Week 24 - It's Pronounced Coo-lee

This has always been one of my favorite dishes at seafood restaurants so I figured it could be a great money saver if I can even come close to matching the flavor. And I had NO idea what a coulis (coo-lee) was but it all sounded pretty good.

In the end it certainly didn't have the light, clean flavor that I usually find at restaurants but it was very good and moderately quick to make. Brian roasted the garlic for me and grilled up some pineapple on the side and it made a surprisingly filling meal. The coulis was really good on top of the shrimp but wasn't much to get excited about on its own. You could easily make this recipe without it and either eat it plain (although there was no especially strong flavor with the shrimp - maybe you could sprinkle some kind of spice on the shrimp just before cooking them but I'm not sure what).

Shrimp was pretty expensive right now so we settled for Costco frozen shrimp . I may find myself trying this again when good, fresh shrimp are easier to find at an affordable price.

COCONUT SHRIMP WITH CURRIED TOMATO, LIME AND ROASTED GARLIC COULIS

Source: foodnetwork.com

Shrimp: 1 large egg - 2/3 C. beer - 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder - 3/4 C. all-purpose flour, divided - 2 C. flaked coconut - 24 large shrimp, peeled and deveined, tails on - 2-3 T. vegetable oil, preferably canola

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together egg, beer, baking powder and 1/2 cup of the flour. Place remaining 1/4 cup flour in a shallow dish. Place coconut in a separate shallow dish. Dredge shrimp in flour and shake off excess. Dunk shrimp in beer mixture and turn to coat. Roll shrimp in coconut until all sides are coated.

2. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add shrimp and cook 2 minutes per side, until cooked through or opaque.

Coulis: 1/3 C. roasted garlic - 2 beefsteak tomatoes, chopped - 2 T. fresh lime juice - 1 tsp. curry powder

1. Combine all ingredients in a food processor and puree. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Week 23 3/4 - Atonement

I missed a week! I admit it. It happened. It's over. Let's move on. Last week just proved really busy and I've been doing most of my meals on Friday night since it tends to be a quiet night for us but then we went out of town on Friday night and I was all thrown off.

So I'm trying my best to make up for it this week with 2 recipes. As unbelievable as it seems, I never made a pumpkin pie before and we were having a fundraising bake sale at work so there's one opportunity handed to me.

This is a VERY good pumpkin pie and I appreciated not being pressured into making my own crust. The cream cheese gives it a nice smooth texture and the spice is just right - not too much to drown out the pumpkin but enough to have a nice festive flavor. I ended up having enough some leftover filling so probably could've done a couple pie-muffin type things had I been thinking ahead. But I didn't. But you could.

PUMPKIN PIE

Source: foodnetwork.com

1 (8-oz.) package cream cheese, softened - 2 C. canned pumpkin - 1 C. sugar - 1/4 tsp. salt - 1 egg plus 2 egg yolks, slightly beaten - 1 C. half-and-half - 1/4 C. (1/2 stick) melted butter - 1 tsp. vanilla extract - 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon - 1/4 tsp. ground ginger (optional) - 1 piece pre-made pie dough - Whipped cream, for topping

1. Place 1 piece of pre-made pie dough don into a 9-inch pie pan and press down along the bottom and all the sides. Pinch and crimp the edges together to make a pretty pattern. Put the pie shell back into the freezer for 1 hour to firm up.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. After removing pie crust from freezer, fit a piece of aluminum foil to cover the inside of the shell completely. Fill the shell up to the edges with pie weights or dried beans (about 2 pounds) and place it in the oven. Bake for 10 minutes, remove the foil and pie weights and bake for another 10 minutes or until the crust is dried out and beginning to color.

3. For the filling, in a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese with a hand mixer. Add the pumpkin and beat until combined. Add the sugar and salt and beat until combined. Add the eggs mixed with the yolks, half-and-half and melted butter and beat until combined. Finally, add the vanilla, cinnamon and ginger and beat until incorporated.

