While those are getting cooked - 4 or 5 minutes - slice up some chorizo sausage which is going to add most of the flavor. We use two big links... nicely chopped/shredded. Throw in the chopped chorizo and brown and stir together with the veggies.

Since we use brown rice that takes longer than recommended rice, we started that in chicken stock a side pot and let that have about 20 minutes start on it's own. When the veggies and chorizo are browned, add the rice with the stock into the big pan, nestle the chicken back down in there, cover and cook for about 1/2 hour.

After that 1/2 hour, add about a cup of frozen peas and stir them in, then add in your shrimp in and make sure they are pressed down into the liquid... See how much liquid you have left, if you've got none, add a little. If you have too much, try and use a baster or a ladel to remove some.


Now, turn up the heat a little and remove the cover to finish. The shrimp will cook in the liquid and the heat will give the rice at the bottom that crusty "soccorat" finish which comes out so carmelized and delicious.

Try to use a big spatula to serve "slices" of the whole mixture, it will come off kind of intact if you have a nice toasted bottom...

Delicious! The tastes of the chorizo and dark-meat chicken and shrimp (next time we're adding clams, too!) mixed with the rice and veggies - so good! Easy but still fantastic!

Shrimp Fajitas

We keep a two-pound bag of frozen easy-peel shrimp on hand at all times - just in case! - so thursday evening we pulled a couple of handfulls out and let them defrost in the refrigerator overnight. We knew that on friday evening we'd employ the trusty grill pan and whip up some easy, delicious SHRIMP FAJITAS - YEA!!!!!!!
Peel the shrimp (these are already de-turded and broken open on the back, so it is easy) and then we de-vein them too. I guess you don't need to do remove the vein but - let's go the extra mile, shall we? With a tiny-bladed knife, it's easy to slice down and pull that thing out and just wipe onto a paper towel. Alright, yeah, it isn't fun, but it's worth it.

We don't have an outdoor grill yet, having just moved to a house with a porch a few months ago from a completely "landlocked" apartment in the city, so we use our Calphalon grill pan, which is the next best thing. (If you just have a regular sauté pan, hey - you get a great fajita that way, too...) Slice up a big green pepper and throw into a plastic bowl (with a cover) with a fajita-seasoning combo of cumin, chili powder, salt, red pepper and a little olive oil to get the seasoning spread all over the pepper slices. Put the top on and shake shake shake and then right onto the hot grill pan (medium-high heat).

As one of us tosses those peppers, the other slices an onion and into the bowl it goes for it's seasoning and shaking... after a few minutes head start, push the peppers to one half of the pan and add the seasoned onions to the other half. Toss and cook both sides and get those peeled shrimp into the bowl as the last contestant on Season and Shake!

The shrimp won't take but a couple minutes on the grill pan, so get your accoutrements ready - throw whole wheat tortillas on a plate covered with wrap into the microwave for 45 seconds. We like a little shredded mexican cheese, some sour cream and some salsa over the top. Get all that out and when you're about ready, add the shrimp to the grill. Let those cook on one side for 2-3 minutes, flip and do it again and you're ready. Just scoop a layer of peppers and onions onto a tortilla wrap, then 4 or 5 shrimp (ours are LARGE), then a little cheese, a dollop of sour cream and some salsa, roll it up like a cigar and enjoy hot!

Crack a beer and turn on the basketball tourney and away we go!

Til next time...

~El Cocinero de Boston

Tagged with: IMBB24 + 30Minutes

Shrimp Stir Fry

TOLD you we'd use the wok! We whipped up a very tasty shrimp stir fry last night... easy-peel shrimps were on sale for just $5.99/lb at S&S so we grabbed 2/3lb of those guys, a bunch of veggies, started some water and we were on our way!

Meat: shrimps!

Veggies: red pepper, scallions, green beans, mushrooms, bean sprouts

Rice: brown

The rice takes about and hour to cook - 5 cups of chicken stock and 2 cups of rice to a boil, then cover and simmer for 50 minutes - so that gets going as we set to peeling the shrimp.

We made a "rub" of crushed red pepper flakes, salt, and chinese 5-spice. The Chinese 5-Spice has a great asian flavor... just what ARE those five spices? Why ground cinnamon, fennel, star anise, cloves, and Szechwan pepper! Great combo.

Rice cooking, wok out, rub made, shrimp peeled, veggies chopped - ready to go!

Ingredients:


The whole set-up:


We tossed the shrimp in some of the rub (saving some for the veggies and for the final sauce that the entire combo will be finished with) and set to cooking them. We kept the wok over nice high/medium-high heat and cooked with Can-oil... stirring most of the time. Probably 4 minutes, shrimp come out!


We did the veggies in stages to make sure they had enough coverage in the wok. We par boiled the green beans to give them a head-start in a little pan, probably about 10 minutes in boiling water. Red peppers went in to the now-nicely seasoned (from the shrimp) wok with a little rub over the top - toss toss cook cook done! Remove to a big glass bowl. Then the green beans (previously par boiled) - same procedure! Then the scallions and mushrooms... and the bean sprouts. Toss toss cook cook awesome!



Throw the reserved veggies and the shrimp back in. Using the remainder of the rub to make a sauce, we added a little flour, soy sauce, and rice wine vinegar and stirred furiously until it was a nice consitency. Pour that in (only a couple tbls) and toss toss cook cook DONE!

Rice on plate, stir fry on rice, dinner is ready! Delicious!


SCORE: Stir fry - we're going with an 8.5 out of a 10 on this one... the shrimp were so plump and delicious and the veggie combo is perfect. A LITTLE too much salt ended up going in and the rice stayed in the water about 3 minutes too long, preventing the 10.

Tonight we'll take the leftover rice that we made (that's why we made so much!) and some chinese bbq pork and make Pork Fried Rice! Stay tuned for that one next...