5:01 Dinner Club

Simple Shrimp Creole

Serves 4

• 12 Roma tomatoes, quartered
• 1 Green pepper, chunked (or- as I used-all kinds of sweet and spicy peppers from the garden-see pic below)
  

  Sweet Banana Pepper, Cayenne & Serrano Chilis from our garden that I used

• 1 Rib of celery, chunked (not the end of the world if you are missing this ingredient)
• 1 Large (2 small) sweet onions, chunked
• 2 Bay leaves
• 2 Tbs Oil (olive, canola…)
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• ¼ C Tomato paste
• 1 C Andoulie or smoked sausage
• (Water or chicken stock?)
• 2 Lbs large shrimp, peeled and deveined (good shrimp cheaper frozen at Costco)
• ½ C Fresh parsley, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees
2. In a large bowl, mix 1^st 7 ingredients
3. Spread tomato mixture out in an even layer on a large jelly roll pan
4. Place mixture in oven and roast for 30 minutes
5. Remove tomato mixture from oven, remove bay leaves and set aside
6. Put tomato mixture in a blender or food processor and puree
7. Pour tomato sauce into a pot, add sausage and tomato paste and stir
8. If sauce is too thick (and mine was) add stock or water until sauce is the desired consistency
9. Heat sauce over medium heat until simmering- let simmer  5 minutes
10. Add shrimp and cook just until opaque-2-3 minutes-do not overcook the freakin shrimp
11. Serve shrimp in creole sauce over cheese grits or steamed white rice, and garnish with parsley!

Quick, simple and versatile seared meat!

Serves 4 in less than 30 minutes

• 4 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Oil (olive, canola…)
• Salt & Pepper to taste

1. Pound out the chicken breasts so that they are even in thickness (they will cook faster)
2. Rub chicken with oil and then season generously with salt & pepper
3. Heat a griddle or large non stick pan over high heat
4. Once griddle is hot, add chicken and sear on both sides cooking until chicken is no longer pink-about 6-8 minutes on each side
5. Allow chicken to rest for 5 minutes before eating

 NOW!!!  You can go in all sorts of directions.  Look around your kitchen/pantry while the chicken is cooking/resting and decide how to bring it all together.  

Here are a few suggestions (most of the recipes on in the blog):

• Slice chicken and put it on a salad-Caesar, Greek, strawberry balsamic…
• Dice chicken and make tarragon chicken salad/sandwiches
• Chop chicken and have BBQ chicken (or just coat in warm BBQ sauce)
• Slice chicken and serves with pasta (cream sauce, marinara sauce, or just olive oil, garlic, salt/pepper, and parmesan cheese)
• Pull chicken, toss in BBQ sauce for BBQ chicken pizzas
• Dice chicken and throw together a chicken pot pie
• Chop chicken and then toss with fresh grated ginger, honey, soy sauce, chopped green onions & rice for an easy “asian chicken & rice bowl”

Serves 4-6 as an appetizer-10 Minutes prep time and 2-12 hours marinating time (so great for entertaining)

•  1 lb Cooked lump crab meat
• 1 Medium sweet onion, chopped fine
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• 4 oz vegetable oil
• 3 oz cider vinegar
• 4 oz ice water

1.  Layer crab & onion in a dish
2. Salt & Pepper each layer
3. One by one:   drizzle oil, then vinegar, then ice water over crab & onions
4. Cover tightly and refrigerate for at least 2 or up to 12 hours
5. Toss lightly and serve with saltine crackers

Lunch!

Glenn caught this redfish on the 1^st day of our Spring Break.  A big, beautiful fish that we promptly, cleaned, cut up, battered and fried for lunch!  Funny thing is (for the past 3 years anyway) that we catch 1 “keepable” redfish a year and it’s always at the beginning of our trip.  I think of it as the fish that ensures (on behalf of all of the other grubby little bait stealers) that we are feeding all of the other fish around the dock for the entire week.  Because once we catch our 1 keeper, it’s fish stealing our bait everyday for the rest of the week!

