Devilish Shrimp

My wife and daughter had a Girl Scout overnight camping trip yesterday, so I got to make myself some spicy food.  I found a recipe for Devilish Shrimp on Rick Bayless' website.  Lots of heat and very tasty.  And I love the iPad in the kitchen.

Chicken, Fish and Artichoke Paella with Fava Bean Puree

I made a fava bean puree for a Mother's Day appetizer, so I needed to use the leftover puree for something. I really like fava beans with artichokes, so I made a paella with sliced artichokes, chicken, and fish.  A pretty simple recipe:

3 cups chicken stock

1/4 teaspoon saffron threads

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 inch thick slice of prosciutto, diced

2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cut into chunks and sprinkled with salt

1 medium yellow onion, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 tomato, diced

2 fat cloves garlic, minced

2 artichokes, trimmed, chokes removed and sliced

1 1/2 cups short grained rice such as bomba or Arborio

3/4 cup fava bean puree (or peeled and blanched favas from 2 pounds beans)

salt

1/2 pound firm white fish filets, cut into chunks

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

piquillo pepper strips for garnish

Preheat oven to 450 degrees (400 degrees if gas oven)

Pour the chicken stock in a pot and crumble in the saffron.  Bring to a simmer. 

Add the olive oil to a 13" paella pan.  Fry the prosciutto over moderate heat until crisp.  Remove to a plate but reserve the oil in the pan.  Turn heat to medium high, add the chicken and cook until lightly browned on all sides.  Remove the chicken to a plate.  Turn the heat down to medium and add the onions and peppers to the pan.  Cook until soft.  Add the garlic, tomato and artichoke slices and cook another couple of minutes.  Add the rice and coat well with the pan mixture.  Add the stock and the fava bean puree and mix well.  Taste for salt.  Cook until rice is no longer soupy, but enough moisture is left to finish cooking in the oven.  Mix in the reserved prosciutto, chicken, fish and the parsley then arrange the pepper strips on top.  Place in the oven uncovered and cook for 15 to 20 minutes.  Remove from the oven and cover with foil.  Let sit covered for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Lemongrass Curry with Chicken and Potatoes

This dinner started with the Asian Vegetable I bought at the Davis Farmer's Market.  I'm not exactly sure what it is called, but it is kind of a cross of chinese broccoli and bok choy.  I thought about stir frying it, but when I think of stir fry, I think of soy sauce, and that didn't appeal to me.  Andrea Nguyen's Into the Vietnamese Kitchen has a section called Basic Boiled Vegetable where she describes a simple method of boiling asian vegetables in plenty of salted water and serving them with a saucy dish.  My version of her Chicken, Lemongrass, and Potato Curry provided the sauce.

We've had this Curry before, and Tess found it too spicy.  So I let her add the heat this time and she cut the amount of Madras Curry powder in half.  The result was perfect for her...spicy but not too spicy.  Lisa and I really enjoyed the vegetable.  Tess not so much.

Montaditos with Fava Beans, Piquillo Relish, Boquerones, Sun Dried Tomatoes and Goat Cheese

This dinner started with some leftover meatballs from the previous night.  These were jumbo meatballs served in tomato sauce over spaghetti noodles.  I didn't really feel like pasta again, so I pretended that the meatballs were the cocktail sized ones that I like to serve as a tapas course.  To go with the meatballs, I blanched fava beans that I picked up at the Davis Farmers Market.  I dressed them with a lemon vinaigrette and topped them with grated pecorino romano.  For the Piquillo Relish, I diced some jarred piquillo peppers with chopped capers and garlic.  I simply drained the anchovies and slivered the sun dried tomatoes.  To serve, I toasted slices from a baguette.

This was a hit with my family.  An unexpectedly tasty topping was fava beans on goat cheese.  I'm going to have to explore that flavor combination further...