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Shrimp Scampi with Lemon Pepper Pasta

Aug 13th, 2009
by dave.
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Shrimp Scampi

I usually don’t cook Italian recipes too often but every once in a while (read: whenever I have fresh pasta), I get inspired. Usually, a lot of the recipes I end up liking involve oven use or an extended period of time on the stove (tomato sauce is definitely a Sunday during football season recipe).

This time was a bit different. While over in Somerville, I asked the kind lady cutting my pasta at Dave’s to recommend something to prepare and before I could finish, she suggested shrimp scampi, which she was conveniently cooking that night. Turns out that scampi is something easy and quick to cook on a weeknight, and tasty to boot. Just take a bottle of white wine, some other simple stuff like a ton of garlic, and off you go! After a little back and forth on the amount of butter to be used and conferring with my trusted second source, the Internet, I set forth.

Now I’m a huge garlic fan and butter, so scampi was a great choice, and pretty easy to prepare too, took less than 20 minutes to get everything ready!

Shrimp Scampi

Serves 4
Time : 20-30 minutes

Ingredients:
- 1 pound pasta
- 3-4 tbsp butter
- 3-4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large shallot, finely diced
- 6-7 cloves garlic, sliced
- red pepper flakes
- 1 pound shrimp, peeled
- Salt and pepper
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 1 lemon’s juice
- handful of chopped parsley

Method:
1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add some kosher salt, stir to dissolve, then add the pasta. Cook until al dente, see box or other instructions.
2. Add half of the oil and half of the butter into a large skillet or frying pan. Add the shallots, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Cook until the shallots are translucent, about 2 to 3 minutes.
3. Add the shrimp and cook for a couple minutes, turning halfway through. Remove the shrimp when pink, and set aside. Pour the white wine and lemon juice into the skillet, and bring to a boil. Add the rest of the butter and olive oil. Stir the sauce for 30 seconds to combine.
4. Add the shrimp back to the skillet, season with salt, pepper, and the red pepper flakes. Add the drained pasta. Toss to combine. Serve with a sprinkle of parsley.

Seafood Fra Diavolo

Jun 17th, 2009
by dave.
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Seafood Fra Diavolo

This is kind of another one of those “cheater” recipes. Meaning I bought one of the ingredients pre-made, the sauce in fact. But that’s not too terrible I suppose.

Since starting my “healthier” diet 3 weeks ago, I’d been trying to eat fish at least once a week and other seafood at least once a week. This time, I put both together and got my fish/seafood allocation in one dish! It’d been a while since I had sea scallops as I was holding out, hoping they’d be on sale (they’re normally a little bit pricey). But the craving surfaced and I picked some up along with a little bit of cod that was on sale to put this all together.

The arrabiata sauce is from Dave’s Fresh Pasta once again. They recently expanded into another store about two months ago, becoming almost a one-stop shop for most cooking needs. More notably, there’s an expanded wine section, produce section, and meat/fish section. But I stuck with the bread and butter so to speak…sauce and pasta (Used the pasta in a different dish, to be posted at another time).

Seafood Fra Diavolo

Serves 4
Time : 30 minutes

Ingredients
- 1/2 lb sea scallops, halved
- 1/2 lb firm fish fillet, sliced
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 3-4 cloves garlic
- 24oz (Roughly) Arrabiata Sauce
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 pound spaghetti (Used Bucatini)

Method
1. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan, medium high heat.
2. Add the garlic, give it a swirl, and add the onion about a minute later, saute until onion starts to soften slightly.
3. Add the sea scallops, give them about a minute or so to start cooking through, then add the fish. Be careful not to stir the fish too much, it WILL break apart on you.
4. As the fish starts to cook, pour the arrabiata sauce into the pan, let settle. Bring the pan to a simmer, carefully use a spatula to turn the fish if necessary.
5. Serve over pasta

Homemade Cioppino – Pseudo Cookoff!

May 6th, 2009
by dave.
1 comment

Phil's Fish Market

So since I got back from San Francisco, the roommate and I have been on a huge Cioppino kick, so hooked that we cooked it on successive weekends! The first picture is of Phil’s Cioppino (Phil’s Fish Market), our inspiration. We weren’t able to replicate Phil’s Cioppino, both times our sauce ended up too runny (not necessarily a bad thing), but we were trying to get the thick sauce that Phil’s had.

The first attempt was made using seafood from New Deal Fish Market in Cambridge. Upon walking in, the first thing I noticed was a sign for “dry” sea scallops. Well, the scallops looked wet enough to me, and super fresh to boot. Seeing my confused look, the lady stocking the display case explained it cheerfully, and without as much as a single sideways glance! Scallops sometimes end up soaked in a solution that causes them to puff up and weigh more, these are called “wet” scallops. As a result, these scallops will release the solution into a pan when cooked and will be difficult to sear (One ends up steaming them in the solution essentially). “Dry” packed scallops are not soaked in the solution and are much, much better for pan searing (Or use in general).

