Crispy Shrimp Salad

Here's a great and easy summer salad.  The Shrimp is hot off the skillet and crispy.  It's a wonderful mix of hot, cold, sweet, sour and crispness.  Let's start with the salad.

You will need a large stainless steel bowl for all the ingredients to be mixed.

Ingredients:

2 heads of Romaine Lettuce chopped
1 Peeled Cucumber Chopped
1 Large Ripe Tomato Chopped
1 Ripe Mango Chopped
2 Scallions Chopped
1 Ripe Avocado Chopped (optional)
Olive Oil
Honey
Balsamic Vinegar
Salt and Pepper

Put all the ingredients in the bowl and sprinkle with generous amount of salt and pepper.  Drizzle with the olive oil, honey and balsamic.  Toss until all the ingredients are evenly covered.  Divide into 4 bowls.

Heat up a 12" stainless steel skillet with 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter.  While the butter is heating dust the 2 pounds of fresh large peeled and deveined shrimp in a mixture of flour.

Flour mixture:
1 Cup Flour
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Pepper
1 tsp Dried Tarragon

It's easiest to mix in a large zip lock bag.  Add the shrimp and shake.  Lay the shrimp in the hot butter and brown on each side.  This only takes about 3 minutes per side.  If you are not able to cook all the shrimp in one batch then make sure to clean out the skillet and start with fresh butter.  The left over flour will burn quickly if you don't start fresh.

Add the hot shrimp to the top of the salad and serve.  You can squeeze lemon over the shrimp if you like.  Enjoy!

Banana Nut Bread

Well guess what I had sitting on the counter that were too ripe to eat but I didn't want to though them in the trash.  That's right!  Bananas!  This is such an easy thing to make and everyone loves it.  I like to slice it and put it in the freezer to take out a slice at a time to toast or take with my lunch.  It freezes really well.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Place the rack in the middle.  Grease the bottom of a 9x5x3 inches baking dish.

Mix all the ingredients together with a stand mixer and pour into the loaf dish.  Bake for about one hour.  Make sure to check with a  toothpick about 10 minutes before the timer goes off.  As soon as the toothpick comes out clean remove from the oven.  There is a fine line between moist and dried.

Here are the ingredients:

3 Mashed Bananas

2 1/2 Cup Flour

1/2 Cup Sugar

1/2 Cup Packed Brown Sugar

3 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Salt

3 Tbls Vegetable Oil

A little less than 1 Cup of Milk

1 Egg

1 Tbls Fresh Grated Lemon Zest

1 Cup Chopped Walnuts.

Let cool for 10 to 15 minutes and remove from the pan.  Let cool completely before slicing.

Enjoy!!!

Peach Necturine Cobbler!!!!

This is the time of the year to enjoy the bounty of fresh fruit that's available to us.  I had a bunch of peaches and necturines sitting around and just starting to get a little ripe to eat all of them before some of them start spoiling.  That means it's time for cobbler!  I don't know anyone that doesn't love cobbler.  This is old fashion cobbler.  It's easy to make and you don't have to be good at pastry dough.  All you have to do is mix stuff together and bake.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and place the rack in the middle.  You will need the following ingredients.

2 to 2 1/2 lbs of Ripe and Juicy Peaches and/or Necturines
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/8 Cup Flour
1 Tbls "Fresh" Lemon Juice
1/8 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract
for the filling.

Mix all this together in a large bowl and put in a baking dish 10" x 7" x 2".  Put in the oven and cook for 15 minutes.  While this is cooking you need to make the dough for the top.  Here is what you will need.

1 1/8 Cup of Flour
4 Tbls Sugar divided into 3 Tbls and 1 Tbls
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
2 Tbls Chilled Unsalted Butter cut into small cubes
2 Tbls Chilled Vegetable Shortening cut into small cubes
3/8 Cup Buttermilk
1 Egg Beaten
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium size stainless steel bowl.  I a 4 cup glass measuring cup whisk together the buttermilk, egg and vanilla and set aside.

Add the cubed butter and shortening to the flour mixture and with you hands pinch until it looks like a fine oatmeal consistency.  Pour the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture and mix with a wooden spoon.

When the fruit comes out of the oven glop the dough on the top of the fruit.  Sprinkle with the remaining sugar and put back in the oven and bake for 25 minutes.  It should be brown on top and bubbling all around the edges.  Let is cool on a rack for at least 15 minutes before serving with vanilla ice cream.  Yum!  Enjoy!  It's delicious!

More Stuffed Peppers

The last time I posted stuffed peppers I didn't post the recipe.  Here is what you need to make these delicious stuffed peppers.

