Shrimp With Spinach Cream Sauce

Years ago, I would often make a recipe with shrimp called Chinese Green Shrimp. I really can’t recall where I found the recipe. Vaguely, I think I got it from the news paper along with another recipe called Chinese Skillet Upside-down Pineapple cake. What I do recall is that both recipes were absolutely delicious. Ahhh those were the teen years–and I kept that recipe for quite some time. In any event, I’ve been wanting to make those ‘Green Shrimp” lately, and figured a nice creamy spinach sauce would suffice. This is not how the original recipe was made, but…it’ll do. After looking at this dish, my thinking is this–you must love the color green and absolutely love spinach, as the intense green color of the spinach may not seem appealing to you. However, the flavor was fantastic! For the record, green is my favorite color and I love spinach!! Very soon, I think I’ll try to recall how I made that Chinese Skillet Upside-down Cake also.

Served over linguine

Very tasty. Hubby agreed, although he did say it wasn’t the most appealing dish to his eye…that was expected

Lets make that Spinach Cream Sauce shall we…its pretty simple, and here’s what you will need:

1 package of linguine, cooked per orders

2 Tbsp (1/4) stick butter

1 large onion, minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup Chicken Stock or Broth

1 pound of fresh spinach–washed and steamed. You can steam it in a regular steamer or in a large saucepan over medium/low heat using only the water clinging to the leaves, for about 5 minutes or until completely wilted.

Proceed:

Heat the butter in a large heavy saucepan over low heat. Add the onion and saute for about 5 minutes, until the onion is becoming translucent  Next add in the garlic and continue to saute until fragrant–about 3 minutes more. Add the chicken stock and cream, and simmer gently for 5 minutes. Stir in the spinach and simmer 5 minutes longer. Alternatively, you could just add the steamed spinach to the blender, then add this mixture to it…that’s how I went about it. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Allow to cool a tad, and add the mixture to a blender, or use an immersion blender, and blend till smooth. Again, if necessary, adjust the salt and pepper. That’s all it is to it.

Our spinach is all nice and clean, just waiting to be steamed

Ahhh, there it is all nicely steamed. Don’t you just love the smell of spinach? All green and healthy for you…I could just eat it up right now, but…that would defeat my recipe lol

Sauteing the onion and garlic in the butter

Added in the chicken broth, now in goes the cream

Everybody into the blender! I had actually placed the steamed spinach in the blender after steaming. Oh look at that cream mixture drizzling in

For the shrimp:

1 lb large or jumbo shrimp–peeled, cleaned, and deveined.

1 onion

1 bell pepper  ( I used a mixture of red, orange, and yellow)

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 tsp Old Bay

2 Tbsp paquillo peppers (optional)

Parmesan cheese, a little lemon zest, and a pinch of red pepper flakes if you like that spicy kick

3 Tbsp olive oil, and another 3 Tbsp olive oil

Pictorially, it went like this:

Oh my, I love shrimp! Peeled them, cleaned, and deveined with a little butterfly slit along the back

Chopped the veggies, and sliced those lovely piquillo peppers on the right

Into the saute pan with the olive oil (the first 3 Tbsp)–sautéed until just tender

Added in the garlic and continued to saute a few minutes more

Removed the veggies from the pan and set aside. Cook the shrimp in olive oil (the 2nd 3 Tbsp)

When the shrimp are just about done, those lovely sliced piquillo peppers were added, and mixed about

Add in the onions, peppers, and garlic

Added the spinach cream sauce, salt and pepper to taste. Now in my haste to get some plates on the table I added this in quickly. However, for presentations sake, my intentions were to keep the sauce separate, then place the pasta on the plate with a build of the shrimp and vegetable mixture, with a drizzle of sauce about, to present a nice colorful plate. Sigh…maybe next time. However, the flavor was very nice and it went down just the same  

A little sprinkle of Parmesan cheese, and dash of lemon zest, a few red pepper flakes was all that was needed…well…

… except for a fork…now we’re complete. Well actually a nice glass of  Beaujolais will seal this deal for a great wine pairing

Green Shrimp

Good goobody goop, a gobble of green goodness!