We ended up asking the same lady for a little advice for our experiment and she was more than happy to oblige. We ended up with some monkfish (firm, so that it doesn’t fall apart when cooked), mussels, clams, and shrimp. She added in a couple extra monkfish bones on the side to help add flavor to the broth. After hastily getting back later in the afternoon (New Deal was the last stop after Russo’s, Formaggio BBQ for a Pearl in a baguette, Dave’s Fresh Pasta, and the Tea Zone), the roommate whipped up the dish in about 2 and a half hours.

The next week, I figured I’d give it a shot too. Changed up a few things with the ingredients though. Whole Foods had a sale on Halibut steaks and bay scallops so I figured I’d at least start with those. Rounding out the seafood was a bag of mussels, some littleneck clams, and some fresh squid. I used tomato puree this time (last week we just blended some tomatoes, forgot the can of puree) to see if the broth would end up a little thicker and sure enough it did, but still not quite to the level of Phil’s Cioppino.

All in all a great experiment, will have to try this one again sometime! As for the recipe, you can find it on the back of one of Phil’s Fish Market t-shirts =P

Cioppino
The roommate’s Cioppino
Dave's Cioppino
My Cioppino

Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana

Mar 18th, 2009
by dave.
2 comments

fp1

This is a little bit of a departure from the Boston based blogging but I think this could use a special mention. For about six years, I drove back and forth between Boston and New Jersey without any stops in mind, I usually just wanted to get from point A to point B as fast as I could. But then last Thanksgiving, I was talking to a coworker about the drive down and holiday traffic and he mentioned that a pizza stop right in the middle of the trick would probably do wonders for an aggravating trip! I was instantly curious, as I grew up on thin crust New York style pizza and never really got into Boston pizza.

The pizza place is Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana and they’re located in Connecticut, with a few locations up and down the route 91 area. One of the most striking things about the place is that they have really, really large ovens…and as such, the pizza peelers have to be proportional in length as well (And it’s amazing how adept the staff is with them). And if I were to happen by the pizzeria (It’s roughly 3 minutes out of my way on the drive back), I should definitely try the white clam pizza.

And so I did! And not long after the pizza ended up in front of me, my coworker walked in, on his way to his own Thanksgiving location!

A few months later, my parents were in town for a convention and one of the events planned was a luncheon with Ming Tsai at Blue Ginger, his restaurant in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Besides cooking some tasty and creative food, he was happy to speak with the event goers and eventually fielded a question about where he thought the best pizza in Boston was. And to my mom’s surprise, Ming started gushing about Frank Pepe’s and even going as so far to mention he makes sure he stops there any time he’s traveling through the area. That’s quite an endorsement!

So after the tip from my co-worker, endorsements from friends/family/famous people, and many white clam pizzas later, Frank Pepe is now a permanent rest-stop halfway into the trip :)

Roast Pork with Lemon

Feb 18th, 2009
by dave.
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Sliced Pork Loin w/ Lemon

One of the things I’d been meaning to try out for a while (read : the past 3 years) was roasting something in the oven. Something, anything really…but I was intimidated by the concept. Roasting always took a long time, what if you burned the food, what’s the right temperature for the meat, etc…

But finally, I ended up sucking it up and giving it a shot last weekend. I took out my handy Italian cookbook (that I’d never used a recipe from yet), the Silver Spoon, and flipped to the pork loin section, since that was what I was feeling up for that day. After gawking a bit at the book, I finally settled on this recipe and set off to pick up a pork roast at Whole Foods. As expensive as Whole Foods is, I always like how fresh the ingredients are, and the meat is no exception, and the roast was pre-wrapped with string for me already!

All in all, not as hard as I imagined it would be, though I overcooked the roast just a tad. Definitely will be trying this again sometime, with a little more experience next time :P

Roast Pork with Lemon

Serves 6
Time 3 hours 30 minutes (including marinating time)

Ingredients:
- 2 pound pork loin (boneless)
- 2 tbsp fresh rosemary needles, chopped
- 3/4 cup dry white wine
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 5 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp brandy
- 1 lemon, sliced (optional)
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2-3 cloves garlic, sliced

Method:
1. Make a few incisions in the meat using a small knife. Insert a pinch of rosemary needles and a little garlic until half of the rosemary and garlic is used.
2. Place the pork in a deep bowl, pour in the wine and sprinkle with the rest of the rosemary and garlic. Marinate in the refrigerator for about 2 hours, turning occasionally.
3. Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove the pork from the bowl, reserving the marinade and place in a roasting pan. Roast for 15 minutes.
4. Lower the temperature to 350 degrees Farhrenheit and roast for another 30 minutes.
5. Pour the marinade over the pork, season with some salt and pepper, and roast for another hour.
6. Combine the sugar, lemon juice, and brandy. Pour over the pork and return to the oven, basting every 10 minutes or so until the sauce has thickened and the meat is dark and shiny (Or until the meat is the desired temperature, I cooked it until 165 degrees and that was too much for me).
7. When the pork is finished, remove and let stand for a few minutes before untying and carving.

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