Easy Roasted Shrimp with Garlic and Chorizo

This recipe is so simple! It's a great snack hors d'oeuvre from Blue Ribbon cookbook. They have you just toss it all together and bake it at once, but I think it would do better with a little time to marinate. We had it in the winter, but I think this would be a great summer dish to eat outside with some rose. 

Serves 2

Ingredients:

8-10 medium size shrimp (or fewer if you can find jumbo shrimp), peeled and deveined - leave the tail on for looks

1 small dried Spanish chorizo, cut into 1/4" half moons

2 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced

olive oil

salt and pepper

fresh parsley, roughly chopped

Black Garlic-Roasted Cornish Game Hen

This is a simple and tasty weeknight dinner. I used black garlic, but you can swap in regular garlic - just halve it and mash it to a paste. The black garlic is a sweeter more subtle garlic flavor. 

Easy Oven Tomato Sauce

Oh wow. This is a game changing pasta sauce. It was so tangy and bright and rich, and the best part, EASY. So easy. You just throw it all in a baking dish and put it in the oven. I was inspired by this recipe, but tweaked it a little to give it a little of a puttanesca feel. We finished dinner in record time. Yum! It would also be great for a big group. Lasagna has that great smell and flavor of slightly burnt tomato sauce from the bits that stick to the pan and brown up - this has it too and it's delicious. Your kitchen/house/apartment will smell like heaven.

Perciatelli with Sausage and Kale Ragu

I had some leftover hot Italian sausage and wanted to make a cozy, hearty pasta to help fight off this Polar Vortex. To add some semblance of healthiness, I threw in some kale. I made a really tasty ragu and served it with perciatelli - a great, hollow noodle like bucatini - good texture, but you can use whatever pasta you'd like. This is an easy and really great sauce, and a nice, cheap dinner,

Served 2-4
Ingredients:
1/2 lb perciatelli
4 links hot Italian sausage, removed from casing
1 tbsp olive oil
1 yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 bunch kale, rinsed, dried and ripped into bite sized pieces
4 slices pickled peppers, chopped
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1 1/2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 28 oz can whole plum tomatoes in their liquid
1 cup chicken stock

Easy Spicy Anchovy Pasta

This is a great, quick dinner. Jamie loved it. (He just mmmed over my shoulder looking at the picture.) It's cheap and easy and may become a new favorite. I know anchovies turn some people off, but you wouldn't know they were in there unless you made it yourself. Jamie didn't know. It just adds a nice salty flavor. The bread crumbs are a crunchy addition.

Serves 2-4 (depending how hungry you are)

Ingredients:

1/2 box farfalle (or any other pasta - spaghetti would be good)

olive oil

5 anchovy fillets

3 cloves garlic, minced

big pinch red pepper flakes

bread crumbs

pecorino

Cornflake-Crusted Chicken

I've always heard good things about using cornflakes on chicken, so when I was in the grocery and looking for a cheap dinner, I decided to try it. It's really easy and has a great, flavorful crunch. Feel free to change the seasoning.

Serve 3-4
Ingredients:
4 skinless chicken thighs
1 cup crushed corn flakes
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp freshly chopping basil
1 tsp freshly chopped parsley
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried thyme
big pinch of cayenne pepper
1 egg
1 tbsp water

Roasted Chicken Legs and Ramps

 

I, like the rest of New York, am totally into ramps. They're only around for a month or so in the spring, so I try to use them a lot. First ramp dish this year was roasted chicken and ramps. I usually love just tossing the ramps with some olive oil, salt, and pepper and grilling them, so this was similar. The leaves get crispy and the bulbs are sweet. Yum.

This is really simple for a weeknight dinner, and I served it with some peas at Jamie's request.