Ingredients:
5 to 6 Large Pepper (Multi color or not)
1 1/2 lbs of Ground Meat of some kind. (Experiment.  I usually use chicken or turkey but beef or pork are a wonderful variation and there are subtle differences in taste from one to the other.)
2 Cups Cooked Rice (White or Brown)
1 Cup Panko Bread Crumbs
3 Large Eggs
1 Large Minced Shallots
1 Small Jar Chopped Pimentos
3 Ozs Tomato Paste
2 Tbls Dijon Mustard
1 Tbls Worchestershire
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Tobasco
1 tsp Dried Thyme
1 tsp Dried Parsley
1/2 tsp Ground Black Pepper

32 Ozs Tomato Juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and place the rack in the middle.

In a large stainless steel bowl mix together all the ingredients except the tomato juice.  The tomato juice will be poured over the peppers.  Cut the peppers in half long ways and take out the seeds.  Lay one half of the pepper halves in a deep baking dish.  Put a heaping mound of the stuffing on the pepper half.  Place the other pepper half on top of each mound.  Pour the tomato juice over the peppers and fill the baking dish to within 1 inch from the top.  Salt and pepper the top of the peppers.

Put the baking dish in the oven and cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes.  The peppers should be browned on the top and bubbling.

Serve the peppers and break apart.  Pour the tomato juice sauce over the peppers.  Enjoy!!!!

Crab Cakes!!!

If you like crab this is the dish for you.  Crab cakes are pretty easy to make.  All you need is crab, of course, a binding agent and seasoning.  What does that mean?   Here are the ingredients.

1 lbs of Canned Crab meat (Buy good quality crab meat)
1 Cup Panko Bread Crumbs
2 Eggs (your binding agent)
2 Chopped Scallions
1/4 Mayo (Make is fresh if you can.  There is nothing better.)
1 Heaping Tbls of Dijon Mustard
1/2 small jar of chopped pimentos
1 Tbls of Old Bay Seasoning
1 tsp of Dried Parsley, Dried Tarragon and Salt
1/2 tsp of ground pepper and Tobasco or some other hot sauce
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Mix all this stuff together.  Heat a 12" All-Clad or other heavy stainless steel skillet over medium heat with about 2 tablespoons of vegetable shortening.  Don't use a non-stick skillet.  The crab cakes will brown much better in a stainless steel or cast iron skillet with shortening.  Once the shortening is hot form the crab mixture into patties with your hands.  Hands work the best.  You should get about 8 good sized patties.  Gently place the patties in the skillet and brown on each side.  This should take about 5 to 7 minutes a side.  Only flip the patties once.  They are very delicate and will not take to multiple turns.  Serve immediately.

Cole slaw is the best thing to serve with crab cakes.  Use the left-over mayo to make the tartar sauce.  Add pickle relish and chopped shallots to the mayo to taste.  This goes great with the crab cakes or if you are a purest fresh lemon juice is delicious!

Enjoy!!!!

BBQ Pulled Pork Top Loin

There is nothing I like better than great BBQ sauce.  This has to be the best BBQ sauce I have ever made.  It has a rich tangy sweet flavor with a touch of heat.  I added caramelized Maui onion slices to the mix and every bite is simply an explosion of flavor in your mouth.  The pork is melt in your mouth delicious and when you add the BBQ sauce to the mix look out!

Here is what you need to do to make this incredible meal.  You will need to roast the pork top loin.  The instruction on this link show chicken being roasted but works just as well for pork.  The only thing you need to change is 30 minutes before the the 2 hour mark you will need add 1/2 cup of Jack Daniels and to drizzle the pork with honey, pure maple syrup, molasses and brown sugar.  This will add a wonderful sweetness to the pork. You will need the juices to make the BBQ sauce.

Take the pork out of the pot and pour off the juices.  Skim the fat off the top.  To make the BBQ sauce you need:
1 Cup Ketchup
1 Can Tomato Paste
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1/4 Cup Molasses
1/2 Cup Balsamic Vinegar
1 tsp of the following seasonings
Onion Powder
Rosemary
Parsley
Mustard Powder
Smoked Paprika
Ground Cumin
Salt
1/2 tsp Cyan Pepper and Black Pepper
1 Capful of Liquid Smoke

Add all these ingredients to the pork juices in a sauce pot.  Heat over medium heat and simmer for about 10 minutes before serving.

Slice the pork and ladle the sauce over the pork.  You can serve the pork on a bun and make a delicious sandwich.

Things that go great with this is caramelized Maui onion slices.  Slice the onions thickly.  Heat a skillet over medium heat and add a tablespoon of butter.  Add the onion slices and let them brown lightly on both sides.  By this point the onions should be very tender and the natural sweetness of the onion will come through.

Another thing that I love with this meal is ripe smashed or cubed avocado.  Lightly salt and pepper the avocado.

And of course sprinkle with a great cheese of your choice.  Enjoy!!!!!

Once the pork is