Italian Lemon Shrimp (Secret Recipe Club)

It's Secret Recipe Club reveal day again! And we haven't posted anything since April 9th! Sorry about the unannounced hiatus, by the way. We have lots to catch up on, but first, you really need to check out the blog assigned to us this month for SRC - White Lights on Wednesday - where author Julie shares DIY projects, giveaways, cooking challenges, and PLENTY of fantastic recipes. 

One of Julie's most recent recipes was for a "Mocha Cupcake Milkshake," and we can't tell you how tempting that was. Let's just say it's been bookmarked, and seeing as we are entering the chaos of the beginning of the end of the school year, we'll probably be making two of 'em quite soon. Several others sounded scrumptious as well, such as Tequila Infused Queso Fundido (hmmm...Cinco de Mayo is just around the corner), Thai Pizza with Peanut Butter Sauce (so creative!), and Butter Cream Chicken (decadently delish). 

Still, we were in the mood for shrimp and Julie's Italian Lemon Shrimp sounded easy and refreshing - perfect for a pretty spring evening. And even though our last post was about a shrimp dish, again, that was way back on April 9th so we thought  it would be okay. 

We made the Italian Lemon Shrimp almost exactly according to the recipe, using Key West Pink Shrimp that our favorite market carries (frozen, unfortunately). These Gulf shrimp have a salty-sweet taste and firm texture that went really well with Julie's spicy buttery lemon sauce. A great match indeed! We served ours over angel hair and ate it all up. 

Italian Lemon Shrimp

minimally adapted from this recipe by Julie of White Lights on Wednesday

Ingredients:

1 stick unsalted butter, melted

1 lemon

1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1/4 teaspoon crushed red chile flake

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 pound raw shrimp, peeled, deveined, and tails removed

1/2 pound angel hair pasta

Freshly grated Parmesan cheese to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Cut lemon in half and then into thin slices. In a medium bowl, combine Italian seasoning, oregano, chile flake, salt, and pepper. Add shrimp and toss to combine. Pour shrimp onto prepared baking sheet. Top with lemon slices and melted butter - evenly distributing both. Bake shrimp for 10 to 12 minutes, until pink and cooked through. While shrimp bakes, cook pasta according to package directions. Reserve 1/4 cup pasta water. Remove lemon slices from shrimp. Pour shrimp and butter onto drained pasta. Add reserved pasta water and Parmesan cheese to taste. Toss to combine. Top with more Parmesan cheese if desired.

Featured On: Simple Recipes

Simple Recipes is featuring our Sparkling Lemon and Blueberry Terrine on their blog today. If you have a sweet tooth but are trying to lighten things up after the holidays, give this berrylicious dessert a try!



Guest Post: Baked Chicken with Apricot Glaze, Sage and Lemon Zest

One thing 2012 seemed to be was the year everyone we knew read the  Fifty Shades trilogy. Amy and her BFF Karen read it at the same time and chatted about it on the phone, in texts, and finally, over their 40th birthday girls' weekend in Vermont, even going so far as to add a vanilla ice cream cone charm on their bestie charm bracelet! In honor of 2012, we've asked Karen to do a guest post inspired by the books. Thanks, Karen! And to everyone, Happy New Year and thanks for reading!

Karen writes:

After spending my summer reading the popular Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy I laughed hysterically when I received for Christmas Fifty Shades of Chicken: A Parody in a Cookbook.  I have to say it has been the perfect gift for a foodie/Christian Grey groupie!  It is told through the eyes of Miss Hen who is being “cooked” by her chef Blades.  The recipes, and stories which accompany them, mirror the steamy books from the first meeting (to the first of many other things) all the way to the happy ending  presented in dishes such as “Plain Vanilla Chicken” and “Popped-Cherry Pullet” to “Roast Me All Night Long Chicken” and “Chicken with Hearts and Flowers.”  No cookbook would be complete without side dishes and this one wouldn’t be complete without “Taters, Baby”!!  So, I now find myself on a quest to cook all 50 chicken recipes (and maybe even some sides)! 