Simple Sunday Dinner

Growing  up, Sunday was always the day to have the “big” Sunday dinner. This was the day that all the stops were pulled out and the feast was on. And of course this carried over to my own customs as it was ingrained to do so. So, most Sundays, I’ll cook up a big pot of this, a big pan of that, a long-awaited for meat that wasn’t eaten so often, and a few sides to sooth the food craves. However, as of late, I’ve sort of gotten away from the “big Sunday dinners” and opted for more simple, fast courses that still fill the ‘crave’ and leave the family happy. Most often, quick and simple serves up better. Although I still get in that “big Sunday dinner” mode, I’m not so obligated to stick to that custom so much. Yes, there will be those big dinners in the future–not necessarily limited to Sunday, but easy-going suits me just fine.

My Simple Sunday Dinner

consisted of

Herb-Baked Chicken with Rice & Carrots, Steamed Brussel Sprouts, and sautéed Spinach

Over plain white rice

I seasoned the chicken with various spices and herbs–onion powder, garlic powder, Kirkland’s no salt seasoning, paprika, garlic sea salt, fresh cracked black pepper, dried rosemary, fresh rosemary, fresh sage and parsley. Laid the chicken on a bed of onions, chopped garlic, and celery in a roaster, sprinkled a chopped garlic and onion on top, added no liquids, covered and baked for about 2 hours and 20 minutes at 350. when it was just about done, I added slivered carrots on top and continued to cook until they were done.

Out of the oven…

For the spinach, I sautéed chopped shallots and garlic in 2 Tbsp of extra virgin olive oil for 3 to four minutes, then added the baby spinach, stirred in and covered–stirring to mix from time to time until the spinach was nicely wilted. For the brussel sprouts I sautéed garlic in a pot for a double boiler until it was fragrant, then added the steaming liquid (water in this instance), place the sprouts in the top part of the boiler and steamed until very tender… and that was my quick, Simple Sunday Dinner!

Lobster & Scallops In Honey Cream Sauce

This is a recipe that well, just came to mind as I was pursuing the isles of Costco–I could practically live in that store! I really had chicken of some sort in mind for the day’s dinner, but then I happened past the seafood…and you know me and seafood. Once I caught sight of those big, beautiful lobster tails, I stopped in my tracks. I looked at the king crab legs, but at $20.00/lb (I thought that was ridiculous!),…so that was out. However, moving on…er, not moving on because I was still standing in front of those lobster tails, I thought about what would I do with them.  I asked the seafood guy to just tell me the price of one…he weighed it…didn’t seem to bad and I told him to bag it! However, I didn’t want to broil it or put it out on the grill whole. I thought about that lobster and mushroom omelet I made for hubby several days ago, and how succulent and sweet the lobster meat was, and thought I would do a rough chop on it again this time around and serve it in some fashion over pasta. Still no concrete recipe or idea in mind, but thought I needed another seafood element to compliment it and scallops seemed like the obvious choice, so I picked up a few of those and below is what came about.

This was hubby’s plate. He thoroughly enjoyed it.

I decided to clean and prepare the lobster shell and stuff everything into it. I thoroughly enjoyed it also! Served with sautéed zucchini and garnished with enoki mushrooms, with a few strips of broiled sirloin. I guess you could call it a ‘surf n turf’  of sorts.

Happiness in a lobster shell

 Accompanying salad–mixed greens and broiled sirloin with balsamic vinaigrette

This is how I went about creating this not so complicated dish.

Chopped red and green bell peppers, onions, shallots, garlic, some of the leningrad garlic, and of course scallops and a lobster tail

Added everything into a saute pan with extra virgin olive oil except the garlic and sautéed until the onions were opaque

In went the garlic and Leningrad garlic–sautéed until those released their respective fragrances

This is leningrad garlic. A very good friend gave this to me from his garden. It has a wonderful aroma and very nice flavor

Added chopped shiitake mushrooms–gotta have my mushrooms!! Salt, fresh cracked black pepper

Fresh spinach, cook until wilted

Time to remove from the heat and set aside

Split the lobster tail with my heavy-duty kitchen sheers, removed the meat and seasoned with garlic powder, Old Bay, pinch of salt and fresh cracked black pepper, gave it a rough chop and…

…into the pan with the scallops. Actually you’ll want to add the scallops first as the lobster meat cooks a tad quicker. Cook until just done. We don’t want to over cook–who wants rubbery tasteless seafood??

