The Traveling Epicurean

Month: February 2016

Curry Shrimp & Snow Peas

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Curry Shrimp & Snow Peas

Curry shrimp & snow peas is a luscious dish with a complex sauce that tastes like you spent all day on it! I serve up this yummy creation with fresh chopped dill and jasmine rice. Basmati is my other go to rice. This curry shrimp dish is made with snow peas, coconut milk, white wine, curry, turmeric, coriander, sour cream, half and half, chicken broth and fresh limes.

For goodness sake, don’t waste your time with an instant rice with no texture or flavor. Making good jasmine or basmati rice couldn’t get any easier just follow the directions on the label. When I make rice I always turn off the stove five minutes early. I then stir the rice and let it sit for ten minutes with the cover on. When you are ready for the rice give it another stir, add a tablespoon or two of butter, a sprinkle of salt and voilà.

One of the best things about making this incredible curry shrimp and snow peas is getting it done in fifteen minutes. A good time saver when cooking with shrimp is to buy already peel and devein shrimp. Make sure to get good, meaty shrimp from your local seafood store where all they sell is seafood. Considering the shrimp takes on a main roll in this curry shrimp and snow peas you better darn well get some decent shrimp and make your efforts worth while!

Before serving up this velvety curry shrimp and snow peas you will probably have time to make some appetizer’s like my best guacamole ever, or black bean & mango salsa, or baked sweet potato fries with my green goddess dipping sauce. For dessert, maybe something sweet but on the lighter side you should try fresh berries in a dreamy cream or my fresh berry granita!

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Ingredients for Curry Shrimp & Snow peas -(makes 6 servings):

  • 1 lb large good meaty shrimp from your local SEAFOOD store- peel & devein (better results if you don’t use pre-packaged frozen shrimp)
  • 1 1/2 cup fresh snow peas
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped sweet onion
  • 1 clove garlic put through garlic press
  • 1 can coconut milk
  • 1/2 cup half & half
  • 1/2 cup white wine
  • 1/4 cup chicken broth
  • 3 tbsp sour cream
  • juice from 1 1/2 -2 limes
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 tsp curry powder
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric powder (if you don’t have turmeric or coriander use 2 1/2 tsp curry)
  • 1/2 tsp coriander powder
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 1 tbsp coconut oil or olive oil
  • 4 cups cooked rice – Jasmine or Basmati rice cooked to directions
  • fresh dill – 1/2 cup chopped coarsely added to cooked rice

Directions:

  1. Remove tail shells from all the shrimp and set aside
  2. Cook Jasmine rice and set aside
  3. Add coconut oil or olive oil and chopped onion to a large sauté pan on med/high heat
  4. Add in curry spices, and a sprinkle of salt stirring with onions sautéing for 2 minutes
  5. NOTE: Adding in curry now with onions will elininate potential of curry becoming grainy
  6. Add in garlic and stir
  7. De-glaze with wine
  8. Simmer and reduce the sauce for 2 minutes
  9. Add chicken broth and bring back to a simmer
  10. Add in snow peas and simmer 1 minute
  11. Add in coconut milk, whisk to mix
  12. Add in half and half, bring back to a simmer for 2-3 minutes
  13. Add in 1 tbsp butter and all of the raw shrimp simmer for 3 minutes until the shrimp are cooked through
  14. Whisk in 3 tbsp sour cream and just warm through
  15. Take off heat and squeeze juice from 1 1/2 fresh limes
  16. Taste and add sprinkle of salt if needed
  17. Add fresh chopped dill to Jasmine rice and serve with Curry Shrimp & Snow Peas
  18. Optional: Add a few dashes of Siracha, Franks Red Hot or Tabasco to heat it up a little

 

Lazy-Man’s Lasagna! – World’s Best!

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Lazy-Man’s Lasagna! – World’s Best!

This world’s best lazy-man’s lasagna is the ultimate pasta dish because there is no fussing, layering or baking. It has all the ingredients and flavors of a traditional lasagna but without all the work! It’s done all-in-one pot and takes two minutes to put together after the ground meat is browned. It’s made with a tomato-basil sauce, homemade or store bought for convenience, rigatoni pasta, ricotta, mozzarella and a sautéed ground meat of your choice. The hardest part here is browning the meat, then it’s easy peasy from there on in.

