Shrimp with orzo, asparagus and feta

Boil a pot of water and throw in 1/2 lb of chopped asparagus. Cook for two minutes and then put into ice water. Add 1 1/2 cup of orzo and cook for ten minutes. Save some cooking water and drain it.

Shell and devein 3/4 lb of shrimp and season with salt and pepper. Add 4 tbs of butter to a good sized pan. Once it's hot, add the shrimp with one chopped garlic clove and cook until the shrimp is pink, then pull out. Throw in the asparagus and saute a bit, then pull out.

Add in 1/2 cup of white wine with 1 tsp oregano and cook down, scraping the bottom. Add 1 cup of chicken stock, a bit of the reserved cooking water and the orzo. Cook on high for two minutes then add the shrimp and asparagus.

Stir in 2 tbs chopped fresh parsley. Serve and top with crumbled feta.

When I did this, I did the asparagus and orzo ahead of time and prepped the shrimp and just set to the side until I was ready to cook, which totally worked. I love a meal I can prep ahead cook in ten minutes.

It did need a bit of salt, as my stock is much less salty than the canned crap I'm used to. A bit of pepper made it pop. I loved this dish.

Lazy Garlic Pasta

This is a good one when I have no time and want something garlicky and simple. And I'm

always down for some pasta. Cook enough spaghetti for one. While it's cooking, smash one garlic clove into a bowl. Chop up about four basil leaves fine into said bowl. Add in a couple pats of butter. Once the spaghetti finishes up, scoop out about two tbs of pasta water. Drain the rest, add it to the bowl, then stir it all up with the reserved pasta water. Add parm. Enjoy.

Spinach Feta Pasta

This is one of my oldies but goodies. It's sooo easy and it's super yum. And it's about 3000 degrees outside, so it works perfectly.

I have a leftover chicken breast from chimi chicken that I chopped up to add in. I made 1/2 pound of rotini pasta. I tossed that in vinaigrette for a minute to keep it from drying out and to get some flavor.

Here's the sauce:
1 cup spinach 1/2 cup vinaigrette (I was lazy, usually I would make my own, today I used Trader Joe's red wine. Boring.) 1/4 cup good feta

Throw the spinach in the food processor until it's tiny. Add vinaigrette. If it's TJ's, add about 1/4 cup of oil to offset the water content. Add the feta and blend until just past chunky. Pour this over the cooked pasta, add the chopped chicken and a bit more feta.

Done. Love it.

Chimichurri and dinner

I knew this was coming. It always happens when I'm bored, I get hungry, I go shopping and all of a sudden I want to make fifteen different things. And that is today. I went with chimichurri - I did this recipe a while back, it's a recurring favorite whenever I see red peppers or parsley.

I like my chimichurri chunky and far from that bright green crap you see on tv. I use my food processor, but if you chop by hand, just make sure everything is a super small chop. At the same time, if you use a food processor, make sure it doesn't turn into a puree. Although this time I did it a little finer than usual and it turned out pretty rockin. Better marinade and easier to use as a dip. Yum.

Chop together 1 bunch parsley (save most of the stems for stock), 1 seeded tomato, 1/2 seeded red pepper, 1 smallish onion, 3-5 garlic cloves. Add 1 tbs oregano, paprika and coarse kosher salt and 1 tsp black pepper. Stir it well.

1/2 hour later add 1/4 cup red wine vinegar and 1/4 cup water. Tonight, mine was super moist - maybe the parsley got rained on at the market right before I picked it up? So I left out the water. 1/2 hour later, add 1/2 cup olive oil. Golden.

Dinner tonight is super simple. Chimi chicken, a can of black beans heated with a tbs of chimi in it, and pseudo Spanish rice. I sauteed about a tbs of onions, added 1/2 a cup of rice to the saute, then added a cup of chicken stock and about 4 oz water. Cook that for 20-25 min and you're good to go.

On a related note, rice is one of my culinary nemeses. I can't cook it for shit most of the time. Tonight is no exception. I put the heat a little too low, and it's been going for 45 minutes in a crunchy, watery mess. Fuck rice.

Za'atar is my crack

Za'atar. It's a beautiful spice mixture. My best friend is Lebanese+ and she introduced me to this amazing spice. We call it dirt, since it does look like it. It's an amazing mix of thyme, sesame seed, sumac and other things.

