January 25th - Spaghetti with Shrimp

January 25th – Spaghetti with Shrimp

More proof that my cooking goes in cycles. A few days ago I was saying that I hadn’t cooked pasta in a while and now we have two pastas dishes a few nights a part. I had gone into work early and was supposed to get out of work early, but things didn’t work that way. I shouldn’t complain because I was able to scoot out a few hours early last week, but I got home in a crabby mood but still wanted something good to eat, but didn’t want to stop at the store on the way home. I knew I had some shrimp in the freezer and started to thaw them cold water while I came up with a plan. Before you give me grief about using frozen shrimp, be aware that most shrimp that’s sold commercially has been frozen. If you buy it non-frozen at your fish monger, ask if it was previously frozen. Most of it has been. Shrimp doesn’t hold well unfrozen, so unless you live near a shrimp region, chances are you’re paying premium dollars for something that was already frozen. My advice, and also that of such people as Mark Bittman, is to buy shrimp frozen. It’s normally cheaper because you’re not paying someone else to thaw it for you. I normally thaw it in cold water. Sometimes I add some salt to brine it a little, but most times it’s just a quick thaw in plain old water.
I thawed the shrimp and realized that the fastest thing to do was probably to make some pasta. I chopped some garlic and added it to a pan with olive oil and a little bit of crushed red pepper, while I got a pot of water boiling for the pasta. I cut the garlic into large slices so it would have a chance to flavor the oil before it burned. When the garlic was golden brown I pulled the pan form the heat. I added some spaghetti to the boiling water and let it cook until just before it was al dente (since it will cook in the sauce). I grabbed a little bit of the pasta water for the sauce in case I needed some liquid.
While the pasta drained, I threw the thawed shrimp into the pan on high heat so it cooked through in about 1-2 minutes. Then I added the spaghetti and tossed it. It need a little of the pasta water to smooth it out. Then I finished it with some lemon juice and (in a most un-Italian fashion) parmesan cheese. I had more Belgian Golden ale because it has worked so well for the tuna and capers with lemon a few nights before. A quick meal and on the table in the time it took to cook the pasta.

January 2nd

January 2nd

I survived day number two of no stove. Both my wife and I were feeling like we’re catching colds, so I opted for entrée salads, which are really easy. I cooked some shrimp on the electric griddle and then tossed them with olive oil and garlic. Threw together some mixed greens, sliced red onion, pine nuts, and four mandarin oranges, with a ginger vinaigrette. Plated it and then put the shrimp on top and gave it a quick grating of parmesan (OK, actually grana padano). My wife had picked up a ciabatta at Trader Joes. It was OK, but nothing special, but was really just a vehicle for more of the Irish butter. The whole thing was quick however and that was a plus.

I had made a spiced Belgian Triple (which I opted to call a Triple de Noel for Christmas) several weeks ago and have been drinking some of it although it still hasn’t cleared completely. It’s the same combination of the La Chouffe and Duvel yeast, but this batch has some orange peel and ginger in it and we used Centennial and Summit hops in it which adds to the fruitiness of the aroma. It’s also a bigger beer than the last one and clocks in a little more than 8% alcohol. Despite this, it’s actually a good beer with a salad (assuming the vinaigrette isn’t too acidic at which point it would seem too big and overly alcoholic). I was a little surprised and had feared that it was too big, but it worked out. Why do we worry that a beer at 8% may be too big when we would serve a 10-11% “light” white wine and think it was fine? I was thinking about doing a bottle of lambic instead, but opted for the triple because the vinaigrette wasn’t too sharp and I was hoping the orange notes on the beer would work with the oranges in the salad. In retrospect, I wonder why I didn’t add black olives to the salad since I love the combination of oranges and black olives. Perhaps next time.

I also started some black bean soup in the crock pot. Added carrots, onions, celery, black beans, a little cumin, a dried chipotle, bay leaf, and chicken stock and let it sit over night. I can doctor it all later and will make for another quick meal.