Spaghetti with Shrimp Alfredo Sauce

Of all the spaghetti this got to be my oldest son favorite. It would have been mine too if it not for the calories, but I can’t deny how much I do enjoy eating this creamy melts in your mouth dish. As long as I could remembered this is always one of my favorite dish that would order in an Italian restaurant and would often rate if they are good are not by this dish and the garlic bread. Sadly, as I got older I have to cut back on my calorie intake due to my waistline expanding. It doesn’t help that I truly and utterly just love food! Alas, when I do make this spaghetti version it often to accompany our night in with steak and a nice glass of wine. And it a plus to see the smile on my son face after he take his first bite and going back for second and third. My joy for the day is accomplished.

Ingredients:

½ Packet of spaghetti or any pasta you like
¼ Cup of butter + 1 Tbsp
½ Of jumbo shirmps or scallops
1 Cup of heavy cream
3 Garlic cloves, minced
1 Cup of parmesan cheese
½ Cup of Romano cheese
A pinch of nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil for drizzling over noodle

Methods:

1. Cook the pasta to package instruction. When it el dente, remove from heat and run cold water over it stopped the cooking process. Then drizzle some olive oil on it and toss well to prevent it from sticking together.
2. In another heated sauce pan, melt the butter. Then add the garlic and give it a stir a couple of time.
3. Next add the heavy cream and stir constantly and bring to boil. Reduce the heat to low and add the nutmeg, cheese, salt and pepper. When the sauce is thicken it is done. Set aside.
4. Now in another pan, melt some the 1 tablespoon of butter and then add the shrimps and cook for 3 minutes or until pink. Then add into the sauce.
5. Lastly slowly pour the pasta into the sauce and toss a couple times to completely cover it.
6. Serve hot with some grate parmesan cheese..Yum..Yum

Pesto Sauce

If you like both pine nuts and sweet basil, then this is the perfect sauce for you. My first experienced with pesto sauce was at Olive Garden a very long time ago. I didn’t know what it was called back than, I just know that it tasted soooo yummy with grill salmon! From that day on I was determined to learn the recipe and indulged! At last, I finally found this simple yet delicious recipe.
There not much to this recipe except make sure that the pine nuts is of good quality. If you used bad pine nuts, the consequence would be very bitter. And I meant literally. Not long ago, as I was trying to clean my pantry, I noticed a bag of pine nuts that seem good yet open. Not wanting to be wasteful I decided to make some yummy pesto sauce to go with my spaghetti and steak night in.
I combined both the new package and the rest of the old package. Well the result was superb. It look great and taste great, the only con was that the very next day I have this bitter taste in the back of my mouth. Of course, didn’t know the cause of it I naturally think that I was sick or something. Anyway, it took a whole week and plus some to get rid of that awful taste. Needless to say, nothing tasted good during that whole process.
Anyway to make the story short, I didn’t realize that it was the pine nut that causing it until it happen the second time. Then I did some thinking and google pine nuts and found that bad pine nuts can leave that bitterness in the back of your mouth.
So that little rascal can do some damage if you’re not careful with it.
Disregarding that one little minor set back, I still love pesto sauce and I put mine on everything from steak, fish, vegetables to pasta. Its just one of those sauces that so good you can’t put down.
Beside from that fact, enjoy and have fun making it….if you still want to make some.

Ingredients:

1 Cup basil
½ Cup pine nuts
3 Garlic cloves
¼ Cup extra virgin olive oil
½ Cup parmesan cheese
¼ Cup romano cheese
½ Tsp ground pepper
Salt to taste

Methods:

There not much to this sauce, except to put everything in the food processor and mix well. Serve as is.

Shrimps and Mushroom Risotto

This is my first time making risotto. To tell you the truth I never even heard of risotto until I ran across this month Daring Cook’s Challenge host byMelbournefoodGeek and Jessthebaker. When I first saw the challenge I was afraid to try it out, but once I read through the recipes and did some research…I realized it wasn’t hard at all. Just time consuming. As always, loving a challenge, I set out to gather my ingredients. Of course, living in such a small town, I ran into trouble finding the Arborio Italian rice. Suddenly, I’m contemplating if I should take this challenge or not, and I tried to find every excuses possible weighting the pros and cons of it all. Alas, Amazon came to the rescued as I bought I first bag of this Italian rice online! For $1.29!
Ok that sounds crazy, but at least it shows how dedicated I am in getting this right.