Added heavy whipping cream to the pan–about 2 1/2 cups

Add a hand full of fresh chopped parsley and about 1 tsp tarragon

In goes the honey…about 1 1/2 Tbsp. We don’t want it too sweet, but juuussstttt enough to give a mild sweetness. stir and cook a few minutes to incorporate all of those flavors

A Tbsp cream cheese to add a little more depth to the richness of flavors

Some of those most delicate and dainty looking enoki mushrooms make their entrance to the party

And now adding the lobster and scallops back, and just mix on a very low heat so that all of the ingredients get very well acquainted with one another. No need to ‘cook’  the seafood any further. Basically just warming through

I find that this Buitoni fettuccine is the next best thing to fresh at present…and until I buy a pasta machine and learn to make pasta, this is the way to go. There’s a big difference in the flavor, taste, and texture as opposed to the dry pasta, but if you must use dry, that’s quite alright. I keep dry pasta on hand, but whenever I can, I’ll choose fresh, or ‘close to fresh’

Into the boiling salted water for a few minutes

Marinated steaks awaiting the broiler–marinated with salt, pepper & balsamic vinegar, and a dash of  Worcestershire sauce

Sautéed the sliced zucchini in a little butter with fresh dill, salt & fresh cracked black pepper

Fini !

Spinach, Crab, and Cheese Manicotti

Manicotti is the name given to the shape of the pasta, which means little tubes, that are just begging to be stuffed with deliciousness. Here I decided on the traditional spinach and ricotta cheese stuffing and of course being one that loves seafood, I through in some crab meat as well. 

The fresh basil chiffonade went well with the marinara sauce

Topped with crab-meat

Ingredients:

1 box Manicotti

1 medium onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium shallot, chopped

12 ounces fresh mushrooms chopped. I used white and oyster…save a few for topping

1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese

1 cup mozzarella cheese

1 cup Parmigiano Regianno–divided

4 ounces cream cheese

1 tsp Italian seasoning

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

4 fresh basil and parsley leaves

12 ounces fresh spinach or 1 10 ounce package frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

2 11 ounce cans crab-meat. Preferably I would have used lump, but only had fancy crab-meat on hand

1 26 ounce jar of marinara sauce (or make fresh)

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Pam spray

Fresh cracked black pepper and salt to your liking

Proceed: 

Cook the manicotti per package instructions. Pre-heat the oven at 350.  Heat the olive oil in a pan over moderate heat and saute the onion and shallots until the onions are opaque. Add the garlic and saute for 3 minutes more, then add the mushrooms and cook about 5 minutes.  In a bowl, combine the ricotta cheese, cream cheese, 1/2 of the mozzarella, 1/2 of the Parmesan cheeses with the sautéed onion mixture, Italian seasoning, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Salt and pepper to taste.  Add in the chopped spinach and the crab meat and mix well. Fill each cooked manicotti with a generous amount of the mixture with either a small spoon, or a piping bag (one can be improvised by snipping the tip of a zip-top freezer bag).

Lightly spray a 9 x 13 inch baking pan with Pam. Spread some of the sauce in the pan and place the filled manicotti in the pan. Top with the remaining sauce. Sprinkle on the rest of the mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses, top with sliced mushrooms and the rest of the crab meat. Cover the pan with foil and bake at for 30 minutes. Garnish with fresh basil and parsley.

Some of our ingredients

Onions and shallots in the pan

Addition of the garlic

In go the chopped mushrooms, and 1/2 of the crab meat

Now we’ll mix the sautéed onion mixture with the ricotta cheese, 1/2 of the mozzarella cheese, cream cheese, half of the Parmesan cheese, nutmeg, and cinnamon, pepper, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper

The spinach has been steamed, then drained–dried as much as possible and chopped

Mix in the chopped spinach, 1/2 of the crab meat.  Pipe or spoon into the manicotti

Give a 9 x 13 inch baking dish a little spray of Pam, and spread some of the marinara sauce on the bottom

Arrange the filled manicotti in the dish, drizzle on the remaining marinara sauce, top with the rest of the mozzarella & Parmesan cheese and arrange the rest of the sliced mushrooms and crab-meat on top. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 30 minutes

Spinach, Crab, and Cheese Manicotti

And without the crab for my youngest son–with fresh parsley and finely grated Parmesan cheese