stuffed shells

i am by no means an expert at cooking italian cuisine.  however, i have cooked my mom's stuffed shells recipe for italians before, and they have told me how good they are.  i figure this is pretty high praise...especially considering how she originally got the recipe off a box of pasta.

i've adapted the recipe in recent years due to my own experimentation and due to the fact that mom has incorporated vegetables into her shells.  and since i happen to like how that works, i've blatantly stolen her methods.

 ingredients:
- box of large pasta shells
- container of ricotta cheese (i used a 15 oz container)
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 2 eggs
- parsley
- garlic powder
- basil/oregano
- salt/pepper
- jar of spaghetti sauce (i used almost a whole 24 oz jar)
- one zucchini (smallish)
- sausage (i used two links of pre-cooked italian-style chicken sausage)

note that this recipe won't make enough stuffing for a whole box of shells.  i tend to overstuff the shells, so i end up with 16-20.

preparation:
cook the shells according to the package instructions.  while the shells are cooking, mix the three cheeses, the eggs, herbs, and spices.  note: reserve a little mozzarella for the topping since it melts so nicely.  in the cooking pan, spoon a thin layer of sauce.  add chopped sausage and zucchini to the dish.  i sliced the zucchini into medallions and then sliced each medallion in thirds.  the sausage, i simply cut it into small chunks.

after the shells are cooked and drained (let them cool a little bit), spoon about 1 tbsp of cheese mixture into each one.  place the stuffed shells into the pan.  spoon more sauce over the pan of shells (enough to coat them all) and sprinkle with cheese.  as i said before, the recipe calls for mozzarella, but i had to make use of parmesan...the horrors!

cover and bake at 350°F for about 30 minutes (or until the sauce starts to bubble).

i only fit maybe 10 shells into my pan.  however, the lovely thing about this recipe is that you can freeze the shells for use later.  i stashed the remaining 7-8 shells on a pan in the freezer for a couple hours until they hardened.  that way, they're easy to transfer into freezer bags.

verdict:
i know this is a good recipe; it's pretty much tried and true.  there are a few things that didn't work quite so well this time, though.  i don't think i cooked everything quite long enough.  although the sauce was starting to bubble, the zucchini was a touch al dente.  this may be in part due to the pan i used; it isn't one that's cooked shells before, so i maybe needed a little extra time.  also, i didn't have any aluminum foil, so i had to tent the pan with parchment paper (with aluminum on one side).  necessity is the mother of invention!

baked pineapple

pineapple is pretty much awesome.  admittedly, it's not an apple, and it doesn't taste/smell like pine, but that's beside the point.  and baking a pineapple should make it twice as awesome.  especially if it's done to look like how (a surprisingly cheerful) gordon ramsay cooks it.  which is to say that it's baked in a salt crust.  for reference, the recipe is here.

unfortunately, i am not gordon ramsay.  which means that my experiment was pretty much a failure.  i'm not even bothering to photograph this disaster because, well, it kind of looked like a regular pinapple afterwards.  i ended up just butchering the pineapple in a traditional fashion for later consumption.

part of the problem may be that i used a non-miniature pineapple.  using a regular sized pineapple may have made it need to bake longer, which i didn't really do.  a secondary problem may have been my salt-crusting technique.  i don't think i made the salt mixture wet enough (not enough egg), so it didn't stick.  very frustrating.

maybe i'll try it again...but not anytime soon, i don't think.

shrimp creole

so jackie recently gave me an assortment of spices and a recipe for what is supposedly the most authentic gumbo ever.  said recipe came from diane at spice it to a tea (in brevard, nc).  upon closer examination, the recipe says it's for shrimp sauce piquante (aka shrimp creole), and wikipedia seems to imply that gumbo and shrimp creole are slightly different recipes.

regardless of semantics, it is in fact pretty darn good.

this particular recipe probably took me upwards of four hours to finish, and it makes about six servings.  i was quite impressed.

ingredients:
- 2/3 cup oil (i used grapeseed oil)
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1 3/4 cup sliced scallions
- 2/3 cup chopped celery
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
- 4 teaspoon minced garlic
- 3 tablsepoons minced parsley
- one pound canned whole peeled tomatoes (i was duly informed that using the "san marzano" brand was imperative)
- eight ounce can tomato sauce
- approximately 1 pint of chopped okra
- 1 tablespoon minced chives
- 4 tablespoons dry red wine
- 4 bay leaves
- 6 whole allspice
- 2 whole cloves
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 3/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
- 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/4 teaspoon mace
- 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
- 4 teaspoon lemon juice
- 2 cups water
- 2 pounds shrimp

preparation:
instead of using water, i decided to use the shrimp shells to make stock.  the shrimp i got were headless and pre-deveined, so i just peeled them and add the shells to a pot of water.  i boiled them for about an hour or so with a little garlic powder, black pepper, and cayenne.

i prepared the vegetables (it takes a surprisingly long time...maybe 30 minutes or more) and added them all to a bowl before even starting on the roux.  i should also note that i didn't specifically measure the vegetables.  if there was a little more or less, i wasn't too fussed.

for the roux, i heated the oil in a large pot and gradually added the flour, stirring constantly.  the roux should be cooked over low (to medium-low) heat until it turns a medium brown (the color of peanut butter).  this takes a significant amount of patience and constant stirring, and i ended up spending about 30 minutes getting it to look right.

remove the pot from the heat and add the vegetables (sans okra) and parsley.  mix well with the roux and return to low heat.  cook, stirring constantly, until the vegetables begin to brown (approximately 15-20 minutes).

mix in the canned tomatoes and sauce, add the chives, wine, seasonings, and lemon juice, and stir thoroughly.  raise the heat and bring to a low boil for maybe 15 minutes.  add the water/shrimp stock, stir, and simmer for 45 minutes.  add the shrimp and okra and simmer for 20 minutes.  remove from heat and allow to stand (covered )for about 10 minutes before serving.

verdict:
served over white rice, this was a good dish for a cold, blustery afternoon.  i was expecting a little more kick, but it wasn't excessively spicy.  the tomato seems to tone things down a little, but a light burn does hit the palate after the first couple bites.  i would cook this again, though i might be tempted to throw in even more vegetables and maybe some sausage.  maybe that's not an authentic way of adapting the recipe, but it seems like it would be a most enjoyable adaptation.

a few comments, though:

• if you let someone else help measure out the spices and whatnot, it helps if said assistant can read the measuring spoons.  mine isn't sure if she used two teaspoons (or two 1/2 tablespoons) of salt!
• despite the recipe's direction to crush the bay leaves, this i would rather leave them whole (and then fish them out before serving) in the future...because crushed bay leaves seem to get stuck in teeth.
• more shrimp may be preferable.  after the fourth serving, the number of shrimp seemed to taper off.
• this is a rather time-consuming (but worthwhile) dish; apparently it is a good idea to double the size of the sauce recipe and then freeze it for future use (thaw it and drop in fresh shrimp at that point in time).  it would certainly help the problem of "what am i going to do with all these extra chives and parsley?"