Pasta with Scampi Lime and Saffron

I have been always a huge fan of Peter Minakis Greek Food blog Kalofogas and that has been for years. And I have made few dishes from his place which are all absloutely Delicious.

And when he posted this Scampi recipe I remember saying to myself I am going to make this one day, but then as always there is so many dishes I want to make and sometimes it happens like this one.
Have to say only regret I have is that why I hadn't made this one earlier as it is so Delicious.
With the zest of lime it is a real refreshing pasta dish.

You can always make exactly as Peter has made, I kept ti the original recipe just that I made with less pasta but mostly kept the rest of the ingridients quantity for the amount of pasta he used.

And instead of white wine I used Nolly prat as I always have a bottle of that and I tend to use that when I don't have opend up wine or wine in the freezer for cooking purpose.

And ok I did add a bit more chilli flakes :-)

The Original recipe you can find here

350 gm Pasta ( I used Linguni)
1/4 cup olive oil
18 medium sized Shrimps
1 onion finely chopped
8 garlic thinly sliced
100 ml Nolly Pratt
Few stands of Saffron
Zest of 2 Limes
Juice of 1 lime
1 tsp chilli flakes
1/4 cup freshly chopped parsely
1/4 cup sliced spring onions
Black and white seasame seeds for garnish
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Season the scampis with pepper and salt.
Heat a pan with a little of oil and fry the scampis for 1 minute each side and keep it aside.
Add the rest of the olive oil and add the chopped onions and saute for few minutes ,
Add the garlic slices and the chilli flakes and fry for few minutes.
Add the Nolly prat and cook in a high heat for couple of minutes .
In the mean time cook your pasta according the the packet instruction , drain,make sure you keep a few bog spoons of pasta water to add later.

Now add to the pan, the chopped parsley, lime juice,chopped spring onions and the lime zest and the drained pasta together with the few spoons of pasta water.
Add the scampi's which are kept aside , mix everything together and serve with a sprinkling of seasame seeds.
If you like you can sprinkle with a bit more chilli flakes.

Sichuan Prawns

It is some 2 weeks ago I posted something here on my blog.
It has been very busy in a good way.
Hans had a week of carnival holiday, so we have been doing things.

I think we have been away most of the days, he had to play a charity concert in Antwerp a afternoon so we drove to that side and after that we went to pick up shyama from a city in Nederlands as she has been gone to a university there for 2 weeks and as it was carnival that weekend after her course she went to a friends place in another town and spend a day there and we picked her up from there.
Oh and we wen to France to a supermarket to buy typical french products ( the good thing about living in Belgium)

Like that the whole week of holiday just flew.

Szechuan cuisine often contains food preserved through pickling, salting, and drying and is generally spicy owing to heavy application of chili oil.
The Sichuan pepper is commonly used. Sichuan pepper has an intensely fragrant, citrus-like flavour and produces a "tingly-numbing" in the mouth.
Also common are garlic, chili peppers, ginger, star anise and other spicy herbs, plants and spices. Broad bean chili paste is also a staple seasoning in Szechuan cuisine.

200 gm uncooked tiger prawns remove the skin and the veins
Few table spoon of oil
2 spring onions chopped ( i chopped them slanted and in big chunks)
3 small dried chillies, soaked in warm water for 10 minutes
1 tsp chopped garlic
1 tsp finely chopped ginger
2 tbsp of soy sauce
1 tbsp of chinese rice wine ( if you don't have this you can use dry sherry)
1 heap tbsp of tomato puree ( not ketchup)
1 tbsp chilli bean sauce
100 to 150 ml of water ( if you want more gravy then add more water)
1 tbsp of coriander leaves
1 to 2 tbsp of corn flour mixed with a bit of water ( you might not need all the amount depend how thick you want you sauce to be)

Method :
Heat the oil in a wok add the prawns and fry for 2 minutes and remove them into a bowl.
Now add the chillies, garlic and ginger and fry for few seconds, add the chopped spring onions and fry them for few minutes.
Add the rice wine, soy sauce, tomato puree, chillie bean sauce and the water. mix everything well and cook for few minutes, stirring so that nothing gets burned. Add the corn flour mix and cook for few minutes till the sauce is thickend.
Add the prawns which are kept aside cook for another 2 minutes till all the prawns are coated with the sauce.
Add the coriander leaves, sprinkle with chopped spring onions. and serve with rice or noodles.

Garlic Scampi's

Born and brought up in Kerala it is not a surprise that I love seafood, as we were lucky to get so much fresh product.

When I was living at home we mostly had some kind of a fish dish in a daily base.

And ofcourse most of the dishes were spicy.

So it was a real shock when I came here to Belgium and then saw people having bland fish dishes.

Ofcourse for me it looked bland but for them it was a delicious dish. I coudn't imagine how every one here could eat fish just steamed and with some kind of a creamy sauce or some light sauce with a squeeze of lime etc... so the first time I ate this scampi dish I liked it but I did miss the spicyness which we had back at home. But then later one I started enjoying dishes like this.

And I do have to admit this Scampi dish is one of my favourite dish.

If it is not for my Cholesterol I would have this dish once a week as I just love it.

And the plus point it is so easy to make.

