Fried Cornmeal Shrimp with Butternut Squash Risotto

I enjoyed getting a little silly with this dish. I had blue cornmeal on hand, and I just couldn't resist the idea of crusting my little shrimps with it. I think the contrast between the shrimp and the risotto is lovely, too.

Happy First Day of Spring, btw. The weather here is more than a bit crazy. I feel like we're going to get blown away at any minute, the wind is so wicked. It was one of those mornings that had me not wanting to get out of our nice warm cozy bed. I even got back in a few times... got up, fed the cats, got back into bed. Got up, started the shower, got back into bed. I stayed in as long as I could... but we have bills to pay, so off to work I went. Sad. :)

This dish would be perfect for a windy, chilly day like today, because you'll need to hover over the stove stirring the risotto. I always feel like risotto is something of a present to myself on a cold day, because I'm almost always cold at home, so hovering over a nice warm stove makes me really happy.

I cheated a little and roasted my squash the night before. This is also a good time to get your shrimp soaking in their garlicy marinade. Both of those pieces accomplished, all you really need to worry about is stirring your rice and battering and frying your shrimp.

One last note about the shrimp and risotto, and then I'll shush up. These go really well together. The cornmeal-crust is such a nice crunchy contrast to the creamy risotto. The spark of the garlic in the shrimp popped against the smooth friendliness of the butternut squash. All around, this dish was just plain great.

Fried Cornmeal Shrimp with Butternut Squash Risotto
c/o Bon Appetit Magazine, October 2007
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/240105

1 1 3/4- to 2-pound butternut squash

24 uncooked large shrimp (about 1 1/4 pounds), peeled, deveined
3 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
3 large garlic cloves, peeled, smashed, plus 2 large garlic cloves, chopped

1 cup cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

5 cups low-salt chicken broth
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
4 teaspoons finely chopped fresh thyme, divided
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice or medium-grain white rice
1/2 cup dry white wine

Vegetable oil (for frying)

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400°F. Pierce squash several times. Place on baking sheet; roast until tender, about 1 hour. Cool. Cut squash in half; discard seeds. Scoop flesh into processor. Puree until smooth. Measure 1 1/2 cups puree (reserve remaining puree for another use).

Place shrimp, 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, and 3 smashed garlic cloves in large reseal-able plastic bag; turn to coat. Chill 2 to 3 hours, turning bag occasionally.

Stir cornmeal, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in medium bowl. Add shrimp; toss. Arrange in single layer on large plate.

Preheat oven to 200°F. Bring broth to simmer in heavy small saucepan; reduce heat to low and keep hot. Heat remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook until beginning to brown, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Add chopped garlic and 2 teaspoons thyme; stir 1 minute. Add rice and stir 1 minute. Add wine; stir until almost absorbed, about 2 minutes. Reduce heat to medium. Add 1 cup hot broth and cook until almost all liquid is absorbed, stirring often. Continue adding hot broth 1 cup at a time and stirring frequently until rice is almost tender, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, add enough vegetable oil to heavy large skillet to reach depth of 1/4 inch. Heat oil over high heat. Working in 2 batches, fry shrimp until golden brown and cooked through, about 1 1/2 minutes per side. Transfer to paper-towel-lined baking sheet and place in oven to keep warm.

Re-warm reserved 1 1/2 cups squash puree in microwave. Add warm puree to risotto and stir until rice is tender but still firm, about 2 minutes. Stir in Parmesan cheese and remaining 2 teaspoons thyme. Season with salt and pepper.

Divide risotto among bowls. Top with shrimp and serve.

See the recipe...

