Shrimp Etouffee

This recipe from The Kitchn is AMAZING! Also, I love the Kitchn. I get most of my best recipe ides from there. I've made this twice and it's been restaurant-worthy both times. I've modified this a bit because I'm not going to make my own seafood stock. I'm just not. Instead, I use lobster better than bouillon. I should be a spokesperson for Better than Bouillon. Love that stuff.

This serves 4-5.

Ingredients
1-1.5 lb large raw shrimp
1.5 C lobster stock made with lobster flavor Better than Bouillon
1 tsp dried thyme
½-1 tsp salt
½ tsp freshly ground pepper
½ tsp cayenne pepper
½ tsp paprika
3 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
1 C. diced onion
½ C. diced green bell pepper
½ C. chopped celery
1 Tbsp chopped garlic
¼ C. chopped green onions
¼ C. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Basmati rice for serving (cooked with two bay leaves for flavor)

1. Make lobster stock according to Better than Bouillon directions. Set aside.
2. Chop onion, green pepper, celery, and garlic. Set aside.
3. Stir thyme, salt, pepper, and paprika together and mix well. Set aside.
4. Shell shrimp and put in refrigerator to keep cool.
5. Place large heavy skillet over medium-high heat and add the butter. When a pinch of flower blooms on the surface when added to the butter, scatter in the flour and stir quickly and thoroughly, combining butter & flour evenly into a thick smooth roux. Continue cooking, stirring often, as the roux turns from white to golden brown. About 2 minutes.
6. Add the spice mixture, onion, green pepper, celery, and garlic, and stir quickly, mixing the vegetables into the roux. Cook until everything is fragrant and softened, 1-2 minutes.
7. Slowly add the stock, stirring and scraping to mix it in evenly. When the sauce is bubbling and boiling gently, lower the heat and cook, stirring now and then, until the sauce is thickened and smooth, about 15 minutes.
8. Scatter in the shrimp and let them cook undisturbed until the sides are turning visibly orange or pink, about 1-2 minutes. Toss well and continue cooking, stirring often, until the shrimp are pink, firm, and cooked through. Add the green onions and parsley and stir well.
9. Serve over rice.

Restart

I have this idea that I'll start posting here again, but who knows? Yet again this new year I'd like to cook more and eat fewer processed foods. I'd also like to try to work in more vegetarian meals. We'll see how any of that goes. But I'd also like to just post a few more recipes. None of these are mine, of course, but they're often tweaked by me. So here's one of my recent favorites. I swear it takes me twice as long as any recipe says it will. This one says 45 minutes, but it takes me closer to an hour and 45 minutes.

Easy Chicken Noodle Soup (with Dumplings)
(adapted very slightly from The Kitchn)

Ingredients

• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 3 celery stalks, sliced
• 1 carrot, peeled and sliced (I just sliced a few baby carrots because that's what I always have on hand)
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• 6 bone-in chicken thighs
• 1 bay leaf
• roast chicken better than bouillon. Enough for 4-5 quarts or so.
• 1 lb good egg noodles
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1-3 tsp salt

For Dumplings

• 1 egg
• 1/4 C. milk
• 1- 1&1/4 C flour
• salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Chop veggies and mince garlic.
2. Remove skin from chicken thighs and discard.
3. Warm teaspoon or so of olive oil in dutch oven over medium heat. Add onions, celery, carrots and cook until they're just barely soft (3-5 minutes). Clear out a space in the middle and add garlic. Cook until fragrant (30 seconds) and then mix into the vegetables. Clear space in the middle of pan and add another teaspoon or so of oil. Place chicken in pan in single layer. You want them to brown, so don't move them for 3-5 minutes. Then flip and brown the other side for another 3-5 minutes.
4. While the chicken is browning, make 2 quarts chicken stock using better than bouillon. Then add bay leaf, 1/2 tsp of salt, and 1 quart of chicken stock/broth to the pot. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for 30 minutes.
5. While that's simmering, make the dumplings, if desired. Put one cup of flour in a smallish bowl. Beat one egg with some salt and pepper and add it to the middle of the flour. Pour in 1/4 C. milk and combine, adding flour into the milk and eggs from the side. Try not to overwork. Combine until well, errr, combined. It'll hold together as a ball but still be sticky in the middle. Add more flour if necessary. Cut off small chunks (using a spoon) about half the size of a thumb and drop into a separate pot of simmering chicken broth. It helps to wet the spoon with the broth. When they float, they're about done. Remove, add salt and pepper, and repeat with more dumpling mix. Set aside when done.
6. After a half an hour, take the chicken out of the soup and shred it. Discard the bones and return the chicken to the soup. Add more chicken stock, if desired. Taste and add salt and pepper to taste.
7. Boil noodles in separate pot of chicken stock/broth. When the noodles are done, drain. 
8. To serve, put a handful of dumplings in bottom of a bowl, add noodles, and then add soup. 