Ofcourse if you make this dish make sure you have plenty of bread to soak up all that delicious olive oil etc....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Scampi's In Garlic. (For one person)

10 scampi's ( if you like you can remove the skin but I sometimes don't as this gives a good flavour to the whole dish, but do make sure you remove the vain)

4 to 5 tablespoon of olive oil ( if you like mre you can add, i do that sometimes as I love to use my bread to soak up all the goddiness when i eat the dish)

1 tablespoon of butter

2 to 3 onions chopped

3 garlic cloves finley chopped

1/4 tsp of chilli flakes ( optional)

2 to 3 tablspoon parsley chopped

Pepper and Salt to taste

Lemon / Lime to serve ( I squeeze a bit of lime juice on the dish before i eat it)

Heat a pan , add the olive oil and butter, add the onions and fry for few minutes, then add the garlci and chilli flakes fry futher for few mote minutes till the onions are soft and very lightly borwn.

Add the scampi's and fry for just 4 minutes. Don't over cook the scampis as then they will turn rubbery and chewy.

Add pepper and salt for taste, add the chopped parsley stir every thing and serve with loads of bread so you can mop up all the delicious oil butter mixture together with the scampi's.

 

Creamy Pasta With Salmon and Chives

In my laast post which was Fresh home made pasta I had mentioned my next post will be what I have made with the delicuous home made pasta.
Well one of the dishes I made with them is this super creamy delicious pasta dish with salmon.
Ok I have made something else too, but that will be for the next post :-)

I think making this salmon dishe with fresh pasta made it double delicious.
In my pasta book it was written as the fresh pasta don't swell up you need to use 125 gm pasta per person.

Ingridients.

2 table spoon of olive oil
1 big onion finley chopped
2 tabls spoon of tomato paste
1 big garlic cloves choppes very fine or into paste
2 tbsp of sun dried tomatoes in oil thinly sliced. ( I use my home made ones )
100 ml Dry Vermouth ( if you don't have this you can use good white wine)
200 ml cream
100 ml fish / chicken stock
400 gm fresh pasta ( of course you can use dry ones)
200 gm fresh salmon diced
3 table spoon of chopped chives
Salt and peper to taste

Heat the oil in pan add the onions and fry till golden brown.
Add the tomato paste and garlic, fry for few minutes make sure you do'nt burn them.
Add the vermouth ( be carfull) stir, then add the stock, cook for few minutes.
Add the sun dried tomatoes, cream, parsely, pepper and salt to taste. Add the salmon pieces as they are cut into small pieces it will only take a minute or two to cook and any way it will continue to cook when you add the cooked pasta.

In the mean time boil water in a big pan and cook the pasta, if it is fresh pasta it will only take 3 minutes to cook, and if you are using dry pasta cook according to the instruction in the packet.
When the pasta is cooked drain and add to the pan with the sauce and mix everything good and serve with a sprinkle of chives and if you want you can slice extra sun dired tomatoes and add .

 

Shrimp Croquette / Garnalen kroketten

Belgium is really famous for a variety of Croquettes / Kroketten.

One of the most famous one will be Aardappel kroketten / Potato crouquettes, are often served as a side dish. Then there is Kaas kroketten / Cheese croquettes which i super yumm, and then there is this Shrimp / Garnalen crouquettes which is made with grey shrimps and as we live near to the North sea ther eis always fresh grey shrimps available through  my MIL's sister as she knows a fishermen and she gets really fresh grey shrimps for us when it is available.

These Shrimp crouquettes are really famous, you will see pre maid ones in the fish monkers, in the super market in the deepfreeze section and not to mention in almost every restaraunt here.

And it is always ate as a starter with a green salade and deep fried parsley on the side.

ofcourse these days if you buy from the shops, they ask so much money but when you eat them one will be like one really has to look if there is shrimps in them, so I tend to make them at home.

I know if someone would have told me I will be making them at home when I cam here years ago I would have declared them crazy :-)

 

 

 

 





 Shrimp Croguettes: You will get +/- 10 croguettes.

3 Shallots finley chopped

60 gm butter

60 gm flour

300 ml chicken stock

pinch of nutmeg

Salt and peper to taste

200 gm grey shrimps

2 eggs beaten

Few tabls spoon of flour

Bread crumbs to coat the croguettes ( +/- 1 cup)

Oil for deepfrying

Curly parsly for frying

Heat the butter in a pan and add the shalots and fry in the butter softly don't  +/- 3 minutes.

Add the flour and keep on stirring fro 2 minutes just to cook the flour.

Add half of the stock and stirr continiously till it starts to get thick, then add the rest of the stock and bring everything to boil. Take care that you don't burn everything you will have to stir continiously. This will take few minutes, when you see th emixture is really thick then off the fire and add the nutmeg,salt and pepper and give it a good stir. Then add the shrimps. Mix everything carfully.

Pour this mixture into a shallow glass bowl. Smooth the top and keep this in the fridge for 1 1/2 hours.

Divide the mix into ten portion shape them like you see in the picture. ( While I shape them I add a drop of oil in my hands so that the mixture doesn't stick to my hands)

Take a crouquett and roll them in the flour, removing the exceess flour then coat them nicely with the egg and then roll them with the bread crumbs. Make sure bread crumbs are coated evenly. Repeat with the rest of the croquettes.

Heat the oil to 180°c  and fry the croguettes till they are golden brown.

Deep fry the parsly .

Serve with a green salade with the fried croquettes and fried parsley with a wedge of lemon/lime.

I some times make them the evening before and then use the next day, especially when I am making it for a party. I keep them in a tupperware in layers.