Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Lemon Garlic Butter Shrimp Pasta

I had almost nothing in my fridge. I've been lazy to go get some groceries, mostly because I'm low on money and groceries would take a big chunk out of my bank account. But then again, how the hell am I going to eat? So what did I have exactly? Shrimp and spaghetti. What can I do? PLENTY!


Ingredients

  • 1 lb of 21-30 count shrimp
  • 16oz of spaghetti noodles
  • 5 large cloves of garlic, finely minced
  • 1 lemon, juiced
  • 1/3 cup of olive oil
  • 1/2 stick of butter, melted
  • 1 tbsp of paprika
  • 1 tbsp of garlic salt
  • 1 tbsp black pepper
  • 2 tsp of dried parsley

Directions

In a pot, boil the spaghetti noodles for 5-7 minutes, or as directed by the box. Drain water.

In a bowl, coat the shrimp with the paprika, garlic salt, and black pepper. In a skillet, put in 2 tbsp of olive oil with the garlic. Cook for 30 seconds and toss in the shrimp. Cook until the shrimp is at least half pink. Toss in the cooked spaghetti noodles. Throw in the butter and lemon juice and the rest of the olive oil, stirring frequently to allow them to coat the noodles. Season with additional paprika, garlic salt, and black pepper to one's preference. Season with parsley and the dish is ready to serve.


-----

I love cooking random dishes and having them turn out good. Before I conceptualized the lemon garlic butter idea, I thought of cooking a sweet pasta with moscato, strawberries, and apples because those were one of the few things I had in the fridge. I ended up abandoning the idea, but I really want to find something to cook strawberries and apples with now. My final dish, however, was quite delicious. It was definitely lighter than most of the dishes I cook, but I loved it. It's so much easier to cook than my typical tomato sauce or alfredo pastas. I do want to figure out a way to make the sauce a little more liquidy because there wasn't much of it when I ate it. Instead, the noodles had a very thick coat. Regardless, I still loved the dish! Now, time to figure out what I can cook with moscato, strawberries, and apples. It sounds scrumptious already!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Potato Beef

Honestly, I have no idea what to call it. But this is something I make quite often, but I've never posted it before. It's like a southern-style stir fry. Or the innards of a random breakfast burrito. And what did I come up with? Potato Beef. Hahaha, I'm so creative. The one I made today isn't exactly what I usually made. I added some, I took some out (because I was too lazy to get them at the supermarket). But this is what it looks like:


Ingredients

  • 1 lb ground beef
  • 2 large Louisiana hot links
  • 5 cloves of garlic
  • 2 medium-sized red-skinned potatoes
  • 1 large sweet bell pepper
  • 1 lemon, juiced
  • 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tbsp paprika
  • 1 tbsp Sriracha
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp pepper
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1/2 cup grated Monterrey Jack cheese
  • La Victoria's orange sauce (optional)

Directions

Drizzle some olive oil into a skillet and toss the garlic in. Let it sizzle for about 30 seconds and then throw in the ground beef and hot links. Pour in the Worcestershire sauce and lemon juice and let the ground beef cook until its slightly browned. Throw in the potatoes and cook until the potatoes are slightly softened. Toss in the bell peppers and cook for a couple of minutes. Season with the black pepper, sugar, paprika, Sriracha. Simmer the heat and sprinkle the cheese into the pot. Stir until the cheese is lightly melted. Serve with La Victoria's orange sauce.

-----

This my own take on "stir-fry". One day, I just decided to look into the fridge and tried to figure out what went good with ground beef. I remember by dad used to just cook ground beef with frozen mixed vegetables and it would be pretty decent, although I always thought it was a weird dish for some reason. I figured potatoes, bell peppers, and hot links would go well with ground beef and so I made it happen. I wouldn't necessarily call this dish amazingly delicious, but it's spicy, it's filling, and it works. I love making the dish because it's so easy and almost instinctive now. It gets the job done and so I love cooking this dish up.