Tomato Kumato

June 24, 2009

Shrimp with Mint Pesto and Sweet Pea Risotto

Filed under: Beans and Legumes, Rice, Seafood — Tags: , , , , — emiglia @ 5:00 pm

I eat fish on Fridays.

I don’t go to church (except on Christmas, Easter, or if for some reason I’m feeling particularly devout). I don’t say evening prayers. I don’t go to confession, wear a promise ring or deserve to wear white on my wedding (I will anyway).

I was born and raised an Irish-Italian-American Catholic which, for many of us, means nothing more than getting together for 13 fishes on Christmas Eve, even more food on Christmas day, and one more time for the cheap seats in the back at Easter.

That’s it.

No fasting on Ash Wednesday or going to Church on First Friday or giving up flour and eggs and sugar for Lent, although it’s never stopped me from celebrating Fat Tuesday with relish (and pancakes).

And yet, I eat fish on Fridays.

It wasn’t really a conscious decision… not at first, anyway. I don’t recall my mother ever doing it, but I know that fish was served on Fridays in the dining hall at my boarding school. It just sort of snuck in through the back of my mind, the same place where I keep the Pledge of Allegiance, the Hail Mary and the numbers 1-10 in a variety of languages from German to Korean. It snuck out without letting me know and integrated itself into my life before I even noticed.

As I started to accumulate recipes and cooking knowledge, as I started to piece together menus from new recipes I wanted to try and old recipes I wanted to recreate, here and there, a fish or seafood recipe would sneak in, and somehow, my mind would automatically stick it in on a Friday–not for any religious reason, but just because it seemed right: fish on Fridays.

I still do some form of fish or seafood on most Fridays, and if it’s not fish or seafood, it’s usually vegetarian. I like to get in the health benefits of these foods, and if I make sure to stick a seafood recipe in on Friday, I know I’m getting them in at least once a week. I guess it’s one of those inexplainable things now: I don’t really think the devil is looking over my left shoulder when I spill salt, but I toss some over, just in case. I don’t know why I kiss my fingers and then touch the roof of my car when I drive under a yellow light, why I snap if someone says “thank you” as a response to “God bless you” after a sneeze. I do it and don’t think about it, and I think I like it that way.

This recipe was an idea I got from Well Fed which I then riffed on: she calls for cooking the shrimp with rosemary and lemon, which I’m sure is lovely, but I get 5 euro pre-cooked shrimp at my market, and so I just tossed them with the pesto and threw the whole thing in a skillet just long enough to warm through. It’s a great spring recipe, with tons of fresh mint and fresh spring peas, both of which I picked up at my local market.

If you get the shrimp with heads and tails on, you can make a lovely shrimp broth to use as the liquid when making the risotto. Otherwise, chicken broth or veggie broth are fine.

Shrimp with Mint Pesto and Sweet Pea Risotto (adapted from Well Fed)

24 large, cooked shrimp, peeled, deveined, tails removed
1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted
3 garlic cloves, peeled
2 tablespoons (packed) feta cheese
2 tablespoons (packed) Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cups (packed) fresh mint leaves
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 cups fresh peas, cooked
8 cups stock, heated
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
1/4 cup finely chopped shallots
2 cups Arborio rice
1 cup dry white wine
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Set aside the cooked shrimp, and take the shells and tails and place them into a pot of water. Bring to a simmer and then allow to cook, skimming off any residue from the top of the pot, as you prepare the rest of the dish.

Combine all the ingredients from the pine nuts to the lemon juice with a mortar and pestle. Stream in the olive oil and stir until combined. (Note: The pesto, when left to sit, starts to discolor. This does not change the taste, but if you would like a brighter green, store the pesto with a layer of olive oil over the top.)

Purée 1 cup peas with 1/3 cup of the stock and set aside. Heat the olive oil over medium heat and add the shallots and a pinch of salt. Cook until soft, 2-3 minutes, and then add the rice. Cook until translucent, an additional 2-3 minutes, stirring to make sure that nothing burns. Pour in the glass of wine and allow the liquid to cook out, stirring all the while.

Add stock by the half-cupful, stirring until each addition is absorbed. When the rice is al dente (still firm), turn off the heat and cover.

Combine the shrimp with the reserved pesto and heat in a skillet, stirring frequently, until just heated through (no more than 2 minutes.) Meanwhile, add the pea puree, peas, butter and parmesan to the risotto and stir until everything is combined (the residual heat should help it achieve the proper consistency.

To serve, plate a portion of risotto in a wide, shallow bowl and place some shrimp and pesto on top. Serve with sprigs of mint and additional parmesan cheese for sprinkling, if desired.

September 13, 2008

Accidental Hedonist: Riz au Coca

Filed under: Rice, cheese — Tags: , , — emiglia @ 12:09 pm

I did some investigative cooking recently and attempted one of the recipes from the Mange Mon Geek episodes I posted over at Accidental Hedonist last week.