Serves 4 in about 20 minutes

• 4- 6 oz Firm white fish filets (to be most cost effective, I cut up 3-4 tilapia filets into about 6-8 pieces)
• 3 Eggs, beaten and seasoned with salt & pepper to taste
• 1 ½ C Finely crushed saltine cracker crumbs

1.  In a large sauté pan, heat canola (or olive or vegetable oil) over med-high heat until bubbles form around the end of a wooden spoon when placed in the hot oil
2. Dip fish pieces in the eggs and then evenly coat in the saltine cracker crumbs
3. Place fish in hot oil and watch carefully as they brown-adjust oil temp is necessary
4. Flip fish pieces after about 4-6 minutes and cook another 4-6 minutes on the other side
5. Drain fish on paper towels or a wire rack
6. Garnish fish with fresh chopped parsley or tartar sauce… and serve!

Seared Tuna With Asian Slaw

 I don’t know where you are but where I am-Atlanta, GA- it’s unseasonably cold right now.  And this weather has me dreaming of a nice light meal beachside.  So close your eyes and imagine you are at a Spa in Miami because with  3 core ingredients this meal takes very little effort, very little time and it is very light!  BTW- I used frozen tuna from Publix to make this as real world as possible and it was good!  After all, not everyone can go to a fancy gourmet market and get sashimi grade tuna. . .

 Serves 4 in about 10 minutes!

• 4 4-6 oz Tuna Steaks, if frozen-thaw overnight in fridge
• 2 Tbs Olive oil
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• 2 Heads Napa cabbage, shredded thin
• ¼ Sesame-ginger marinade or salad dressing
• Chopped green onions to garnish-optional

1.  Heat a cast iron skillet, non stick skillet, or grill pan over HIGH heat
2. Rub tuna steaks with olive oil and season with salt & pepper
3. Sear tuna over very high heat for just a couple of minutes on each side (for rare-medium rare)
4. Remove tuna steaks from heat and slice steaks
5. Serve over Napa cabbage, drizzle with sesame-ginger dressing and garnish with green onions

The easiest "elegant" thing you'll ever make!

Serves 6 in about 30 minutes

• 2 17.3oz Boxes frozen puff pastry (you will use 3 sheets and reserve the 4^th for future use), thawed in fridge overnight
• 3 10oz Boneless, skinless salmon filets
• 3/4 Cup Basil pesto
• 1 Egg, beaten

1.  Lay out 3 sheets of puff pastry on a lightly floured, cool surface (like a solid surface counter top)
2. Gently roll out each piece just slightly to eliminate the creases and the cut each piece into 2 pieces with the piece you intend to put on top of the salmon being slightly larger that the piece for the bottom
3. Place 1 piece of salmon on each (bottom) piece of pastry
4. Spread 1/3 of the pesto evenly across top of each piece of salmon
5. Brush the edges of the bottom piece of pastry with egg
6. Place 3 remaining pieces of puff pastry dough on top of salmon/pesto and seal the edges
7. Brush egg wash over the top (not the cut edges or the sides) of the pastry parcels
8. Sprinkle a little kosher salt on top of each parcel
9. Cut a few slits in top op pastry to vent
10. Now if you are serving this for a dinner party, make ahead and refrigerate until it’s time to bake-so this is great or company-no last minute running around…  Or, if you are putting this together for supper, just work quickly-keeping pastry cold and you have an elegant dinner on the table in 30 minutes… (This is what I did tonight and it was good!)
11. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
12. Place pastry parcels on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake in the lower 3^rd of the oven at 400 degrees for 8 minutes
13. Reduce the heat to 350 and move the salmon to the top 3^rd of the oven for another 12 minutes or until pastry is risen and golden

A pesto & salmon filled pastry "parcel"-

Any seafood, meat or chicken would taste good with the orzo & flavored butter!

