Soy Sake Shrimp with Ginger Aioli

The flavor in this dish was incredible. The marinade really does wonders for the shrimp. The aioli is good, but the shrimp would still be fabulous without it.

Soy Sake Shrimp with Ginger Aioli

Recipe from Epicurious. Makes 4 servings.

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 green onions, chopped
6 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sake or dry Sherry
1 tablespoon golden brown sugar
3 garlic cloves, chopped
24 deveined peeled uncooked large shrimp (about 1 1/2 pounds)
1 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon chopped peeled fresh ginger
Cooked white rice

DIRECTIONS
Combine soy sauce, green onions, 4 tablespoons oil, vinegar, sake, brown sugar, and garlic in 13×9x2-inch glass baking dish; whisk marinade to blend. Add shrimp and toss to coat. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hour, turning shrimp occasionally.

Blend mayonnaise and ginger in food processor until smooth. Transfer ginger aioli to small bowl and refrigerate.

Drain marinade from shrimp into small saucepan; bring to boil. Whisk 2 tablespoons boiled marinade into ginger aioli; reserve remaining boiled marinade.

Heat remaining 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add shrimp; sauté until just opaque in center, about 4 minutes. Mound rice in center of plates. Arrange shrimp around rice; drizzle with ginger aioli. Serve, passing reserved boiled marinade.

Scallops with Asparagus and Shiitake Mushrooms

So we’ve had some iffy recipes in the past few weeks. This one makes up for all of those. One of the best things we’ve eating in a while! The mushrooms practically melted in your mouth. Mmmmm! We will definitely be making this one again.

Taylor wants me to remind you to be sure to pat the scallops dry before sautéing them. They won’t brown if they’re watery. This is especially important if you use frozen scallops (like we did).

Scallops with Asparagus and Shiitake Mushrooms

We didn’t know what hon-dashi was, or where to get it. I don’t know what it could have added to this dish to make it any better, as it was delicious without it.
Recipe from Epicurious. Makes 2 servings.

INGREDIENTS
6 fresh asparagus spears, cut diagonally into 1 1/2-inch pieces
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
6 fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed, caps sliced
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons grated onion
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons sake
1 teaspoon hon-dashi, Japanese bonito-type soup stock granules, is sold at Asian markets.
Pinch of cayenne pepper
10 sea scallops

DIRECTIONS
Cook asparagus in medium saucepan of boiling salted water 1 minute. Drain.

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add mushrooms and garlic; sauté until mushrooms are tender, about 5 minutes. Add onion; stir 1 minute. Add soy sauce, sake, hon-dashi and cayenne; simmer until sauce thickens slightly, about 3 minutes. Remove pan from heat.

Melt remaining 2 tablespoons butter in heavy medium skillet over high heat. Season scallops with salt and pepper. Add scallops to skillet and sauté until almost cooked through, about 3 minutes. Add asparagus and toss until heated through, about 1 minute. Add sauce and simmer 1 minute.

Divide between 2 plates and serve.

Pasta with Spicy Anchovy Sauce and Thyme Bread Crumbs

Perciatelli. A kind of pasta I never even knew existed. It’s almost like if macaroni and spaghetti had a kid…. it’d be perciatelli. A hallow, thick spaghetti, basically. We were about to substitute spaghetti, but one last look in the pasta aisle and I found it! Really! At our often times scarce when it comes to gourmet/specialty/ethnic foods grocery store! I know… I almost couldn’t believe it either.

This recipe, however, didn’t quite live up to the excitement of finding the fancy pasta. It had a good flavor, but felt lacking. I can’t even pinpoint what about it was off or how we could improve upon it. Maybe it was because we ran out of Parmesan. Or maybe the dill really makes the dish (the original recipe calls for dill breadcrumbs – but both Taylor and I have a strong hatred of dill. Ok, hatred might be too harsh a word… but we both really don’t like it. So we used thyme instead.)

The name of the recipe is deceiving. I don’t know if Taylor maybe forgot to add the red pepper flakes (doubtful – he’s too diligent) but “spicy” is the last word I’d use to describe it. Even if you’re not a fan of spice, double, ok ok triple the red pepper flakes.

I don’t know. Sometimes I don’t even feel like posting recipes that I don’t simply rave about. But it’s a pretty picture, and maybe you all can learn from something. Learn what NOT to do? I don’t know. This made a lot too – more than our usual dinner for two plus lunch the next day serving size, and we couldn’t eat it again.

Oh well. Win some, lose some, right?

I’ll share it anyway. Just in case someone here really likes anchovies.

Pasta with Spicy Anchovy Sauce and Thyme Bread Crumbs

Makes 6 servings. Recipe from Epicurious.

INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
2 cups fresh bread crumbs (preferably from a baguette)
1/4 cup chopped dill or thyme
1 pound red onions, thinly sliced (3 cups)
1 (2-ounce) can flat anchovy fillets, drained and chopped
1 pound bucatini or perciatelli pasta (long tubular strands)
1/2 teaspoon dried hot red-pepper flakes

DIRECTIONS
Heat 1/4 cup oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium heat until it shimmers, then cook bread crumbs, stirring constantly, until deep golden and crisp, 6 to 8 minutes.

Transfer bread crumbs to a bowl and toss with dill and 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and black pepper.

Wipe out skillet, then cook onions with 1/4 teaspoon salt in remaining 1/2 cup oil over medium heat, stirring frequently, until very soft, 12 to 15 minutes. Add anchovies and cook, mashing anchovies into onions, until dissolved.

Meanwhile, cook bucatini in a pasta pot of boiling salted water (2 tablespoons salt for 5 quarts water) until al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup cooking water, then drain pasta.

Stir red-pepper flakes and reserved water into anchovy sauce, then add pasta and toss to combine. Add about half of bread crumbs and toss to coat. Serve sprinkled with remaining bread crumbs.

Zucchini, Corn and Basil Fusili with Bacon

Savor the last few weeks of summer produce with a recipe that really highlights its flavors. This dish a quick summer meal with minimal cooking, yet just as satisfying as something that took hours to prepare. Fresh corn is a must in this recipe. Frozen corn can’t even compare to fresh off the cob kernels of sweet corn. Delicious.

Zucchini, Corn and Basil Fusili with Bacon

Makes 6 servings. Recipe from Epicurious.

INGREDIENTS
6 bacon slices
1 pound fusilli
3 ears corn, kernels cut from cob
1 1/2 pounds zucchini, coarsely chopped (1/2-inch pieces)
1 (5- to 7-ounce) container
basil pesto

DIRECTIONS
Cook bacon in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium heat, turning occasionally, until crisp. Drain on paper towels; discard drippings from skillet.

Meanwhile, cook fusilli in a pasta pot of boiling salted water (3 tablespoons salt for 6 quart water) until al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta-cooking water, then add vegetables to pasta in pot and cook, partially covered, 2 minutes (water will stop boiling). Drain.

Add pasta with vegetables to skillet along with pesto and 1/4 cup reserved cooking water and toss. Season with salt and moisten with additional cooking water if necessary.

Top with crumbled bacon and a generous amount of freshly ground pepper.