First thing about me, I have the attention span of a squirrel. Or damned close to it. So expect to see a little of everything on here. My pets and animal care, metalsmithing, cooking, card making, and various other "art" projects.
Also, I am not the best at photographing things. It just seems like I can never remember that I have a camera...
So tonight's feature: one of my "made up" recipes. I find as I get older I do this more. Almost every night is an ordeal between my husband and I that always starts with "What do you want for dinner?" We are horrible at making these choices and half the time we end up eating out, which I think I hate more. You see, my head is crammed so full of useless knowledge and crap that I can only recall 15-20 recipes at any given time. Over half of which I won't have all the ingredients for at any given moment. So now I pretty much base a dinner on whatever protein we have in the freezer. From there I look at my fridge and pantry and ask myself what sounds like it would taste good together?!?
So last night's dinner was a ghetto shrimp paella and a pineapple upside down cake. It was damned delicious (I promise to grab photos next time I make it).
Ghettto Shrimp Paella:
1 pound shrimp.
1 can of diced tomatoes (regular or Italian variety is fine)
1 box of cous cous.
A GOOD olive oil. I used some fantastic stuff I get locally and a specialty shop for Olive oil and balsamics
Minced Garlic (fresh or dried is fine)
Jalapeno Pepper, diced.
2 Tbs of Capers
Salt and Pepper to taste
Some notes on the ingredients:
I use the jumbo easy-peel prawns. I get a decent count (20-24 usually) for a really decent price, and it takes about 5 minutes to peel them all. I used the Near East brand, Whole Wheat Cous, Roasted Garlic flavor. Don't skimp on the olive oil. I am pretty spoiled when it comes to EVOO these days, and I rarely buy it from the grocery store. Mine almost exclusively comes from a specialty shop here in Austin. (Con Olio's), and they specialize in EVOO and balsamics. If you have access to an EVOO specialty shop, I used a combination of Garlic and Tuscan Herb EVOO.
The jalapeno is a touch of spice with mostly flavor. If you like a little more heat in your food, feel free to sub a different kind of pepper!
To start, I prepared the cous in a small pot according to direction. Peel your shrimp and give them a nice cold water wash, then allow them to dry for a few minutes in a strainer. Or you can use the paper towel method and spread them on a few paper towels patting them dry. Then in a large deep skillet I heated the EVOO (enough to coat the bottom of the pan.)over medium heat. To the oil I added the diced jalapeno and garlic. Let the oil cook out a bit of the flavors of each, but be sure not to over cook the garlic. Burned garlic is a flavor you will never forget.
Once the garlic has a golden brown color and the peppers are a little softer, add your shrimp and cook it all up until the shrimp is almost cooked (not pink all the way through yet). Once you are at this stage, add your cooked cous, the capers, and your (drained) can of diced tomatoes. At this point, stir everything up and ensure everything is heated all the way through. Serve that shit and enjoy.
Now for dessert, Pineapple Upside-down Cake!
You can use just about any recipe, Dole even has one on the underside of the can labels. I'll share my secret to a fabulous variation:
First, use a butter cake. Not pineapple, not yellow, not white. Butter. Duncan Hines has a pretty awesome one. (I never said this was a healthy dessert.) Prep the batter according to the box.
Now then, Grab your can (or two) of pineapple slices and lay them out in the pan according to generic recipes. Do NOT throw away the juice in the can though! Once you have your pineapple slices laid out and your cake batter ready to go, here is what you do:
In a pot, combine the saved pineapple juice, a stick of butter, and a cup of brown sugar. Double this if you used two cans of pineapple. For the brown sugar, I use half dark and half light, but it really doesn't matter. Heat on medium and stir constantly until the butter is melted and you have a syrup consistency. Making this syrup first WITH the pineapple juice makes all the difference. I can't claim discovery of this pineapple syrup though. That credit goes to my sister, Laura, who put me on to the idea in the first place.
Once you have your syrup, pour it in your pan over the pineapple slices, and then add the cake batter on top. When this bakes, it is going to candy the edges of the cake as it bubbles up. It's pretty fantastic. But hey, don't take my word. ;)
Maybe next time I can get some pictures of this food though, before it gets devoured.
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