Serves 4
Ingredients:
4 chicken legs
2 bunches of ramps, roots removed
olive oil
salt and pepper
1 lemon, sliced

Directions:
Heat the oven to 500. Line a baking sheet with tin foil. Toss the chicken and ramps with salt and pepper and olive oil. Put in the oven for 10 minutes, then top the chicken with lemon slices, and put in for another 20 minutes, or until the chicken is nicely browned. Check on the ramps - you'll probably need to remove them 10 minutes before the chicken.

Prosciutto-Wrapped Peaches with Basil

It's summer and it's hot - apps that involve no cooking really appeal to me. This recipe from Epicurious looked so fresh and summery. I tried it out this week and it was great! Jamie loved them, and they couldn't have been easier. Kind of a fun switch from prosciutto with melon. The vinegar, sugar, cumin mixture adds a nice, subtle zing and the salty prosciutto and sweet peach go well together - and basil makes it all taste fresh and summery.

I think it would also probably be great thrown on the grill for a minute with some pecorino, but for now this is great and involves no cooking.

For 2 (1/2 peach per person, so just get more if you have more people!)
Ingredients:
1 yellow peach, core removed and cut into 8 pieces
4 pieces of prosciutto, cut in half lengthwise
8 basil leaves
1/4 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp red wine vinegar
big pinch cumin

Directions:
Mix the vinegar, sugar, and cumin and toss the peach slices with it in a bowl. Let them sit about 10 minutes. Wrap each peach slice with a strip of prosciutto, put a piece of basil on top, and secure with a toothpick. Done!

Grilled Clams with Herb Butter

These are incredible, and so easy! I made them as a little hors d'oeuvres for a BBQ this past weekend, but I think they were the star. I am looking forward to being back out in Southampton (with a grill) again next weekend so I can make them again! My friend Alice doesn't cook, so to gauge difficulty levels - she said even she could do this. Very simple and so, so tasty!

Ingredients:
A big handful of fresh herbs (I used basil, dill, tarragon, parsley, chives, and thyme from my garden)
1 tsp lemon zest
1/2 stick of butter, softened
big pinch of salt and pepper
2 dozen clams

Directions:
Finely chop up the herbs. Mash into the butter with lemon zest, salt, and pepper. Form into a log on a piece of Saran wrap and put in the fridge for an hour or more so it hardens. (Probably fine to do it right before and not refrigerate too.)

Shaved asparagus salad

Quick post! Made a super easy super tasty asparagus salad last night. It's so fresh and springy, and healthy. Get fresh asparagus and make it into ribbons with a vegetable peeler. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Drizzle with lemon juice and a little apple cider vinegar and a teeny bit of olive oil. With the vegetable peeler, shred a few pieces of pecorino Romano. Eat!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Roasted chicken with potatoes, asparagus, and lemon

Yum! This is so, so tasty! And easy! One pot, too. Pretty perfect meal. I found this great recipe on MarthaStewart.com. The potatoes are super crispy on the outside and soft inside and sweetened from the lemon, and the roasted lemon is very mellow and sweet instead of tart and acidic. The asparagus is cooked perfectly and still has a little crunch and the pan juices are flavorful and great drizzled on top. She recommended a roasting pan which I think would work fine. I only had a pyrex one, so I opted for a cast iron skillet instead so the potatoes would be crispier. It worked perfectly. Also, I got 4 chicken legs instead of a whole chicken cut up because it was way cheaper. I recommend that, as long as you like dark meat. The whole dinner cost $12 and would serve 4 (or 2 and then lunch the next day). Jamie was so psyched about it he asked, "Do I get to live like this forever?" with a big grin on his face.

Ingredients:
4 chicken legs
1 1/2 pound little red potatoes, halved
3 tbsp butter cut into little pieces
salt and pepper
1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and cut into 2" pieces
1 lemon, cut into 8 wedges
1 tsp dried thyme (she says fresh, but I didn't have any)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 475. Put the potatoes and 1 1/2 tbsp butter in the skillet and season with salt and pepper. Roast for about 20 minutes until golden brown.