So after almost 2 hours (stock and risotto) of slaving over the stove, I result was absolutely delicious! Of course, I not really into creamy rice, but my 2 years old seem to be loving it. She was the first guinea pig sort of say, but she finished every single spoonful of it. I am still trying to finger out why my picky eater relishing it. Maybe it the creaminess or it the shrimps and mushrooms, her two favorite items, but whatever it is, she end up finishing it up for me. Of course that would be over the course of 2 straight days. To me it reminded me of our rice porridge and I don’t really care for it, but it was pretty good once you get used to it. I might even love it next time around. Which that will be pretty soon! Anything to make my 2 years old picky eat, even it meant another day of slaving over the kitchen stove.

I also want to add that to save time, you can use store bought chicken broth. It is just as yummy!



Chicken Broth

Ingredients:
1 Whole Chicken 4 + pounds
1 Large onion
2 Bay leaves
3 Garlic cloves
1 Tsp of salt
1 Tsp of black pepper

Methods:
1. With a 5 quart pot put all the chicken and salt and fill to the ¼ inches from top.
2. Bring to boil and add the rest of the ingredients and lower to medium and cook for 1 ½ or until water is reduce to ½.
3. Set aside on low heat.

Risotto recipe

Ingredients:
1 ½ Cup of Arborio Italian rice
½ Kosher
½ Cup shredded parmesan cheese
½ Cup shredded asiago cheese (optional, makes it really creamy)
7 1/2 Cup of chicken stock
6 Tbsp of butter
1 Tbsp + 1 tbsp virgin olive oil
26 Jumbo shrimp, peel and devein with tail on
1 Cup Sliced mushrooms
2 Tbsp of minced parsley
1 Medium onion chopped finely
½ White wine

Methods:

1. In a hot skillet pour 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
2. When oil hot, add the onion and stir until slightly brown and aroma.
3. Add the rice and stir until rice turn white.
4. Now add the white wine and stir until it is completely absorbed.
5. Next add 1 cup of chicken broth at a time stir until fully absorb, repeat again until all the 7 chicken broth is used up.
6. Before you reach the last cup of chicken broth, add the shrimp in there to cook it. Remove and set aside after fully cooked.
7. Now in a hot skillet add the last 1 tbsp of olive oil and then add the mushroom. Stir until cook and set aside.
8. When the rice is fully absorbing the last cup of chicken broth add the butter until it completely melt. Rice supposed to be el dente.
9. Lastly, add the cheese and stir until completely melt and add the shrimps and mushrooms and stir for a couple of minutes.
10. Remove and sprinkle the minced parsley and stir well. Serve hot with a nice glass of white wine.

Angle Hair Paste in Red Wine Sauce With Sear Scallop

As you might guessed by now, I love anything food. I love making it and I love eating it. To me all kind of food is enjoyable and challenging. I like to experiment with new recipes, ingredients and technique. As I was watching the Food channel a couple of years ago I saw a segment on pasta and red wine. Of course, I didn’t have a chance to take down the exact recipe, but always wanted to try it.

So a couple of days ago I have no ideas of what to make for our regular Sunday dinner. Coming upon some giant scallop and pasta, I decided to put it into good use. Sunday is the only day that I actually have time to make a good dinner. And it the only day where the whole family can sit down to a good home cooked meal. Therefore we all enjoy and look forward to our weekly Sunday dinner.


Ingredients:

4 Pieces of big scallop
¼ Package of angle hair pasta
1 Cup of red wine (I used cabernet sauvignon) you can also use pinot noir or shiraz
1 Tbsp of minced parsley
1 Tbsp of minced garlic
3 Tbsp of butter
1 Tsp of kosher salt
1 Tbsp of fish sauce (optional)
1 Tbsp of olive oil
1 Tbsp of black bean sauce

Methods:

1. Put enough in nonstick pot for the pasta and bring it to semi boil and add the pasta, make sure stir it well so that it will not stick together.
2. Cook about 8 to 10 minutes until pasta el dante.
3. Removed pasta and drain, running cold water on it to stop the cooking process.
4. Add half of the olive oil and parsley and toss together, set aside.
5. Heat the skillet until hot and then add the butter.
6. Cook the scallops by adding the salt and black bean sauce and sear it until golden brown, then flip the other side. Set aside.
7. While the scallops are cooking, put the butter on the hot nonstick sauce pan.
8. Add the minced garlic and golden brown
9. Add the red wine and bring to boil, then add the black bean sauce.
10. Lower the stove to medium and add the pasta until the sauce is all absorb. About 5 to 7 minutes.
11. Remove and top with Scallop and serve.

This dish is very nice with a good glass of white wine.