roasted shrimp and orzo salad

when warm weather hits all of a sudden and all you've been eating are soul-warming stews and braises, what do you make? how about a cooling pasta salad chockful of bright, fresh herbs? light but filling, fresh but full of flavor, a well-made pasta salad can be the perfect meal for warm evenings like those that have settled in san francisco lately.

here's a very tasty and herby pasta salad made from roasted shrimp and orzo pasta. the recipe comes from ina garten's "barefoot contessa at home" cookbook. it's a lot of prep work, aka chopping and mincing, but once done is very easy to put together. and it yields several hearty servings.

i first prepared a 1/2 pound of orzo pasta to al dente according to package directions.

while that was going, i thinly chopped 3 scallions, chopped about a cup of italian parsley, and a cup of fresh dill, thicker stems removed.

i also chopped half a red onion and deseeded and chopped a hot house cucumber.

a pound of large tiger shrimp is deveined, peeled and blotted dry with a paper towel...

and tossed with some olive oil, salt and pepper. this then went into the oven to roast at 400 degrees for about 4 minutes until pink.

while the shrimp roasted, i prepared a vinaigrette for the pasta salad by combining a 1/2 cup of olive oil, the juice of 2 lemons and salt and pepper. after whisking to emulsify the ingredients, i tasted and adjusted for seasoning.

after the pasta reached al dente, i drained it and stirred in the vinaigrette...

added the vegetables and herbs, along with the roasted shrimp...

and folded in a 1/2 pound of feta cheese.

tasting for seasoning several times, i added a few dashes of tabasco to give it a slight vinegary kick. this then rested at room temperature for a 1/2 hour to blend the flavors.

plating the pasta salad with several tender shrimp and a sprig of fennel finishes off the dish.

this dish is light and healthy, but hearty enough to fill you up for dinner. the shrimp is tender. the lemon vinaigrette, tart. briny, creamy feta balances the bright and green dill and parsley. it's a great cool dish for a warm evening. welcome, spring!

grilled steak with red radishes

i tend to avoid ordering dishes that i already know how to make at restaurants. it's an issue i am dealing with. the problem is if i've made a dish, i know exactly how much it costs me to make, and i realize how much profit the restaurant is making off of me. of course, you can argue you're paying for service, atmosphere, blah, blah, blah... but it's just something i haven't figured out how to reconcile yet.

steak is one of those entrees that causes this problem for me. unless the steak is of a quality or a cut that i can't get my hands on, preparing steak is a quick and easy task in the kitchen. let me explain...

for dinner tonite, i seasoned an 8 oz cut of beef chuck flat iron steak generously with salt and pepper. i then grilled it on a non-stick grill pan over medium heat for a total of 8 minutes, flipping twice. i then tossed up a quick salad added some fresh red radishes. voila! a quick, tasty steak dinner within 15 minutes.

8 minutes for this 1 1/2-inch thick steak resulted in medium rare. perfect. i finished it off by drizzling some kalamata olive oil right over the steak.
as the steak rested for 5 minutes to redistribute juices, i rinsed radishes free of grit and sprinkled some coarse sea salt over sweet cream butter as a dip. if you've never had this, the crisp, cool, peppery bite of radish pairs perfectly with creamy butter and crunchy sea salt. a handful of lettuce and herbs tossed with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper provides a little bit of acidity and balances the heavier protein.

cutting into the steak, it's tender, moist and full of beefy flavor. flat iron steak is a pretty popular cut these days at restaurants and is perfect for the home cook. just remember not to overcook it.

with the economy still recovering, consider having some steak for dinner this week. the cost for my steak dinner tonite? somewhere right around $4.

japanese curry leftovers remix

my japanese beef curry attempt #2 yielded A LOT of leftover curry. and while it was great tasting stuff, the palate is left wanting something a little different after having beef curry and rice for 4 meals in a row. that and i had already finished all the tasty chunks of beef and carrot, leaving just sauce in the pot. so what do i always say to do? dig through your fridge and pantry and whip up something with those leftovers!

in the fridge i found a bag of frozen peas and 1 chicken thigh, which i skinned, deboned and sliced into chunks. in the pantry i found a half box of linguine. i set a pot of water to boil, added a good measure of salt, and cooked the pasta to al dente.

