This is one of those dishes that come from having a delicious leftover ingredient with which you have no use and don’t want to waste it. It came about from the Lobster poached in coconut butter I made for dinner one night. The lobster was silky smooth and tender from having poached for 50 minutes leaving behind a glorious lobster infused coconut butter. There was no way I was throwing it away. I love leftovers like this. Continue reading Pasta with Lobster Infused Coconut Butter & Crab
Baby Lady and I love Hawaii. Her sister lives in Honolulu so we try to go over there whenever we can. The food, especially the seafood, is remarkable. We always go to my favorite local fish monger, Tamashiro Fish Market, buy some of their poke and some other fresh fish for fixin later. I keep threatening to rent an apartment over the store. My sister-in-law and her friend Ann know we like to cook and we try to cook for them when we are there. After our last visit, they sent us an autographed book, The Blue Tomato by Alan Wong with Arnold Hiura. This recipe comes from The Blue Tomato. It is an absolutely wonderful dish, although (as you will see) a little complex to make. The lobster is silky smooth, juicy and tender like you won’t believe with a beautiful coconut, lime flavor. If you want something challenging but well worth the effort, give this a try. If you do, make sure you save the remaining poaching broth as it makes an unbelievable pasta dish which I will posting next. Oh, I also forgot to tell you this dish and the pasta dish following, especially the pasta dish, is a heart attack waiting to happen,…but it is sooo good! Continue reading Coconut Butter-Poached Lobster Tail with Galangal and Lime
Chocolate steak? Really? I know you can cook but this sounds too strange to be any good. And you’re wasting a wonderful Ribeye Steak, too. I’ll try it but… Those were all the swirling thoughts running around in my son Matt’s head as we were discussing the night’s dinner. Matt (like all of the other children) knows I try a lot of different things and eat a lot of different things, some of which he really doesn’t like, i.e. Sea Urchin. He also knows he likes some of the offbeat things we feed him, i.e. Tofu.
This all came about because of a challenge he had given Baby Lady and me. You see, Matt lives in Amarillo and had told his friends Baby Lady and I could really cook. He was coming to DFW with some of his friends and wanted an Iron Chef competition between Baby Lady and me. He was going to provide us with the secret ingredient and we were going to fix a 3 course meal using the secret ingredient as the prime ingredient in all of the courses. He and his friends were to be the judges. (Not a bad gig if you can get it, huh?) Even though we have an above average size kitchen, it’s simply not big enough for a 1 hour competition with Baby Lady and I fighting for range and oven space. Also, someone would have to loose and one of us would have been sleeping on the couch. So, we politely declined. Instead, we told him he could select the ingredient, tell us beforehand what it was so we could go to the grocery store to stock the kitchen and we would fix his friends and him a multi-course meal using his selected ingredient as the main ingredient for the night’s dinner. He agreed. Continue reading Chocolate Ribeye Steak
Baby Lady has pointed out I haven’t posted any recipes for Pasta as of yet. The fact the blog is only 3 days old did not deter her. So, this recipe is for the Baby Lady and the special place she holds in my heart. Also, if I don’t post it she is going to continually remind me I have yet to post a pasta recipe. 😀
This recipe is one of Baby Lady’s favorites and is taken from Sarah Moulton’s Sara’s Weeknight Meals, Episode 201, with minor adaptation (I’m an equal opportunity plagiarizer and gladly help myself to other people’s ideas and recipes. How else do we learn?). It is a wonderful, easy and quick pasta dish using feta cheese and is relatively inexpensive. The salty tanginess of the feta blends beautifully with the chicken broth and pasta. For those who must have some type of meat protein in their meal, you can add some roasted chicken pieces to the recipe but it really doesn’t need it. This is a full flavored meal that is delectable and satisfying. Continue reading Spaghetti with Broccoli, Crushed Red Pepper and Feta Cheese
When I was a young man I worked and lived in Louisiana just southeast of New Orleans in Houma past the Intercoastal Canal. It changed my life and the way I cook. The people were friendly, spoke in an odd language (using words like fais do do and coo-yôn), liked to party and had all kinds of festivals, i.e. The Crawfish Festival in Chalmette, Lagniappe on the Bayou in Chauvin, The Shrimp Festival in Delcambre, and, of course, Mardi Gras in New Orleans. The scenery was beautiful and the food was wonderfully unique using predominantly local foods, i.e. seafood, beef, pork, alligator, various game birds and meat and lots of cayenne pepper and Tabasco Sauce with names like gumbos, crawfish pie, blackened fish, and jambalaya. At times it was hard to believe I was still in the United States. Regardless, I fell in love with Louisiana and her food. This is my recipe for Seafood File Gumbo that I have worked on for years. I won’t tell you this is the best Seafood File Gumbo you will ever eat because Cajun cooks are very proud people. Each one of them thinks s/he makes the very best Seafood File Gumbo. What I will tell you is that everyone I have ever served this Seafood File Gumbo (including native Louisianans, oil field workers, restaurant chefs, friends and my children) has asked for more and most wanted the recipe. In fact, every time I make this recipe and word gets out about it I get requests to come over for dinner. I hope you like it and am pretty confident you will. 🙂 Oh and by the way, that is one VERY large oyster in this bowl of gumbo. Just call me a fortunate son. 😀 Continue reading Seafood File Gumbo
I am a Chilehead and I make no apologies about it. You know you’re a Chilehead If:
Have you ever experienced walking through the market, seeing the magazine in the magazine rack with the magazine cover depicting some stunning entree, side, cake, bread, etc. that you knew you simply had to try? This is one of those recipes. Baby Lady and I were shopping at our local market when, while checking out, I noticed a Bon Appetit magazine on the magazine rack. The cover was a tall stack of biscuits that initially grabbed my attention. Because we had purchased a lot of food that day I had time to check out the magazine a little further. When I saw Chipotle Chiles and Cheddar Cheese I knew I had to fix it. So I bought the magazine, baked the recipe and used Daniel as the guinea pig. These are really good and worth trying. Continue reading Cornmeal Biscuits with Chipotle Chiles and Cheddar Cheese
REMCooks 