When I first had this lazy-man’s lasagna it was made with ground beef. That’s the beauty of this pasta dinner you can customize it by browning up what ever your favorite meat is. I’ve actually made it with ground turkey, beef, Italian sausage and even a meatloaf mix of meats. What ever you decide I promise you it’s going to be delicious! In the show I used my favorite sweet Italian fennel sausage from Liuzzi Cheeses in North Haven, CT. I took the the sausage out of the casing and then browned it.

Usually, I serve up this lazy-man’s lasagna immediately after I combine all those yummy ingredients. Although, you can easily pour it out into a baking dish and top with one cup of shredded mozzarella to bake immediately or cover with foil and into the frig until you are ready. Granted, I do love to put together a tray of layered lasagna for the holidays but for those in between days when you want those gourmet flavors but don’t want to go through all the work this world’s best lazy-man’s lasagna is your dream come true.

You can check out my Live TV Cooking Segment on “CT STYLE”, WTNH – Channel 8 where I make Lazy-Man’s Lasagna in The Bender Kitchen with hosts Teresa Dufour and Ryan Kristafer!

If you are looking for something hardy and gourmet you should check out my Boeuf Bourguignon or Indian Spice Tomato-Cream with Snap Peas, Pulled Beef Taco’s with Mango Salsa, or for a lighter note you could check out my Swordfish with Black Bean Salsa or Asian Shrimp and Noodle Salad and for something sweet you just can’t beat Pavlova! Mangia Mangia…enjoy 🙂

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Ingredients:

  • 1 lb. rigatoni pasta, zit rigati or your fav pasta!
  • My 20 minute tomato-basil pasta sauce recipe or a favorite store bought brand
  • 2 lbs ground meat OR 3 cups after browned of: ground beef, turkey, veal, pork, meatloaf mix, or sweet fennel sausage (Liuzzi makes my favorite sweet and spicy Italian fennel sausage)
  • 1 lb. whole milk ricotta (really easy to make your OWN HOMEMADE – check it out!)
  • 2 cups shredded mozzarella – 2 cups to mix into the lazy-man’s lasagna plus additional 1 cup to sprinkle on top if you are going to put the pasta into a baking dish to bake later
  • grated Parmesan
  • fresh basil

Directions:

  1. Brown the ground meat in a sauce pan on medium high heat
  2. Drain the meat to remove excess oil in a small strainer over a bowl
  3. Put the meat back into the pan on medium high heat add 1/3 cup of red wine to de-glaze the sauce pan scrapping up the little brown bits stuck the bottom of the pan
  4. Keep the browned meat on warm
  5. Heat tomato-basil sauce through – you want it hot to melt the mozzarella
  6. Cook the pasta in salted water until al dente …(Having a pinch of firmness to it so it’s not overly cooked)
  7. Drain the pasta and put it back into the same pan
  8. Immediately add 2 cups of hot tomato-basil sauce, 1 lb. of ricotta, 2 cups of mozzarella, 3 cups of browned meat and begin to stir
  9. Add another 1-1 1/2 cups of tomato-basil sauce
  10. Mix ingredients until combined and pour out into a serving platter
  11. Sprinkle with Parmesan and julienne fresh basil…mangia mangia 🙂

Sticky Buns at Dana’s

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Sticky Buns at Dana’s

IMG_5612Wait until you taste these decadent sticky buns first hand! Such an easy recipe to follow making these homemade gourmet sticky buns that melt in you mouth! PERFECT for VALENTINE’S DAY morning or any occasion for that matter. The dough is light and chewy. The glaze is soft and caramel like and the cream cheese icing is the best I have ever had. The cream cheese icing has a tablespoon of lemon juice giving it the perfect balance. If you don’t have lemons you can always substitute the citrus with pineapple juice. It’s nice to have the different options with these two toppings to offer to your family and guests.

The dough recipe for these homemade gourmet sticky buns couldn’t get any easier. You can literally make it in 8 minutes including the five minutes of kneading with the dough hook. Although, you do have to wait for eggs and buttermilk to come to room temperature. There isn’t any worrying about activating the yeast in a 105º-110º because we use RAPID RISE yeast.