after removing the pasta to a colander to drain, i slid the chicken pieces right into the hot pasta water to boil for another 10 minutes or so until cooked through but not tough. while that was happening, i reheated my leftover curry over a low flame and stirred in half the bag of frozen peas. the peas were warmed through within a minute.

i then added some curry sauce and the cooked chicken to a large bowl and tossed with some of the pasta. i then plated, garnishing with purple-tinted onigirishiba (pickled cucumber) and whole rakkyo (pickled scallions).

as you can see, the curry sauce has the perfect consistency for coating linguine noodles. the peas add color and a bit of sweet fiber while the boiled chicken meat easily took on the curry flavor, as if it had been cooking right in it the whole time. the pickled scallions and cucumbers, traditional accoutrements for japanese curry, added the right amount of sour and spice, cutting the richness of the curry.

japanese curry chicken pasta. asian fusion at its best. and i have another serving left over too. i think i'll have some now...

japanese beef curry attempt #2

so while my first attempt at japanese beef curry was good, i knew there must be a way to make it better and taste less out-of-the-box. what secrets do petite japanese moms have to doctor up pre-packaged, quick-weeknite, but oh-so-manufactured-tasting bars of readymade curry base?

i did a quick google search on the keyphrase "beef curry japanese" and came back with justhungry's excellent blog post on making japanese curry from scratch. while a little more involved in prep time than i wanted, justhungry's recipe looked solid and layered with flavor. she also conveniently provided notes on recipe variations, including how to substitute readymade curry bases. just the ticket for me. here's my adaptation of her recipe.

i first set about browning about a pound of beef chuck steak, cut into large chunks, in some canola oil in my largest dutch oven.

once that was nicely browned, i transferred the meat to a bowl to hold while i set about slicing up 4 large brown onions thinly.

into the pot the onions went to slowly saute in a bit of canola oil and sea salt. typically you want to sweat the onions down over low heat so the moisture evaporates and what you're left with are the natural sugars of browned onions. i was hungry, so i cranked up the flame to medium and stirred the onions down every few minutes. mind you, this still takes a good 20-30 minutes. but i knew this would be worth it. if you've ever had and loved french onion soup, this is how you get that sweet, oniony soup base.

once the onions have softened and started to caramelize, as in the picture below, you can move forward. letting it go another 10-20 minutes will only concentrate the sweetness and flavors, so it's your choice. into the pot went 3 minced cloves of garlic and an inch of grated ginger.

i then added a 14 oz can of diced tomatoes, 3 carrots peeled and chopped into large chunks, 6 cups of water, a cube of beef boullion, 1 star anise pod, a couple of bay leaves and the browned beef with any reserved juices. now the surprise ingredient: 1 fuji apple, peeled and grated, which you see piled in the middle of the stew in the photo below. per justhungry, this provides depth of flavor. sounds good to me.

this savory concoction simmers over low heat for about 30 min or so, until the connective tissues in the chuck beef have broken down and the meat is fork-tender. by this time you basically have a great-smelling beef stew that isn't curry just yet.

you'll notice i haven't really seasoned the stew aside from the salt used to sweat the onions. readymade curry base is chock full of spices and seasoning to begin with. any extra salt and you'd end up with a inedible mess. in this step, i fished out the bay leaves and star anise pod and broke up a full package of "hot" curry base cubes into the pot...

and simmered over low heat until the cubes dissolved and the broth thickened into a rich, creamy consistency. this is the point i tasted for seasoning and decided a few cranks of the peppermill would do nicely.

time to plate! a mound of japanese short-grain white rice and a ladle or three of the japanese beef curry.

wow. much better and much more homemade tasting. the onions have broken down into a silky mess, giving the curry a rich, svelte texture and loads of sweetness and flavor. really standout. and while i can't say i could taste the grated fuji apple, there was a real depth of flavor that puts the box recipe to shame. combining caramelized beef, acidic tomatoes, spicy ginger and piquant star anise really lifted the flavor profile of this curry.

while it definitely took a bit more time in the kitchen than i expected, the benefit was a huge pot of curry that could feed a small army, and indeed fed me for almost a week! i'm considering japanese beef curry attempt #2 a smashing success. oishii!!