Shrimp Scampi W/ Fettuccini
What exactly is a Scampi? According to Seaffod Experts website;
Scampi is a type of lobster and is one of the world’s finest delicacies. There are, however, other species frequently referred to as scampi. For example, in the Midwest region of the US freshwater shrimp (Macrobrachium Rosenbergii) are referred to as scampi. So again, what exactly is scampi?
Is scampi a crawfish? Is scampi a crayfish? No, scampi are small clawed lobsters that unfortunately look a little bit like a crawfish. But they definitely shouldn’t be confused with the freshwater crawfish, which is primarily from the Gulf of Mexico and China. Crayfish is another name used for spiny lobster, and if that’s not confusing enough, in the southern US crawfish is called crayfish!.
“Scampi” is actually the tail of the “Nephrops Norvegicus” which is more commonly known as the Norway Lobster, Dublin Bay Prawn (although its not a prawn!) or langoustine. According to Wikipedia, the Nephrops Norvegicus is an orange pink lobster that grows up to 25cm in length and is typically found in the North East Atlantic, the North Sea and parts of the Med.
In short, Scampi is not how the dish is cooked, it’s actually a small clawed lobster that looks like a crayfish. But I bet you when you hear the word scampi you’d think of shrimps cooked in butter, white wine, lemon juice, with some sort of pasta, either spaghetti, linguine, or fettuccini noodles. Now that you know what a Scampi really is coz it certainly doesn’t hurt to know food trivia sometimes, let’s cook shrimp scampi with fettuccini coz that’s what we’re familiar with.
Hubby’s Surf & Turf Dinner And Tres Leches Cake
Hubby’s birthday is not until the 20th but we had his birthday dinner and cake today. He’s got work and school on that day so he won’t be home util about 9pm. The day after that is his day off but he still has school at 6pm. I don’t want to be cooking dinner for lunch. Besides, Caine would still be at school by that time. He suggested last night to just do it today so today it is. He told me a week ago to do a surf and turf dinner so I made steak and crab legs with broiled potatoes and sauteed asparagus.
Shrimp & Veggies Stir-Fry
Here’s the shrimp and veggies stir-fry that went with the cabbage-mushroom lumpiang shanghai that I made for our Super Bowl Dinner. Nothing extravagant here. Just a simple shrimp stir-fry dish with baby carrots, broccoli florets, and napa cabbage. That’s the joy in making stir-fry dishes. You can toss anything you want in it, either with pork, chicken or beef, or shrimp, or what other protein you want of course.
Salmon & Penne Alfredo
This Salmon & Penne Alfredo was inspired by the seafood with pesto cream penne alfredo from Ragazzi’s Italian Restaurant. The seafood with pesto cream involves basil with walnut pesto blended into penne alfredo sauce with sauteed shrimp and fresh salmon. It’s $14.99 a plate which I’m telling you is sooooo worth it coz it’s soooo good and you get so much of it. I can only eaT half of the plate then save my leftovers for lunch the following day. Delicious creamy pesto with alfredo sauce, and large pieces of shrimp and chunks of salmon. If I could somehow name a kid from this dish, I would.
My own version of course is very much simplified. It doesn’t have the creamy pesto sauce coz I didn’t have the stuff to make it(basil, walnuts) and I also omitted the shrimp coz we just had shrimp last Sunday. It was delicious nonetheless. I just love creating my own version of restaurant dishes that I love even though I don’t create the exact same thing all the time. I just have fun working in my kitchen with a particular dish to copy in mind.
Next time I’ll make it the Ragazzi’s way, but for now, here’s my simplified version.
Steak, Asparagus, & Apples Roulade
While reading the review of Dingdong Dantes’ KRAVE restaurant by the foodblogger The Pickiest Eater last weekend, I came upon the restaurant’s ANGUS STEAK ROULADE BEEF. It’s basically a thin slice of beef, in KRAVE’s case, a good quality of beef, stuffed with some vegetable, rolled then served with yummy sauce. Krave’s version looked so good but The Pickiest Eater apparently didn’t like the white glutinous topping with green and pink bubbles on top. It’s quite intriguing actually and I would eat ‘em up quickly. Anyhoooo, that’s when I got the idea to make my own version of beef roulade. I’ve done bacon-wrapped beef-portobello mushrooms & cheese roulade before with caramelized apples on the side. This Steak Asparagus & Apples Roulade is a simplified version with wine and mushroom sauce.