I have chosen to begin with “Baked chicken with apricot glaze, sage and lemon zest.”  As Miss Hen says in describing the dish, “I’m in warm pieces all over the plate.  My own juices mingle with the sticky sweet jam he’s spread all over me.  My skin feels melting and soft.  He ignores the fine silver flatware and picks up a thigh with both hands.  Wow.”  You can see why I chose to start there!

Here is the recipe (serving for 2) with a few minor changes made by me….

Mix 3 tblsp extra-virgin olive oil with 1 ¼ tsp sea salt and ¾ tsp pepper

Place 4 chicken thighs in a plastic storage bag and pour in the oil mixture

Massage the thighs with the mixture then place sprigs of sage on the chicken

Tighten the bag and place it in the refrigerator “until the chicken is begging you for it, about 6 hours or overnight”

Preheat the oven to 400

In a bowl, grate the zest from one lemon, squeeze the juice and add 1/3 of a cup of apricot spread, 1tsp Worcestershire sauce and 1 large clove of garlic minced

Remove the sage from the chicken and spread the sticky jam all over the chicken

Lay the thighs in a 9x13 baking dish “leaving plenty of breathing room between each succulent morsel”

Bake 45-55 minutes “until the skin is alluringly golden and the juices run clear when pricked” 

Enjoy a sweet and juicy dish!

Serve with:

Sage and Marcona Almonds with Rosemary Pesto Pasta

(not in cookbook – just something special for my Bestie!!!)

Pulse in food processor:

10 sage leaves

2 cloves of garlic

½ lemon zest

1tsp lemon juice

1/8 cup Marcona Almonds with Rosemary

2 tblsp Pecan Oil then add Extra Virgin Olive Oil until desired consistency

Toss with pasta

Chicken Piccata

What a week! Amy went to a conference and came back with anti-biotic-resistant strep, an ear infection and bronchitis. Suffice it to say it was a long week of tea, soup and popsicles (Bomb Pops, if you must know...). There were a couple of takeout meals and a rotisserie chicken purchased from the grocery store which became a homemade stock, but generally, there wasn't a lot of cooking going on in our house last week. But that stock was fantastic, and when Amy felt better, we made her famous chicken pot pie, and then last night, chicken piccata.

It starts with a well-seasoned flour

The chicken, dredged in that flour, is then browned nicely in butter and olive oil

The chicken is set aside while the sauce is made

Neither of us is big for ordering chicken when we go out to eat. We make chicken so much at home, it seems like a waste of a night out. The one exception to that is chicken piccata. When done right, chicken piccata is a wonderful Italian meal, filled with the most simple flavors - chicken, capers, lemon, white wine, butter, garlic - that mesh together to be just perfetto! And last night when we saw that beautiful homemade chicken stock, and a package of chicken tenders in the fridge, we came up with this recipe on the fly but were quite impressed with the tasty result. Buttery, tangy, well-seasoned, and garlicky, with juicy and tender chicken pieces - all the invidual parts came together in a delicious way and paired nicely with a bottle of Pinot Grigio. Now that we can make it ourselves, we'll have to figure out something else to order next time we go for Italian!

Capers packed in salt offer a boost of flavor

The chicken finishes cooking in the sauce

while the pasta finishes on the back burner

Chicken Piccata

Ingredients:

1/2 pound linguine, prepared according to package directions

1 lb. chicken tenders

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon lemon pepper

(we prefer Connecticut's own Boxed Goodes' version, found here)