The results? Come check it out…

August 25, 2008

Paella… Again

Filed under: Restaurant Reviews, Rice, Seafood, Uncategorized — Tags: , , — emiglia @ 5:10 pm


I wrote once before about paella, a while back, but I have to do it once more, mostly because paella in Mallorca, just as it is vastly different from the version my mother makes at home, is also vastly different from the ones found in Barcelona.

When Alex and I were in Barcelona, I let him know about my personal obsession with sticking with native food. Whenever I travel, I feel the need to always eat that which the region is known for: never mind that I may be in the mood for simple spaghetti with tomato sauce (a craving that hits more often than I’d care to admit), in Interlaken, I’m eating rosti, in Rome I’m sampling the cacio e pepe or amatriciana, and in Barcelona, I’m most definitely going for tapas or paella, which is how I managed to eat tapas at least five times during my stay in the city, and paella twice.

The first thing I noticed about this paella marinara that Alex and I ordered to share (and failed miserably at finishing) was the abundance of both tomato-based sauce and whole pieces of seafood. I had always thought of paella as a rice dish, but this pile of mussels, squid and prawns most definitely considered rice the afterthought. While this particular version was a bit too heavily salted for my liking, both of the two versions I tried in Barcelona were a far throw from the tinted yellow rice I knew. I loved it.

My main problem with paella had always been its tendency to become dry: I love the crispy, crunchy bottom layer of rice that clings to the paella pan (which this dish did not lack at all), but I always find myself sprinkling Tabasco over the rice of a “typical” (as I knew it) paella, not only to pump up the spice, but to keep the starchy grains from growing too dry. The abundance of sauce along with the massive shellfish reminded me more of similarly spirited Italian pasta dishes, where the carb becomes secondary to the fish and sauce. It’s a different method and attitude towards paella, but I embraced it thoroughly.

July 26, 2008

Riz Composé

Filed under: Rice — Tags: , , , , , — emiglia @ 8:34 pm

Accidental Hedonist Day!

February 2, 2008

Six more weeks… but it feels like spring!

Filed under: Fish, Rice — Tags: , , , , , — emiglia @ 3:58 pm

In 2002, I experienced my first-ever New England winter. According to my Ipswich-native roommate, it was one of the coldest ones in recent history. “Even we don’t get weather this bad,” she would mutter as the two of us sat in our thermals on the bathroom windowsill, running all three showers to build up steam so that we could thaw after a long day. We both bought smokers gloves (with the fingertips cut off) for doing our homework, and, like twins, we wore twin braids and a toque (then called a ski cap in my American-only vocabulary) every day, and she went so far as to wear thermal long underwear under her jeans. It was cold.

Spring came eventually, and on the first sixty degree day, a Sunday, we spent the afternoon in t-shirts, doing our homework on the lawn. Yes, it was cold, but damn, I could walk around without shoes on and not get frostbite, so I would! It felt like summer to my warmth-starved body, and so that evening at dinner, as we clambered in from the lawn holding our shoes in our hands, I fixed myself a bowl of sticky rice and soy sauce. I know… bizarre, but allow me to go on another extremely long tangent and explain.

My father has done every fad diet known to man. Some were annoying, like the grapefruit diet, and others I enjoyed, like one that had him eating sugar-free Jello and Cool-Whip and chunks of nutty Parmegiano-Reggiano. I have yet to completely understand what that particular diet was all about.

My favorite, however, is a recurring one. Every summer, when we go out to Long Island, Noda-San comes back. Noda-San, also known as “Mr. Sushi” runs a four-seat sushi bar in Westhampton Beach. It’s the second best sushi I’ve ever had (the first best, also eaten with my father, was in a strip mall in LA somewhere near Studio City. Go figure.) Anyway, every summer, when Noda-San comes back from Puerto Rico and opens up the sushi bar again, my father decides that a diet consisting solely of sushi, grilled fish and seaweed salad is just what he needs. Sure enough, it usually ends with him losing about twenty pounds, all of which he slowly regains over the winter months. My sister and I are his usual dining companions, and I, the only one with drivers’ license, am rewarded with sushi money if I make the drive to pick up his typical Japanese breakfast of seaweed and rice vinegar.

All this to say that, to me, soy sauce and sesame are possibly the flavors that best exemplify summer. Which is why, even though I had a spaghetti Bolognese dinner planned for this evening, I changed my mind as soon as I saw the clear blue sky and smelt the spring. I don’t care what that damn Groundhog says. I don’t care that I still nearly froze in my bed last night, or that I’m still wearing two pairs of socks and nursing big cups of hot tea. Today, there was a hint of spring in the air. It smelled like fresh grass and mulch… like that day so many years ago when the ice and snow finally started to melt, and we sat by rapidly shrinking snow drifts to work on chemistry homework. This is why I abandoned the package of ground veal for another day, and went out to buy some salmon, to be served with lime, soy, spinach and rice, a food I never, ever eat, unless it’s with soy sauce and sesame, as soon as I can start to see the beginning of spring.