Rabbit Stew(Caldereta)
I had no idea how to cook rabbit so I turned it into a stew with Filipino flavors. This is more like Rabbit Caldereta with a sweet and tangy tomato based sauce. FYI, this recipe was originally posted in b5media when I used to write for their Lifestyle site. I’m posting the recipe here in Feistycook for my archives. I bought the frozen rabbit from a Farmer’s Market in Raleigh.
Pork & Kimchi Stir-Fry
My husband spent a year in Korea a few years back through his career in the Army. He would always tell me stories about the food that he tasted while over there. One of the most famous food Korea is known for is kimchi. They have all sorts of kimichi dishes there in Korea. Kimchi is not just eaten as a side dish. Sometimes people would incorporate kimchi into meat items to create a dish out of it.
One in particular is the pork and kimchi combination. I did my own version and wished for the best. I was afraid it was going to be so hot and spicy that we wouldn’t be able to eat the dish but my version turned out ok.
Crock-Pot Pork BBQ
Just because it’s Fall or Winter doesn’t mean you can’t have that barbecue taste once in a while. Two ways to accomplish that is to cook meat with barbecue sauce in the oven or broiler or take out your crock-pot and let it do it’s magic.
A crock-pot pork barbecue is one of the easy dishes you could make in the weekends. Start it early in the morning, leave it to cook for hours so you could spend some quality time with the family. Watch movies, read boks or play some board games while dinner is cooking in the crock-pot and making the house smell like you’ve been spending hours cooking in the kitchen.
| Crock-Pot Pork BBQ |
- pork short ribs
- half a bottle of bbq sauce
- That’s all you need. You can make your own bbq sauce but a store bought one is perfectly fine.
- Combine the two in a crock-pot. Set it to either high or low. If you’re starting it at about 11am, HIGH is the setting. Low if you’re starting it at about 9am.
Make side dishes like mashed potatoes or cheesy-garlic bread, and steamed veggies or green beans and cherry tomatoes salad, etc right before serving dinner. You could also shred the pork then serve it as shredded pork barbecue sandwiches.
Pork Roast Stuffed W/ Mushrooms & Celery
Instead of going with basic roast pork, I decided to butterfly the pork roast then stuffed it with a filling of sauteed celery and mushrooms. I’m glad I did.
| Pork Roast Stuffed W/ Mushrooms & Celery |
- about 3 pounds pork roast
- 2 tbsp of olive oil
- sprinkle of garlic powder
- sprinkle of black pepper
- sprinkle of paprika
- sprinkle of Italian seasoning
- 1 small onion
- 3 sprigs of celery, chopped
- 5-6 button mushrooms, chopped
- sprinkle of dried basil
- sprinkle of dried oregano
- salt and pepper
- Preheat oven to 365°
- In a pan, heat up 1 tbsp of oilive oil. Sauté the onions, celery, and mushrooms. Season with dried basil, oregano, salt and pepper. Cook for about 2 minutes. You don’t want to over cook the celery.
- Butterfly the pork roast. That means, you slice it in the middle without cutting all the way down to the bottom. It’s like 2 folds. If it’s thick, try to slice another fold by once again cutting into the already sliced meat, but not going all the way. So you now have a flat looking roast.
- Coat both sides of pork with olive oil. Season both sides with garlic powder, paprika, Italian seasoning, and black pepper.
- Place the celery and mushrooms mixture on one side of the meat. Gently, and tightly roll the meat. Seal the ends with clean toothpicks.
- Bake it in the oven for about 40-45 minutes. Once cooked, take the toothpicks out of the meat.
- Let it rest for about 5 minutes before cutting.
- Serve with mashed red potatoes and buttered corn.
—-originally posted at blisstree/b5media—-
Lemon Pepper Chicken Wings & Asparagus
Those Lawry’s marinades are not just good for marinating meats, yah know. They’re nice sauces to toss into sauteed dishes like this chicken wings with asparagus. This is especially quite easy to whip up on busy days or when you’re only cooking something for yourself for lunch or dinner.
| Lemon Pepper Chicken Wings & Asparagus |
- 10-12 pcs of chicken wings
- 1 cup of Lawry’s Lemon Pepper marinade
- 1 cup of water
- 8 pieces of asparagus, cut in half
- sprinkle of salt and pepper
- 2 medium red potatoes, quartered
- 4 tbsp of oil
- Heat up oil in a sautee pan. Add the chicken wings to cook for 8-10 minutes, or at least until browned.
- Add the lemon pepper marinade, water and potatoes. Season with salt and pepper, stir then cover to cook for 15-20 minutes. Stir occasionally.
- Add the asparagus at the last minute to cook 5 minutes or so.
- Serve with rice.