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon Lawry's Seasoned Salt

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 cup dry white wine

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup chicken stock/broth

1 tablespoon (or more, to taste) capers packed in salt

1 teaspoon minced fresh garlic

Begin to prepare pasta according to package directions. In a shallow bowl, mix together the flour, lemon pepper, garlic powder, and seasoned salt until well combined. Dry the chicken tenders and dredge them in the flour mixture; set aside. Heat one tablespoon butter and olive oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat until butter is melted. Place the chicken tenders in the heated pan and brown them on each side; remove from pan and drain on a paper towel (do this in batches if necessary). Wipe out pan with some paper towels. Return pan to heat and add the white wine, water, lemon juice, chicken stock, capers and fresh garlic. Bring to a low simmer and return chicken to the pan. Allow the chicken to cook in the liquid until cooked through, about 6 minutes, turning half way through. The liquid should have reduced by about half. Once again remove chicken from pan and set aside. By now the pasta should be done so divide pasta onto plates. Swirl remaining 2 tablespoons of butter into the sauce until well incorporated. Serve chicken over pasta with plenty of piccata sauce poured over it. Garnish with a couple more capers if you like, or maybe a slice of lemon. Mangia!

Cocktail Hour: Sweet Moonlight

Chris writes:

I like Absinthe. I mean really like it. But it has to be the real stuff from the Czech Republic or some other post-Soviet country. A place where they understand that sometimes you drink to make your life seem better - and Absinthe can do just that. It has an unbelievably high alcohol content (160-180 proof) combined with a musty/dirty/bitter taste. There really aren't many nice things you can say about Absinthe other than after drinking something so vile and unpleasant you think, "My life may be bad, but its not that bad." I am not saying that Americanized Absinthe like 'Lucid' isn't good, it just misses the loucheness of the real stuff.

In absence of said 'real stuff', I recommend Pastis Absente. It offers the traditional flavors of Absinthe without the crude alcohol overkill. Originally made in France in 1915, Pastis Absente is similar to Turkish Raki or Bulgarian Mustika. It has the flavors of star anise, sage, cardamom and black pepper found in Italian Sambuca - but is nowhere as sweet; just pure sharp flavor.

One way to balance the strength of the flavors is to mix the alcohol with cold water that has been slowly dripped over a sugar cube. This can be a tedious ritual and calls for specialized equipment. My recipe (below) introduces a little simple syrup along with lemon to offset the harshness and brighten the dank flavors. When mixed with water the Pastis becomes milky opaque with yellow green hues. Just like the moonlight that was scattered across our lawn the night this drink was created. Enjoy.

Ingredients:

1 measure simple syrup

1 1/2 measures Pastis

1/2 measure water

splash lemon juice

Pour all ingredients in order above into a tall glass over ice.

Lemon Rosemary Cornish Game Hens

We don't know if you heard, but it was a pretty bad winter this year. Yet somehow, the rosemary bush in our garden survived. Since it's the only green thing we've seen in months, we felt it was just begging to be used in tonight's dinner. The best thing about this dinner is how easy it is to prepare. About five minutes of hands-on work and 45 minutes in the oven is all it takes to make this elegant-looking, herbacious, tasty meal. When we finished eating, we threw the bones into a pot with some old vegetables (a couple of rubbery carrots, an onion, and a leek), covered them with water, and proceeded to make our own chicken stock that is destined for some culinary creation that is in our near future.

Ingredients:

2 Cornish game hens

2 lemons, quartered

4 sprigs fresh rosemary

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon herbs de Provence

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup white wine

Preheat oven to 450. Stuff each game hen with four lemon quarters and one sprig of rosemary and place them in a baking pan. Melt the butter in a small bowl. Finely chop the remaining rosemary and stir it into the melted butter along with salt and pepper to taste. Cover each game hen all over with the butter mixture, then sprinkle each game hen with half of the herbs de Provence. Place the pan in the oven and roast for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, pour the white wine into the bottom of the roasting pan and swirl it around. Continue to cook the game hens for another 15 minutes, basting the hens with this wine 2-3 times during those 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes before serving.

It's not easy being green. In CT. After the winter we had!

About to be placed into the hot oven

A second plating style

The remains become homemade chicken stock