Baked Goat Cheese and Roasted Winter Squash over Garlicky Fettuccine

I'll admit it. I have a problem. I tend to focus on an ingredient and then make it eleventy billion ways. At that point, Dave is tired of eating it, so I move on to something else. It may take a while for me to fixate on something new, but the fixation is inevitable. I don't see what's so wrong with it, myself. I look at it as fully exploring and experimenting with an ingredient. Or something. :)

This dish features two of my more recent loves (butternut squash and fresh pasta), plus one I can't let go (goat cheese). I think all three are easily explainable, don't you? It's Winter, and butternut squash is in season, so I am taking advantage of the opportunity to eat seasonably. Fresh pasta is so easy to make (provided you have the right equipment, otherwise not so much) and tastes so so nice. And the goat cheese? Well... it's goat cheese! What's not to like???

The cubing of all that squash was a bit time consuming, but very worth it. I really like recipes that let you pop them in the oven for a while. I use that time to clean up the kitchen or the apartment or generally horse around. Before I know it, dinner is ready! Rad!

I didn't expect to love the garlicky fettuccine as much as I did. But combined with the creamy roasted squash, the sweet bell pepper, and the tangy goat cheese... omg.... heaven! I was also partially convinced that the goat cheese would ooze all over the place in the oven, but it didn't. Don't be upset if the bread crumbs don't totally stick to the cheese, mine didn't either.

We had this on a Friday night and then had the leftover veg and cheese on new pasta for lunch on Saturday and they were just as good the second day. I highly recommend this. Highly. Go eat it. :)

Edit: I almost forgot AGAIN!!!! (skip blogging for a while and you lose your brains!) Pop on over to Ruth's blog, Once Upon a Feast for her weekly Presto Pasta Night Roundups! She collects some of the most amazing pasta dishes I've ever seen and shares them with us every Friday! Once you're there, check out her other tasty entries! When I have no idea what I'm going to make for dinner, I know that I can go to Ruth's site and find something healthy and delicious!


Baked Goat Cheese and Roasted Winter Squash over Garlicky Fettuccine
c/o Cooking Light Magazine, December 2006
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1559238

6 cups (1-inch) cubed peeled kabocha or butternut squash (about 2 1/4 pounds)
1 large red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
Cooking spray
1 teaspoon salt, divided
1 teaspoon chopped fresh or 1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 (4-ounce) packages goat cheese
1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs
1 pound uncooked fettuccine
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
Rosemary sprigs (optional)

Preheat oven to 425°.

Place squash and bell pepper in a large bowl. Add 1 tablespoon oil; toss well. Arrange vegetables in a single layer on a jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt, rosemary, and black pepper. Bake at 425° for 40 minutes, stirring once.

Place goat cheese in freezer 10 minutes. Cut cheese crosswise into 8 equal rounds. Place breadcrumbs in a shallow bowl. Dredge each round in breadcrumbs; place on a baking sheet. Bake at 425° for 6 minutes.
Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup pasta cooking water. Return pasta to pan; add reserved pasta cooking water, remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons oil, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, red pepper, and garlic, tossing to coat. Place 1 1/4 cups pasta in each of 8 shallow bowls; top each serving with about 1/2 cup squash mixture and 1 goat cheese round. Garnish with rosemary sprigs, if desired.

Yield: 8 servings

cals 423, fat 14.1g, sat fat 7.4g, protein 17.8g, cholesterol 30mg, calcium 290mg, sodium 439mg, fiber 2.7g, iron 2.1mg, carbs 54.7g

See the recipe...

Pappardelle with Squash, Mushrooms, and Spinach

You know that feeling you get, when you know you've blown something off long enough that you feel so guilty that you keep blowing it off because maybe then you won't have to fess up to it? I'll admit that its that feeling that mightily contributed to my failing out of college (as I'd skip class a few too many times but feel to sheepish to return). You'd think I'd have a handle on that feeling by now, being an official grown-up and all... but no. Here it has happened again. :)

I also didn't make any resolutions last week, which is new for me. I don't know if I've ever mentioned it, but I only started really cooking because of a New Years resolution. You see, it was what... 2000?... when I met my husband... I knew how to cook a few things... like Chicken Kate or Chicken Mom or Salisbury Steak from a Box and the like. (I rocked that food from a box, lemme tell ya!) Anyway. I met Dave the summer of 2000. By that winter, I was smitten with him (long before, actually). I really really wanted to cook for him. I made him the two Chickens... I even made him a purple banana cream pie (I can save that for another day). But then I'd exhausted my non-box foods. What is a girl to do?

