Cilantro Shrimp

By Squidly in Recipes, Seafood

Cilantro Shrimp

After a long hiatus, I am back to post a quick recipe I found online for tomorrow.  I have a bag of shrimp defrosting, and will be trying this tomorrow.  Looks yummy!  A twist on my usual basil shrimp or scallion ginger shrimp.

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon dark sesame oil
  • 2 cups (1-inch) slices green onions
  • 5 garlic cloves, minced (or if feeling lazy, just use the pre-minced jar garlic)
  • 1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
  • 3 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce (or salt, to taste)
  • 1/2 teaspoon sambal oelek (ground fresh chile paste) or substitute hot sauce (sriracha, chili-garlic paste, etc.)
  • 2 cups chopped fresh cilantro

Preparation

  1. Heat a wok or large skillet over high heat; add oil to pan, swirling to coat.
  2. Add garlic to pan; stir-fry 1 minute.
  3. Add shrimp; stir-fry 2 minutes.  Flip to make sure cooked on both sides.  When almost done, add in green onions and half of the cilantro; stir-fry.
  4. Stir in soy sauce and chile paste; stir-fry 1 minute or until shrimp are done.
  5. Remove pan from heat; add the remaining cilantro, stirring constantly until cilantro wilts.
  6. Serve over rice.

Blueberry Griddle Cakes

By Squidly in Recipes, Sweets

Ingredients: (Makes 14-16 4″ griddle cakes)

  • 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour + 1 tablespoon
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 tablespoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 cups milk
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted (if I don’t have unsalted, I just leave out the salt or use a tiny bit)
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus extra for cooking
  • 1 cup fresh blue berries, rinsed
  • Maple syrup (or honey), butter and extra blueberries (for garnish)

Directions:

  • Combine the 1 1/2 cups flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl.  Set aside.
  • In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs and vanilla extract.  Whisk in the butter and oil.
  • In a third bowl, toss the blueberries with the 1 tablespoon of flour.
  • Preheat a Cast Iron Griddle over medium-high heat.  While the pan is heating, combine the dry ingredients with the liquid ingredients and mix until incorporated.  Gently fold in the blueberries.
  • Brush the griddle with some vegetable oil.  Using a paper towel, carefully wipe any excess oil off of the pan.
  • Ladle a scant 1/4 cup batter onto the hot griddle.  Ladle another portion of batter on to the griddle, leaving ample room between the pancakes to allow for the batter to spread.  Repeat until griddle is full.  Cook the pancakes for 2 to 3 minutes or until bubbles break the surface and the bottoms are brown.  Turn the pancakes and cook an additional minute to brown the other sides.  Reapply oil to the surface of the griddle between batches.
  • Serve pancakes warm with maple syrup.  Garnish with additional blueberries.

 Notes:

  • I got this recipe from the packaging of my cast-iron griddle — will post pictures tomorrow morning when I make them… mmmm! :)
  • This recipe is great for breakfast the first morning, and then reheat well as leftovers, so pack away the rest for yummy breakfasts of 2 pancakes each morning for the rest of the week.
  • I really enjoy eating them with honey instead of maple syrup: delicious!

Real Simple Chai

By Squidly in Cold-fighting foods, Featured friends' recipes, Ingredients for lazy cooks, Recipes, Sweets

Ingredients: (for 4 mugs)

  • 8 cardamom seeds
  • 8 cloves
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 1 1-inch piece of fresh ginger, sliced (can add more to taste for more spice)
  • 4 c. milk (I usually use 2%)
  • 4 c. water
  • 8 tsp. sugar
  • 4 bags black tea (I use Lipton)

Directions:

Place cardamom and cloves in a ziplock bag and crush with a heavy skillet.
Slice ginger into thin pieces.  Put ginger, crushed cardamom and cloves, and cinammon stick into a medium saucepan.
Bring 4 c. water to a boil in the electric water boiler.  At the same time, heat the 4 c. milk in mugs in the microwave about 1 min. 30 seconds to speed up the heating time.
When hot, pour milk and water into the saucepan and turn heat on medium or medium high.  Let it heat for a couple minutes, until it starts steaming.  It does not need to be brought to an actual boil because it’s hard not to have the milk burn or overflow if it gets too hot. When it’s steaming, add in sugar and stir to dissolve.  Then remove from heat, add in the 4 teabags, cover and let steep for 10 minutes.
Once it’s a nice warm chai-y color, pour the whole mixture, including the spices and ginger into a pitcher with a strainer.  It can be served warm immediately, or cooled and then refrigerated for iced chai.

Notes:

  • The ginger in the chai makes this a cold-fighting food according to Chinese foodlore, so this is especially good to drink in the winter to stave off any kind of head cold or throat issue.  If that is a concern, alter the recipe by boiling the ginger by itself in hot water only first for about 5 minutes to get the flavor really infused into the water, then add all the other ingredients and it will be extra-gingery.
  • I got this recipe from Real Simple magazine, and it also called for 4 black peppercorns, but I don’t have peppercorns and I think the chai tastes just fine without them.
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