4. Pour the filling into the warm prepared pie crust and bake for 50 minutes, or until the center is set. Place the pie on a wire rack and cool to room temperature. Cut into slices and top each piece with a generous amount of whipped cream.

Week 22 - Hashing It Out

This was the first week that I started with an ingredient. I absolutely LOVE sweet potatoes and picked up a couple at the store this week but wanted to do something more fun than baking them (my usual M.O.). I also absolutely LOVE breakfast and since we didn't have any plans today, I searched for sweet potato breakfast recipes.

Enter Sweet Potato Hash Browns. It was a really simplistic recipe but definitely something new to me because I have tried to make regular hash browns exactly once in my life and it was a pretty miserable experience. So learning the right way definitely sounded good to me.

My only complaint with this recipe is that it seemed like a lot of olive oil to me. For the onions, 1 1/2 Tablespoons is probably plenty and for the potatoes I wouldn't do more than 3. Now there's a chance I didn't have exactly 2 pounds of potatoes, but it still seemed oily. Also, I'm pretty sure the parsley is just for show cause I skipped that step and added a little dried parsley and I didn't taste it at all. 

SWEET POTATO HASH BROWNS

Source: MarthaStewart.com

2 large sweet potatoes (2 lbs.), cut into 3/4-inch dice - 6 T. olive oil - 1 medium onion, peeled and cut into 1/3-inch dice, 2 T. roughly chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley - Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil. Add sweet potatoes, and cook until they can be easily pierced with a fork but still offer some resistance, 3-4 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold running water. Refrigerate until completely chilled, about 1 hour.

2. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and saute, stirring occasionally, until onions are tender and golden brown, about 20 minutes. Transfer onions to a small bowl and set aside.

3. Pour remaining 4 tablespoons olive oil into the skillet and place over medium-high heat. Add potatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, about 8 minutes. Add reserved onions and cook 2 minutes. Toss in parsley and adjust the seasoning to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

Week 21 - Where's the curry?

I got a new slow cooker/casserole/dessert book from my dear mother and the recipes look great EXCEPT that when it's 85 degrees outside neither slow cooker nor hot casseroles sound good. So I found one that looked OK for summer and here we are. Indian chicken.

So I'm thinking curry but WAIT... no curry. I also connected curry with Indian food but it turns out I'm as crazy as they say. This recipe has absolutely no curry but it definitely smelled of Indian and was quite tasty.

The only issue I ran into with this was the rice mix - I didn't check the box when I bought it and the recipe calls for a 6 oz. box and mine was only 4. I added some basmati that I had at the house so it wasn't too liquidy, but that ended up not being as cooked as the rest. It was still quite good, though, and seemed not altogether unhealthy which is always nice.

INDIAN-SPICED CHICKEN WITH WILD RICE

Source: Favorite Brand Name Slow Cooker, Casseroles, Desserts Book

1/2 tsp. salt - 1/2 tsp. ground cumin - 1/2 tsp. black pepper - 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon - 1/4 tsp. ground turmeric - 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 1 lb.) - 2 T. olive oil - 2 carrots, sliced - 1 red bell pepper, chopped - 1 stalk celery, chopped - 2 cloves garlic, minced - 1 package (6 oz.) long grain and wild rice mix - 2 C. reduced-sodium chicken broth - 1 C. raisins - 1/4 C. sliced almonds

1. Combine all spices in small bowl. Rub spice mixture on both sides of chicken. Place chicken on plate; cover and refrigerate 30 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 13x9-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.

3. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook 2 minutes per side or until browned. Remove chicken; set aside.

4. Add carrots, bell pepper, celery and garlic to skillet; cook and stir 2 minutes. Add rice; cook 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add seasoning packet from rice mix and broth; bring to a boil over high heat. Remove from heat; stir in raisins. Pour into prepared dish. Place chicken on rice mixture; sprinkle with almonds.

5. Cover tightly with foil. Bake 35 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink in center and rice is tender.