This will probably be a post that is good for some regions, not so much for others. Living in Los Angeles, I have a ton of ethnic markets around me, so I have access to this.

My local international market has "jordanian thyme." Which is basically thyme, sesame seed and some other stuff that if you add sumac to it, it's za'atar. I buy the shit out of this all the time. My favorite snack is a hot pita and some olive oil to dunk it in before the za'atar.

Tonight's snack supper is super simple. I just wanted some chicken. I put some sumac on the chicken, then some dirt. I cooked it up on my Foreman grill and grubbed. My man added sun dried tomatoes + oil, I added more sumac. Yum and super simple.

Shrimp Scampi with pilaf and asparagus

I love love love shrimp scampi. I'm trying a super easy version of it. I haven't made this in ages, but I remember it being super simple.

Season 1 lb medium shrimp with salt and pepper after ripping their legs off. Heat a few tablespoons butter in a pan until it's bubbly and close to brown. Cook the shrimp a couple minutes on the first side. Flip them (just shake the pan around then flip the individuals that don't want to turn - way easier than turning each one) and cook a minute. Add two cloves chopped garlic and saute for about a minute. Pull out the shrimp and as much of the garlic as you can with a slotted spoon to a bowl. Add in 1/4 cup whine wine and juice of one lemon. Cook until it reduces a bit and add in a tiny bit of zest and 2 tbs chopped fresh parsley. Pour it over the shrimp and poof: scampi.

I'm pairing this with a super easy pilaf. Saute 1/2 cup orzo in 2 tbs butter. Stir in 2/3 cup of rice and three cups chicken stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce and cook for 25 minutes.

Throw in some asparagus and you're golden. Here was a thought - I threw the asparagus in boiling water for 2 minutes and then threw it in ice water - blanch. Once I pulled the shrimp that was sauteed, I threw in the asparagus for a minute and then pulled it out before I added the wine etc. Beautiful. Yum!

The only misstep. Add some bouillon or some salt to the pilaf. It's incredibly boring.

Lemon Paprika Chicken

This is one of my all time favorite one pot easy chicken dishes and I'm trying it a bit differently this time. I use the same marinade for the chicken as I do for the potatoes and the veggie. This works super well with brussel sprouts.

Start with the marinade. Combine the following:
1 tbs paprika
1 tbs oregano
3 cloves garlic, chopped fine or pressed
2 tsp white pepper
A few shakes of red pepper flakes
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup olive oil

Then the rest of the prep. Chop three gold potatoes (I used russets tonight, I was out of gold) into inch or slightly smaller pieces. Put in a bowl. Take 8 large or 12 regular brussel sprouts and chop off the stem, then slice in half. Dump the leaves that fall off and put the halves in a bowl. Clean two chicken breast halves and put them in a bowl.

I put a bit of the marinade on the potatoes, enough to lightly coat. The brussel sprouts get a bit more. The chicken goes in the rest. I usually prep this an hour before and then cook, but you can always prep and marinate the chicken the night before then throw the rest together when you're ready to cook.

This is a one pot dish in three parts. Heat the oven to 375. Pull out the chicken and the brussel sprouts if they were in the fridge so they can rest and lose the chill.

Dump the potatoes with the minimal marinade in a roasting pan, spread out. Hit with another glug of olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt. Sprinkle with a bit more white pepper if you're into that. Cook the potatoes for twenty minutes. Pull the pan, stir around the potatoes and corral them in one half of the pan. Add the chicken to the other side after dripping off most of the marinade. Sprinkle with kosher salt, cook for 15 minutes. Pull the pan, flip the chicken, add the brussel sprouts with marinade in between and sprinkle the chicken and sprouts with kosher salt. Cook for 12 more minutes. Once you pull it out, let the chicken hang out for at least five minutes before you dig in.

I realized tonight what I was doing wrong with this. I used to put it together with lots of marinade in the pan and that was killing it. The potatoes won't get crisp with too much marinade and the chicken looks and feels super weird cooked in that much liquid. The sprouts add just enough to get a nice barely there sauce on it. But damn, the chicken was overcooked. Cut their time down by at least five minutes. Also, when you pull it out to let it rest, put another pad or something under the potato side to make sure any excess liquid drains to the other side. Soggy potatoes = no bueno.