Lime-Honey-Soy Salmon

2 salmon fillets
2 limes
2 tbsp. honey
2 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp mustard
salt and pepper
vegetable oil

Season the fillets on both sides with salt and pepper, and add to a “screaming hot” (as Rachael Ray says) skillet with vegetable oil. Cook for two minutes per side, until the outside is crisp and brown, and the inside is cooked through but still moist. Remove from skillet and keep warm. Add the other ingredients to the skillet and cook down for one minute, stirring constantly. Drizzle the glaze over the fillets and serve. We had it over rice and reheated frozen spinach, and it was divine.

November 12, 2007

Rice Pudding

Filed under: Rice — Tags: , , — emiglia @ 6:36 am

Sometimes, you just need something hot and delicious.

I made myself rice pudding on one of those days recently, and of course, when I told my friend, she laughed at me. Aren’t those the days when you just grab the jar of Nutella and go to town on it with a spoon?

I suppose… maybe. Anyone who knows me well knows I’m not a huge fan of chocolate. Besides… I love idly stirring as something as wonderful as rice pudding comes together (which anyone who knows how to make risotto can make: it’s another one of those “add liquid and stir ’til it looks right recipes.) Just melt 2 parts butter to 1 part sugar in a saucepan. Add 4 parts arborio rice, and toast in the butter. And then, it’s stirring time: add warm milk flavored with vanilla by the ladleful until it’s is creamy and delicious, with toothsome grains and a thick, white pudding. Stir a little more butter in, and maybe some cinnamon, and that’s it: you have your snack.

Now I’m not saying there aren’t days for the Nutella pot, but there are also definitely days for hot, delicious (wow… almost went Giada there and said decadent… now you know how good this stuff is) rice pudding.

October 17, 2007

Dinner Parties and Tarte Tatin

Filed under: Appetizers, Chicken, Pie, Rice — Tags: , , , , , — emiglia @ 6:58 am

“Festina tarde was a renaissance concept: make haste slowly.”

It’s taken me a long time to get to Under the Tuscan Sun, but it’s not for lack of cooking. On Saturday night, I threw a massive dinner party at my house. I invited ten people, and crafted a perfect menu: apératif of Tomato Bruschetta and Wild Mushroom Crostini, Risotto with Parmeggiano-Reggiano for a starter, and then Under the Tuscan Sun’s Chicken with Lemon and Basil. The dessert was tarte tatin. I spent all day Saturday prepping, making sure that everything would be easy once my guests arrived. I made the tarte dough, precooked my risotto (a restaurant trick I learned while waiting tables), made my salad dressing, tomatoes, and dressing for the chicken, and precooked the mushrooms. I had very little to do once my guests arrived.

… If they arrived. I guess one of the drawbacks of having so many international friends is not being aware of their customs. Example? Apparently, in a lot of South America, it’s considered rude to show up somewhere on time. So while my American friends arrived about ten to fifteen minutes late (like my mother told me, and apparently their mothers told them, you are supposed to do), the others didn’t show up for two hours.

Bear in mind, also, that this is rugby night in France, and France is playing England for a chance in the semifinals. We’ve opened the wine, eaten all the bruschetta, and the five of us have gotten quite tipsy while trying to find a way to watch the game online. When my friends finally arrived, I managed to get everything on the table (I forgot about the salad though), but my chicken didn’t brown the way I wanted to because I’d lost my sense of timing (thank you, Bordeaux), I didn’t have time to take any pictures of the plated dishes, and by the time we’d finished with the risotto and the chicken, we wanted to watch the rugby game, so we abandoned the finished pie in the cold oven and went down to the Champs de Mars.

The French lost, and the next morning I had to wash essentially all the dishes in my house. But later that evening, my friend Emese came by to help me finish the tarte tatin, and as we sat together on my couch, sharing half a pie between us, I realized that this was what I had wanted. Just to haves some friends, even one friend, over to my house, to cook something delicious, and to talk for awhile. I don’t know if I’ve learned how to make haste slowly, but I know that eating that one pie slowly was much more fun than any dinner party could have been.