Serves 4

Takes 15 minutes to prepare

• 5 Tbs Unsalted butter, softened
• Scant ¼ C Fresh, basil, chopped fine
• ½ 4.25 oz Can chopped black olives
• 2 Cloves garlic, minced
• Kosher salt to taste (I think I used about ¼ Tsp)
• 4 4-6 oz. Halibut filets
• 1 Tbs Olive oil
• Salt & Pepper to taste

1.  In a medium bowl, mix 1^st 5 ingredients
2. Place flavored butter on a piece of plastic wrap, roll it into log form, and then stick in freezer while you prepare the rest of the meal
3. Heat a non-stick skillet or griddle over high heat
4. Coat fish filets in olive and season with salt & pepper to taste
5. Sear filets over high heat until deep brown, flaky, and cooked through:  3-5 minutes on each side
6. Plate filets with creamy orzo (below) and top with a pat of the black olive, garlic and basil butter-

Serves 4

• 4 (4-6 oz.) pieces salmon that have been coated with
• 1 Tbs Olive oil and then seasoned with
• Salt & pepper to taste

1. Heat a non stick pan (or griddle) over high heat and when very hot, place salmon in pan and cook about 3 minutes on each side (wait until there’s a nice deep golden brown on one side before flipping)

A good sear!

Caramalization=YUM!

 

A couple of notes about cooking scallops:

1. Thaw them slowly
2. Make sure they are dry when you get ready to cook them (I actually hand pat mine dry with a paper towel.  If they are wet, they won’t sear properly-they boil.)
3. Coat them with olive oil, lots of pepper and a little salt and then sear on really high heat for just a couple of minutes on each side-so easy!

Citrus Kissed Fish Tacos With: Chipotle Cream, Roasted Poblano Guacamole & Ginger-Mango Slaw

Serves 4, takes about 40 minutes to make, and costs less than $5/Person

Step 1:  Chipotle Cream

• 1 Small chipotle pepper (or ½ large chipotle) in “adobo” sauce, minced
• 2 Tbs “Adobo” sauce (the sauce that surrounds the chipotles in the can…)
• ½ C Sour cream
• 2 Tbs C Mayonnaise
• 2 Tbs Milk

1.  In a small bowl, mix ingredients thoroughly, set aside.

 Step 2:  Roasted Poblano Guacamole

• 3 Ripe avocados, peeled, seeded and chopped
• 1 Tbs Fresh Lime Juice (or juice of ½ large lime)
• 1 Clove garlic, Minced
• ½ C Vidalia onion, chopped fine
• 1 Poblano pepper seeded, roasted, peeled & chopped (you can easily roast a (seeded) pepper by putting it under your broiler and charring the skin. Then peel skin and chop.)
• 1/3 C Fresh cilantro, chopped
• ½ Tsp Kosher salt

1.  In a medium bowl, gently mix all of the ingredients until thoroughly combined.
2. Cover with plastic wrap so that the wrap is actually touching the surface (this will help to keep it from turning brown) of the guacamole, set aside. 

Step 3:  Mango-Ginger Slaw

• 1 Mango, peeled, seeded & julienned
• 5 C Shredded (store bought-angel hair style) cabbage
• 1 Tsp Fresh Ginger, Minced
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1 Tbs Honey
• Salt & Pepper to taste

1.  In a large bowl, gently toss all ingredients until thoroughly combined, set aside.

 Step 4:  Citrus Kissed Fish

• 3 Tilapia Filets
• Juice of two limes, divided
• 2 Tsp Olive Oil
• Salt & Pepper to taste

1. Evenly coat tilapia with ½ of lime juice, olive oil and salt & pepper.
2. Heat grill or grill pan over medium-high heat:  about 400 degrees.
3. Grill fish about 3 minutes each side-until opaque and flaky.
4. In a medium bowl or serving dish, break up filets into bite-size pieces
5. Toss fish in other ½ lime juice, set aside

 Step 5:  12 Taco size corn tortillas

1. Heat large griddle, grill pan, or frying pan over high heat
2. Grill tortillas until they toasted on both sides-about 15 seconds each side

Layers Of Flavor!

 Step 5:  Enjoy!

Now build the tacos starting with a few pieces of fish, then the chipotle cream, then guacamole and finally the mango ginger slaw.  Take a bite and “Ahhhhhh” you are back in paradise.  It just doesn’t get any better than this!