Mashed Potato, Cheddar, & Chive Waffles

(Oh my glory these are good! Stole this from Joy the Baker)

Ingredients
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
2 cups mashed potatoes
2 tablespoons chopped chives
2 Tbsp real bacon bits
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup grated cheddar cheese (or any good mix. I used a good Mexican blend)

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium-low or medium heat.  As the butter melts it will begin to crackle and pop.  That’s the water evaporating out of the butter.  Continue to cook the butter until the crackling subsides and the butter begins to brown a bit.  The butter will smell nutty.  Immediately transfer the browned butter into a medium bowl.

Whisk in buttermilk and eggs until thoroughly combined.  Add the mashed potatoes, bacon bits, and 2 tablespoons chives and gently stir to combine.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.  Use a spoon to mix until all of the flour is thoroughly combined.  Try not to overmix the batter.  Just stir it until the flour is combined.

Heat a waffle iron to high and grease if necessary.

Dollop batter (about 1/4 cup per waffle) into the waffle iron.  Cook until golden on each side.  The amount of time depends on your waffle iron.  3-5 minutes or so?

Remove waffles from the iron and place on a cooling rack to rest.  The cooling rack will keep the waffles from getting soggy on the bottom as they cool.

Just before serving the waffles, turn oven to the broiler setting.  Place waffles on a baking sheet and top with cheddar cheese.  Place waffles under the broiler until cheese is melted, about 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Dinner Plans

I've not been here in quite some time. And I've been eating horribly the last few weeks. I have to get back to cooking, eating better, and paying better attention to my health.

For right now, I figured I'd at least use this to list my plans for dinners. We'll see how long that lasts. But I can post any new recipes I use as I use them. I'm hoping this will also help me be a bit more intentional about what I'm cooking/eating.

Friday
Steak and mushroom kabobs. I'm either going to use a Middle Eastern marinade that I tried on lamb a few weeks ago (really good, but I didn't get a real lamby taste, and beef is cheaper) or I'll try a coffee and ancho chili powder rub. I'll likely serve that over basmati.

Saturday
Billy's broccoli rigatoni

Sunday
Kotwal Indian chicken curry

Monday
I'll likely have enough left overs to just do left overs

Tuesday
Thai spicy green beans

Wednesday
Likely left over Thai spicy green beans

Thursday
Spaghetti. I bought garlic spinach chicken sausage and I think I'll brown that up and throw in a jar of spaghetti sauce and a few aromatics, etc. Maybe over spinach pasta.

Cooking Plans

I've been trying to cook more lately, in part because I found myself eating horrible food on campus at the student union way too often. I fell off that particular wagon a few weeks ago, so I'm trying to get back to it. I'm back to making steel cut oats for breakfasts and I'd like to get back into eating salads for lunch. But I want to cook decent dinners. This week, I'm thinking about

1. The Pioneer Woman's Heavenly Hummus Wraps
2. Chicken Stir-fry lettuce wraps (from delish.com)
3. Sizzling Fajitas from Smitten Kitchen (with steak)

and maybe
4. The Pioneer Woman's Chicken Mozzarella Pasta

Paella

In the description of this blog I say that I want to learn how to make things like paella. Well, I tried making paella, but it didn't quite work. I didn't check the serving size and it was this HUGE batch and I didn't have a pan big enough to get it all crispy on the bottom. It was basically spanish-style jambalaya. Tasty, and I made my own saffron rice, but not really paella. I'll try it again, though.

Tonight I'm making risotto, I think. Beej is out with some friends and, although I can't understand this, he doesn't like risotto. I haven't made it in at least a year, maybe 2, so we'll see how it goes, but it's still cold this week and it sounds good.

More cooking

I'm not much for New Year's resolutions, but it is a good time to think about some goals. So yeah, I guess those are like resolutions. Anyway, this year I'd like to cook a bit healthier, so I bought two healthier cooking cookbooks and I'm going to work through some of those recipes. I'll try to remember to post recipes here. I also just want, in general, to cook more, and to cook more kinds of food. I'm not as picky as I used to be, but there are still a number of things I'm not a big fan of. I don't like beans, except steamed green beans. No cooked or refried beans, and I'm not a fan of cream sauce (like alfredo), and I hate chicken eggs. So sometimes it's a bit tricky in terms of new recipes. I tend toward Italian, chicken, somewhat spicy, etc. I've been working on an Indian curry and  I think I'm close to a recipe I like, so I'll post that next time I make it. I'd like to try making paella, too. Neither of these things is particularly healthier, but I'm not going to be all strict about that.

Right now, though, I have a terrible cold. If I had the car, I'd likely run get stuff for chicken noodle soup, but i don't, and I feel cruddy, so I've just been making miso. Salty, but good.

Anyway, keep an eye out for a few new recipes.