Shrimp Curry and Snow Peas

Sorry, no picture--we ate it all up too fast! But here are the instructions for Shrimp Curry. This started out as a recipe in The Key to Chinese Cooking as Fillet of Flounder in Curry Sauce, and has had ingredients crossed out and the flounder changed to shrimp, so by now, the recipe is a little hard to follow in the cookbook!

1/2~1 pound fresh shrimp (medium size)
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 onion, chopped fairly large
3 Tbsp. oil
1 Tbsp. American curry powder
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
2 tsp. cornstarch dissolved in 1 cup water and 2 tsp. sesame oil

Remove shells from shrimp and slice back and remove black "vein." Heat oil in frying pan. Saute onion for a few minutes, then add garlic and continue sauteing. When onion is nearly soft, add shrimp and cook till pink. Stir curry powder into shrimp/onion mix and stir and cook for a bit. Add soy sauce. Stir up cornstarch mixture and pour into pan. Cook and stir for a few moments until sauce thickens up. Turn off heat and let rest while you prepare snow peas, then reheat and serve. To make a single serving, probably .25 to .33 pound of shrimp would be enough, and you might cut the cornstarch/sesame/water and curry powder down.

Snow peas: Pinch off ends of snow peas and pull off any thick strings. Heat 1 Tbsp. oil in pan and drizzle a small amount of sesame oil in as well. Add dry snow peas and sprinkle with salt. Saute on high heat till wilted and slightly browned.

Creamy Wild Rice and Turkey Soup

This cannot make any claim to being health food, but it turned out really delicious. Mostly from the Reese wild rice package, as adapted by me (they didn't think of adding turkey!)

Wild Rice Soup

1/2 a stick of butter
3/4 cup onions
1 cup celery
1/4 cup flour
1 quart whole milk (I fortified it with some half and half I had in the fridge)
a cup, more or less, or cooked wild rice
cooked turkey in bite-size pieces (2 cups? I don't know, I didn't measure)
chicken base
1/8 tsp. white pepper (or black)

Melt butter but do not brown. Saute onion and celery till soft but not brown. Sprinkle flour over vegetables and stir well. Slowly add milk, stirring continually till thickened. Add cooked wild rice and turkey and barely simmer for a few minutes. taste and add bits of chicken base, dissolved in a spoon in the hot soup, to taste. Add white pepper. Do not allow to boil. Makes about 6 cups.

Chirinabe for a chilly night

This turned out so good! Ingredients cost about $27.

Broth:
1 quart of water
1 packet of dashi no moto
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 Tbsp. sake

Mix broth in a large bowl and pour into two nabes and heat.

Add, in this order, cut into large chunks:

enoki mushrooms
chicken tenders
salmon
black cod (could skip next time)
king crab legs (3/4 pound, 2 pieces, cut into sections)
large sea scallops
(next time include clams!)
a few leafs of nappa
large pieces of green onion

Simmer till fish is just cooked through.

Simply Spaghetti

Papa developed a craving for spaghetti this evening, and I pulled together a simple sauce that turned out fantastic:

1/2 pound ground beef (80% lean)
1 fresh sweet Italian sausage, cut open and chopped into pieces
1/2 ~1 onion, chopped
1 small can sliced mushrooms, drained, reserve juice
1 fresh green pepper, chopped
1 24 oz. jar of Classico Tomato and basil sauce
1 lb. Trader Joe's spaghettti

Yes, right, I had the half-tube of ground beef and a leftover Italian sausage in the freezer, and I quickly defrosted them in warm water. Not the recommended method, but that's what I did. When the meat was defrosted, I sauted it in the frying pan, chopping and breaking it up with a wooden spoon. When it was just about done, I added the onion (half an onion because that's what was in the refrigerator. a whole onion would be fine too) and green pepper and mushrooms and sauted a bit more. I didn't add (or subtract) any oil, what came out of the meat was just right. Stir with a wooden spoon till the onion and pepper start to soften. Pour in the jar of sauce and thin with some mushroom juice. Simmer for a half hour or so, adding more mnushroom juice as needed. Cook spaghetti, serve with sauce! It was yummy! I only cooked 3/4 of a pound of the spaghetti, but there's excess sauce, so it's enough for a whole pound.

Meat N Potatoes

Beyond simple. Russet potatoes in one pan, (peeled) sweet potatoes in the other. Total of 1/3 cup of oil (some olive oil, some corn oil, to save $$), and one packet of onion soup dry mix. 450 degree oven, 20-30 minutes.

And wagyu meat, cooked in butter for seconds.

Friday Night Lights

Pork Shabu-shabu, about to be enjoyed!

Thinly sliced Kurobuta (black pig pork, the good stuff), white mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, tofu, and spinach.
I never have pictures of the finished food because when the food is ready to eat, I forget all about cameras and documenting what I am eating!

And Old Faithful: we received this electric frying pan as a wedding gift 30 years ago. It is used for shabu-shabu, sukiyaki, and fried chicken, and it has never let me down yet. The temperature gauge is no longer readable and it's crusted in some sort of gunk, but it is irreplacable!

Greek Salad on a stick

For Deborah and Jeff's annual garden party, I decided to create a recipe based on a picture I tore out of a magazine. the original picture showed red onions, black olives, feta cheese and cherry tomatoes. I went to the farmer's market with that in mind and stopped off at Eliki's stall for my favorite feta. I told the guy what I had in mind and he had me taste test both black and green olives as well as roasted sweet red peppers. Sold!

So on each skewer I had a chunk of red onion, a chunk of good feta cheese. a grape tomato, a black olive, a chunk of red pepper and a green olive. I decorated the tray with fresh oregano. In a jar, I mixed together the juice of a home grown lemon, some olive oil, and some dried oregano, along with several grinds of pepper and sea salt. I poured that over just before serving. It was very well received--only a single skewer was left, and I pawned that off on someone so that I could take home the fabulous 99 cent store tray I served it on.

Deborah has many interesting friends and there was lots of good wine, good conversation, and tasty food.