The Menu:

Tomato Bruschetta

Wild Mushroom Crostini

Risotto with Parmeggiano-Reggiano

Basil and Lemon Chicken

In a large bowl, mix 1/2 cup each of chopped spring onions and basil leaves. Add the juice of one lemon, salt, and pepper. Mix and rub onto 6 chicken pieces (I used chicken thighs) and place in a well-oiled baking pan. Dribble with a little olive oil. Roast, uncovered, at 450 for ten minutes and at 350 for about an additional twenty, depending on the size of the chicken. Garnish with more basil leaves and lemon slices.
Tarte Tatin

December 17, 2006

Kirsten’s Home Cooking Adventures

Filed under: Chicken, Rice, Side Dishes — Tags: , , , — emiglia @ 1:54 am

Kirsten’s Home Cooking Adventures is one of those blogs that is almost entirely devoted to recipes… and I’m thankful for it. Whenever I’m not sure what to make for dinner, I head over to Kirsten’s to browse her meticulously organized recipe database.

Tonight, for example, I was looking for something to do with the chicken breasts I had sitting around the fridge, and Kirsten, of course, had an answer:  Memorial Day Citrus Chicken. Granted, hers was grilled on the BBQ on Memorial Day, and mine was poached in the delicious marinade, but I still have Kirsten to thank for my delicious dinner… and dinner many a night when I can’t come up with anything! I urge all of you to head over and check it out.

July 20, 2006

Orange Dinner

Filed under: Fish, Pie, Rice — Tags: , , , , , — emiglia @ 11:25 pm

I just made the most amazing dinner for my family. I hate to gloat, but it was pretty darn awesome.

First, I made a simple salad of mixed greens, Craisins, sliced almonds, orange sections, and blue cheese.

I need to pause here to say that Craisins are AMAZING. And this from a person who hates raisins. Craisins are dried and sweetened cranberries, and they have this amazing sour sweetness that bursts in your mouth, much sweeter than an actual cranberry.
Craisins
Craisins mix very well with pungeant cheeses like Gorgonzola, and a sweeter salad dressing. I mixed honey, mustard, champagne vinegar, and olive oil for this one.

After the salad, I made a Salmon with Orange Glaze from “The Healthy Kitchen.” I meant to take pictures as soon as it came out, but my family was so hungry and it looked so tasty that I forgot until there was only half a piece left. The salmon was amazing. The glaze wasn’t too sweet, and with a little extra soy sauce, the dish tasted great. I made a few changes to the recipe from “THK.” This is my version of the dish.

salmon

Salmon with Orange Glaze

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Sear six 6oz. fish fillets in sesame oil in a large, very hot skillet for 1 minute on each side. Remove fillets from the heat and transfer them to a glass baking dish or baking pan. Drizzle three tablespoons of soy sauce and one quarter cup of sherry over them and bake them for 10 minutes. Remove them from the oven. Sprinkle with black sesame seeds.

Meanwhile, heat one cup of freshly squeezed orange juice, one teaspoon of orange zest, three tablespoons of sherry, and half a teaspoon of freshly grated ginger together in a small saucepan over medium-high heat until reduced by half. Remove from heat, strain the sauce over the fish, and serve.

To go with the salmon, I made Orange Ginger Brown Rice that I got off of Food Network’s Date Plate. Growing up, my mother never made brown rice. In fact, she hardly ever made rice at all. I was raised eating all Italian or French food, because my father’s family is Italian, and my mother was trained in France. I think this could be why I’m so interested in Asian styles of cooking, even if it is mostly fusion cooking now.

I don’t love white rice; I find it rather bland, and the only time I like it is with sushi. Brown rice, however, is a different story. I love the nutty flavour and texture, and the difference between the harder outer husk and the tender inner grain. Once again, I made a few changes to the recipe I found on Food Network, and this is my changed version. I added more broth, and used sesame oil in place of the vegetable oil that the recipe used. I also subbed red onion for white. This recipe paired very well both with the rice I used and with the fish.

rice

Orange Ginger Brown Rice

Begin by sweating two medium red onions, diced, in sesame oil in a medium sized pan until they are translucent. Add two cups of brown rice and saute for 1 minute. Add two teaspoons of orange zest and two tablespoons of ginger and cook for 1 more minute. Add four and a half cups of vegetable stock and bring to a boil. Cover the pan with a lid and cook over low heat for 20 to 25 minutes or until rice is tender. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste.

Dessert was a peach crumble I made with peaches that were about to turn bad. So good for crumble! Here’s the very straightforward recipe I used. Once again, I forgot to take pictures until it was mostly all gone, but oh well.
cobbler

Peach Crumble
Preheat oven to 425°F.

Mix 3/4 cup flour, 2/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup crumbled sliced almonds, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Add 1 stick of cold butter, sliced into tablespoon pieces, and mix with hands until butter is in small pieces and coated. Spread one pound of sliced peaches in a 9 1/2-inch deep-dish glass pie plate and sprinkle topping over it.

Bake crumble in middle of oven until fruit is tender and topping is golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes.

So there we go. I’ll be back tomorrow!
emiglia

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