These sticky buns are so easy to make. The most time spent here comes with the first 2 1/2 hour proofing. The glaze and cream cheese frosting could be made a day or two ahead. Once you make these for your family and friends you will become the honorary sticky bun chef!

You may want to whip up some other breakfast items if you can get that homemade sticky bun dough made ahead of time and try my kale or spinach-mushroom frittata, or my energy smoothies. Then again you could always do more of a brunch theme with salmon BLT sliders, or homemade gourmet salmon gravlax! Hope you enjoy the show 🙂

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Ingredients for the Dough:

  • 3 lg eggs room temp
  • 3/4 cup butter milk room temp
  • 1 pkt of INSTANT – RAPID RISE yeast or 2 1/2 tsp if measuring
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 1/4 tsp salt
  • 6 tbsp unsalted butter melted and cooled until WARM – not hot and not cold
  • 4 1/4 cup all purpose flour

Directions for the Dough:

  1. Crack eggs into a bowl and whisk gently with a fork
  2. With paddle attachment add the eggs to a Kitchen Aid mixer and begin to mix
  3. Add in the buttermilk and mix to combine
  4. Then add in the yeast and sugar
  5. Mix in 2 cups of flour, butter and salt to combine
  6. Switch the paddle attachment to kneading hook
  7. Add in last 2 cups of flour and knead for 5 minutes
  8. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured counter
  9. Briefly knead to form a dough ball – 1 minute
  10. Spray a large glass bowl with Pam or similar
  11. Place the ball of dough into the greased bowl, spray the top of the dough and cover with plastic wrap
  12. Put in a warm place if available until it doubles – 2 1/2 hours
  13. While the dough is rising make your glaze
  14. Turn out risen dough onto a lightly floured counter
  15. Begin to roll out dough into a lg rectangle with a rolling pin – approx 20″ x 15″ size
  16. Sprinkle 1 3/4 cup of dk. brown sugar all over the rolled out dough leaving 1″ border around the edges
  17. Spread sugar with your fingers for an even coating
  18. Sprinkle the cinnamon over that – it may seem like a lot but it won’t be once you roll up the dough and bake it
  19. Begin to roll up the long edge of the dough keep a tight roll all the way
  20. Lay rolled up dough with seem side down and begin to slice into rolls
  21. Slice the dough roll with a serrated knife right down the middle, then slice each of the sides into 2 more equal patrs, then those into 2 to make a total of 8 equal – 2″ rounds
  22. Place the rounds onto the pan or pans with 1/4″ glaze on the bottom and let proof for 45 minutes (no need to cover with saran)
  23. After proofing I take a spoon to scoop up the glaze on the bottom and pour over all the sticky bun rounds before baking
  24. Place into a 350º oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until a golden brown around the edges
  25. Take out the buns and let rest in the pan(s) for 10 minutes
  26. Run knife around the perimeters of the sticky buns
  27. I do not invert the pan as we did in the show, I just remove sticky buns to a platter and cover the tops with the cream cheese frosting while warm so it melts slightly to give a nice coating
  28. OPTIONAL: Sprinkle some with toasted pecans …enjoy 🙂

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Ingredients for Glaze:

  • 6 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 3/4 cup light brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup heavy cream
  • 1/3 cup honey
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • OPTIONAL: 1 3/4 cups chopped toasted pecans – Toast pecan halves on a cookie tray in a 375º oven for 8 minutes until fragrant and lightly toasted

Directions for Glaze:

  1. Add all the ingredients into a medium sauce pan whisking to break up sugar on medium heat
  2. Bring to a boil and immediately turn down and simmer for 4 minutes, the sauce should NOT be in a rapid boil, should have a tiny bubbles
  3. Take off heat and pour 1/2 – 2/3’s of the glaze into the bottoms of your baking pans with 1/4″ coating
  4. Place your rolled and cut up sticky bun rolls on top of the glaze and let proof 45 minutes
  5. Then scoop some of the glaze on the bottom on top of the sticky bun rolls before baking

Ingredients for Filling in Rolls:

  • 1/4 cup unsalted melted butter 
  • 1 1/2 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp ground cloves
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

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Ingredients for the Delicious Cream Cheese ICING:

  • 2 oz. cream cheese – softened
  • 4 tbsp unsalted butter – softened
  • 1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
  • 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice OR pineapple juice
  • 1 tbsp light Karo Syrup
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions for this Delicious Cream Cheese Icing:

  1. Put butter and cream cheese into the foo processor and pulse to combine
  2. Add in the rest of the ingredients and puree until smooth
  3. You can then warm this a little to drizzle over the sticky cinnamon buns or smear with an offset spatula or knife

Mediterranean Layered Dip with Christine & Lisa

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Mediterranean Layered Dip with Christine & Lisa

Mediterranean layered dip is one of those dishes that you will love to have up your sleeve. It’s super easy, literally takes all of five minutes to make and tastes amazing! All you have to do is layer these wonderful Mediterranean ingredients in a clear serving dish. The reason it’s so quick to make is because you’re using prepared products from the market.  It will not only wow your guests with the presentation but with the fresh flavors too!

IMG_5076This Mediterranean dip starts off with a layer of hummus, and continue’s on with layer’s of Tzatziki, crumbled sheep’s milk feta, chopped up European cucumber’s, and finally a layer of Tabouleh. Scoop up this delicious dip with cucumber slice’s, and, or pita chip’s. Granted, if you have a little extra time on your hands you could make one or two of the layers that go into the dip IMG_1851homemade like my best hummus ever, or Tzatziki sauce. Since I’m such a big cheese head I definitely suggest getting decent feta from your local cheese shop, Madison Cheese. The creaminess of a good sheep’s milk feta really add’s a nice touch to the dip.

The first time I had this Mediterranean layered dip was three months ago at a friends tennis party celebrating our kids going to Nationals in South Carolina. My friend, Lisa, brought this Mediterranean layered dip to the party along with a buffalo chicken dip. Boy, did I make out like a bandit! I featured Lisa’s buffalo chicken dip recipe on my show not too long after the party and it has been a big hit, calling it “Best Buffalo Chicken Dip Ever!”. What can I say, I love a good dip!

I then phoned Lisa excited about having her come on my show to share the Mediterranean dip with all of you. Lisa was going to do the show but there was one caveat, she wanted her friend Christine to come too. You see this Mediterranean layered dip recipe wasn’t her recipe. She borrowed it from Christine. So we went directly to the source and had Christine come over to do the show also! 

What fun we had making the Mediterranean layered dip. You can’t go wrong here especially when you have other things to make for your get together. As Lisa say’s in the show, she keeps the ingredients to the dip unopened in her refrigerator at all time’s, just in case! I hope you enjoy this dip many times over. If you need another easy appetizer you should make my baked sweet potato fries & Green Goddess Dip or just go straight to the desserts and try my chocolate crackle cookies, chocolate avocado moouse, perfectly chocolate chocolate cake or an applesauce-caramel sundae that will knock your socks off! 

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Ingredients:

  • 1 container of prepared hummus OR my homemade best hummus ever – You can get the “spicy” BUT it’s very spicy in the prepared hummus so I like it better with the reg. hummus
  • 1 12 oz container of your favorite Tzatziki OR homemade tzatziki
  • 1 12 oz container of your favorite prepared tabouleh
  • 1 cup crumbled sheep milk’s feta – you can it buy pre-packaged but good sheep’s milk feta from you local cheese shop is amazingly creamy 🙂
  • 1 cup chopped European cucumber- (1/2 of the cucumber sliced for dipping and the other 1/2 chopped for one of the layers)
  • 1 bag pita chips
  • 8-10″ clear serving dish with 2″ sides

Directions:

  1. Begin putting the layers into the clear serving dish
  2. Start with the hummus spreading evenly on the bottom
  3. Next, spread the layer of Tzatziki
  4. Then crumble the sheep’s milk feta over the Tzatziki
  5. Then a layer of chopped up cucumber
  6. Lastly, a layer of Tabouleh
  7. Serve with cucumber slices and pita chips
  8. You can keep the Mediterranean layered dip like this in the refrigerator for up to one day ahead … enjoy 🙂