Shrimp with Lemon Ginger Rice Pilaf

This weeks cooking class at culinaerie was focused on grains.  It was mostly review, but we learned more about how various types of semi-processed grains are made.  My partner and I also decided to experiment a little with the flavors of a traditional pilaf.  We added lemon, ginger, and garlic to the usual shallots and butter.  The result was outstanding!  I made some sauted shrimp with lemon pepper seasoning to round it out into a meal.

Rice Pilaf

Rice pilaf is one of the easiest ways to make really flavorful rice.  The typical pattern is to sweat onions in butter, then add rice and aromatics, toss to coat in the butter, then add the liquid and bring to a boil.  Finish in a 400-degree oven for 17 minutes.

Here is how we tweaked this traditional procedure to make our ginger lemon rice pilaf:

Ingredients:

- Butter

- 1c basmatti (or other long-grain) rice

- ~2c chicken stock

- 1 shallot, finely diced

- 1 lemon (zest and juice)

- 2 cloves garlic

- 1T grated ginger

- Salt & Pepper

Melt the butter over medium heat.  Add diced shallot and sweat until shallot is translucent.  Add the ginger, lemon zest, and garlic and stir to incorporate.  Add the rice and stir so that the butter coats the grains.  This helps supress the starches on the outside of the rice grains, so that the rice does not get sticky. 

Add the juice from the lemon plus enough chicken stock so that the total liquid is 2 cups.  Bring to a boil.  Cover and put in a 400-degree oven for 17 minutes.

For the shrimp, I simply seasoned it with lemon pepper seasoning and sauted it in equal parts butter and oil until it was nice and pink. 

Garnish with parsley.

Left-Overs - Part 2: Chicken Curry Salad

With the other half of my left-overs from the weekend (balsamic-marniated chicken breast) and various vegetables and other items I had in the pantry, I made a very quick chicken curry salad:

Ingredients:

- Cooked chicken breast, cut into 1cm cubes
- 1/2 cucumber, brunoised
- 1 large carrot, brunoised
- Handful green beans, cut on the diagonal into small pieces
- 1/4c slivered almonds
- Packet of pre-cooked barley and spices (similar to this)
- 2oz part-skim low-fat mozzarella cheese
- 1/4c plain yogurt
- 1T curry powder
- 1T lime juice
- 1t honey
- Salt and pepper to taste

Toss the first 7 ingredients together in a bowl.  Mix the yogurt, curry powder, lime juice, honey, and slat and pepper together in a small bowl and then dress the chicken salad. 

By using the leftovers and the pre-cooked barley/whole grain rice mix, you can really put this lunch together in a matter of minutes in the morning!
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Left-Overs - Part 1: Pasta with Chicken and Balsamic Mustard Sauce

Over the weekend I made chicken paninis for Cillian and his running buddy, Tom.  I had bought four chicken breasts, and threw them all in the marinade of balsamic vinegar, water, chicken spice seasoning, and mustard seeds.  I cooked three of the four breasts for our sandwiches, and left one lonely breast in the marinade.  I also had some left-over cooked spagheti (dressed only with a little butter and parmesan), so here is what I made for lunch:

Ingredients:
- 1 chicken breast, marinated in balsamic, water, chicken spice seasoning, and mustard seeds
- Canola oil
- 2T shallots, finely minced
- 1/2c wine
- 1/2 - 1c chicken stock
- 1T mustard
- 1t mustard seeds
- Salt and pepper as needed
- Cooked noodles

Heat your oil in your pan.  Add the chicken breast and saute until cooked.  (You could cut your breast into bite-sized pieces before cooking, but I wanted to let it cook longer and really have the balsamic marinade get carmelized and dark, dark brown, so I left the breast whole and cut it up after it was cooked.)

Remove the cooked chicken, deglaze with wine, add shallots and cook until almost all of the liquid has evaporated.  Add the chicken stock and mustard seeds and reduce until sauce consistency.  Add mustard, salt, and pepper.

Toss noodles, chicken, and sauce.  Voila, lunch in 20 minutes (also great reheated)!

Asian Noodle Salad

It is Day Two of our return to healthy eating and on the menu for today is this rice noodle salad filled with all kinds of fresh nutrient-rich veggies.  Also, as a bonus it is gluten free!

Ingredients:
- 2T fresh grated ginger
- 4 cloves fresh grated garlic
- 5T sesame oil
- 1/4c soy sauce
- 1 package thin rice noodles
- 2 red bell peppers, thinly sliced
- 1 yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced
- Handful of snow peas
- 8oz package sweet pea shoots (you can substitute any kind of sprouts for this)
- 1/4c cilantro, finely chopped
- 1/4c red skinned peanuts

Heat the sesame oil gently over low heat.  Sesame oil has a low smoke point, so be careful not to burn it.  When it is hot, add the ginger and garlic and allow to gently cook for about 3-4 minutes, until sweet.  Remove from the heat, slowly stream in the soy sauce, while whisking.

Thinly slice the peppers and cut the snow peas into about 1/4 inch segments, on a diagonal.  Put the vegetables, including shoots or sprouts, into a bowl and toss with the oil and soy sauce dressing.

Cook the rice noodles according to the package directions and then add to the vegetables in the bowl, while still hot.  I like to do this because it slightly cooks the vegetables, bringing out their sweetness and taking a little bit of the "edge" off of the snow peas.  Toss.  Add cilantro and peanuts.  Chill.

Back from Ireland! (and Broccoli Tomato Salad)

We are back from our whirlwind tour of Ireland!  It was a fabulous trip with lots of quality family time and also some alone time exploring the wild west of Ireland.  As always, Ireland was charming and wonderful, and we ate very well!  Too well, in fact.  So this week we're on a high-fiber, low-fat diet.  The first installment is this broccoli tomato salad, adapted from the Avoca Salads Cookbook. 

Ingredients:
- Florets from 2 heads of broccoli
- 1 pint cherry tomatos, quartered or halved, depending on the size
- 3T pine nuts, toasted
- 3T chevre
- 2 cloves garlic
- 4T red wine vinegar
- 1t dijon mustard
- Salt and pepper
- 2T sunflower oil (can substitute olive oil)

Cut up the broccoli and tomatos.  Toast your pine nuts.  I like to toast my seeds and nuts in a pan on the stovetop, but some prefer to put them under the broiler.  I like the stovetop because you can keep a very close eye on the nuts and toss them as needed.  The up-side of using the broiler is that you can really get it down to a science once you know your oven and how long each type of nut needs to toast.  Once toasted, add your pine nuts.  Use a spoon to cut up the chevre as you add it in, so that it's in small pieces that are easily distributed.

To make the dressing combine the garlic cloves, vinegar, mustard, and a pinch of salt and pepper in a small bowl or a small blender/food processor.  Slowly stream in the oil while whisking to make an emulsion.  Pour over the salad.

This recipe makes two perfect lunch portions, so hopefully soon we'll be back on track to feeling fiter and healthier!