Banh Mi Hot Dogs

I had a few recipes in the cue to put up before this, but this one just needed to be posted. After sampling Asia Dog's delectable "Vinh" banh mi style hot dog a few weeks ago, I've been craving another. Since the banh mi ingredients aren't terribly hard to come by, I figured I'd try it myself. I made these for dinner and they were amazing. So flavorful with a great heat and much fresher tasting than a classic dog, and infinitely more interesting. Jamie scarfed two down and wanted a third, but settled for taking another for lunch (they're actually pretty filling!). We both can't wait to try this out for a big group BBQ. So unique, and really not too hard! I looked up a few regular banh mi recipes and mixed and matched a little, adapting them to hot dogs. Try this at your next backyard BBQ, or even just having a few people over to watch baseball or True Blood or something. Yum yum yum!

Ingredients:
(serves 2-4)
2 super thinly sliced carrots (using a mandolin, or you can grate)
2-3 super thinly slice radishes
3 tbsp sugar
1.5 tsbp kosher salt
3 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
4 hot dogs

White Bean Dip

Instead of hummus, I last night I made white bean dip per Jamie's request and it was great! Really light and smooth and great flavor. We're both garlic fiends, so feel free to scale back the garlic, especially for a party so everyone isn't walking around with garlic breath. We ate it with carrots, but it would also be great with pita toasts or pieces of ciabatta.

Thai Style Mussels

I had friends over for dinner last night and wanted to cook something that wouldn't be terribly expensive or time consuming and I settled on mussels. They're cheap, easy to cook, and generally delicious. This Thai-style version is so tasty - lots of flavor in the rich, orange broth. It's a little spicy but not overwhelmingly so, and has a great zing from the limes and earthiness from the red curry paste. It's also pretty healthy. Definitely going to make it again - perfect week night meal - plus Jamie was jealous he missed it, so need to repeat for him too.

Shell carbonara

Looking for something inexpensive for dinner, I thought of spaghetti carbonara. I flipped through Epicurious and found a good looking recipe for Orrechiette Carbonara. At the grocery there was no orrechiette (and I didn't feel like making it fresh, which isn't actually that hard) so I got small shells. The result was great. Easy, creamy, great flavor. We both had seconds and luckily have more for lunch today. The leeks are a great addition, and right now leeks are particularly sweet. Yum! Also added a nice splash of color.

Ingredients:
Shells (I eyeballed almost a pound with about an inch left in the box)
6 slices bacon cut into cubes
3 leeks, sliced lengthwise in half then cut crosswise in strips (only white and light green parts)
3/4 cup grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano
3 eggs

Directions:
Sauté the bacon until the fat has rendered and they are crisp. Pour out all but about 2-3 tbsp of the grease.


Add the leeks to the skillet and sauté until tender. Turn off the heat.



Meanwhile, cook the pasta in well salted water. Reserving 1/2 cup of pasta water, drain pasta while there's still a little bite.



Whisk the eggs an cheese together then slowly add reserved pasta water while whisking. Add pasta to leeks and heat through. Remove from heat, add egg mixture, and mix until it thickens and becomes creamy. Toss in bacon and serve!

Easy zucchini salad

I made myself some not so healthy pasta the other night and wanted a light side dish. I found a great way to have zucchini in a salad sans cooking. Salt tenderizes the zucchini and it's crisp and refreshing.

Ingredients:
Zucchini
Shallot
Salt
Red wine vinegar


Directions:
Slice the zucchini with a mandolin into very thin slices. Put the zucchini slices into a strainer and cover them liberally with salt (you’ll rinse it later). Toss the zucchini with the salt and let sit in the sink – they will sweat. Meanwhile, slice the shallot with the mandolin.



After about five minutes, or once you see the zucchini has tenderized, rinse it with cold water to wash off the salt. Toss the zucchini with the shallots and top with a drizzle of red wine vinegar (lemon would also work well) and some salt. Feel free to add some olive oil. Very easy, refreshing side dish/salad!