What I did is make a resolution: I would buy a new cookbook every month and learn to make at least one thing from said book. I was pretty ramped up at the beginning and got a whole bunch of books at once... but still. I stuck with it. I learned to cook. I asked my friends and coworkers for recipes. I fed my husband. And you know what? I found great joy in filling his belly... in putting a smile on his face... and that propelled me forward.

Sure, its a sappy story. What it has to do with the pasta we had for dinner last week, I have no idea. But what I wanted was a nice, healthy, delicious dinner to help push me forward again. To snap me out of my blogging sheepishness and get back to sharing our meals with you. Because you know what? A lot of what we eat COMES from you - hence the blog name - and I like the fact that in sharing what I make, I celebrate what the food blogosphere has to offer! Because, seriously, you have MAD SKILLS!!! :)

Now, a little bit about this recipe from Bon Appetit magazine: Aside from all the butter, I could happily eat this on a regular basis. I felt like a nutritional rockstar the night we had this. So many veggies! And because each veg was a different kind and color, I got the feeling that we might not need our multi-vitamin that night. I'd made the pappardelle myself a few days prior and I was really pleased with the results.


Pappardelle with Squash, Mushrooms, and Spinach
c/o Bon Appetit Magazine, November 2007
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/240429

12 ounces pappardelle or fettuccine pasta

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, divided
3 cups 1/2-inch cubes butternut squash (from 1-pound squash)
8 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed, caps sliced
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
1 5- to 6-ounce package baby spinach
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided

Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain, reserving 1 cup pasta cooking liquid.

Meanwhile, melt 1/4 cup butter in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add squash and cook until almost tender, stirring often, about 6 minutes. Add mushrooms, sage, and remaining 1/4 cup butter; sauté until mushrooms are soft and squash is tender, about 8 minutes. Add spinach; stir until wilted, about 2 minutes. Stir in 1/2 cup cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Add pasta to sauce in skillet. Toss to coat, adding pasta cooking liquid by 1/4 cupfuls if dry. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup cheese.

See the recipe...

Butternut Dumplings with Brown Butter and Sage

I feel all out of sorts. As though I've stepped out of time, really. I mean, how how how has it gotten to be mid-November already? What is this craziness? I honestly don't know where the time has gone. I hope that some of this changes after Thanksgiving, when I start my NEW JOB(!!!), because not only are the hours a little better, but my daily commute will consist of a walk across the street. In addition to the regained time, I hope to get a little sanity and happiness back.... both of which are necessary, I think, for a more present life. More present, more awareness of time, more blogging. I am counting the days.

Something you will have to forgive me for in the meantime is the disconnection of my entries to when they actually happened. I'd cook, I'd photograph, I'd even enter the recipe and picture into blogger... and then I'd walk away from the computer. I have our anniversary cakes from the end of October, I have Dave's birthday dinner and cake from early November, I have... maybe 28 other entries from day-to-day life just piled up... so... yah. Lots to post about... but the timing will be all off. I want to share everything with you, and catch up, because Lord knows, I'll still be cooking... ]

Now, I don't remember exactly when this dinner happened... maybe three weeks ago? I made the dumplings on a Sunday afternoon during football... or it could have been while Hubs was off at the hockey game... either way, it happened during sports. :) This was my second go at the dumplings.. I'd tried them last winter, and they were miserably bad. It was before I got a handle on how to do gnocchi/dumplings and added waaaaaay to much flour... blech! This time around, I knew what consistency to look for, I knew when to stop messing with it.

The squash and potatoes meld beautifully together. Oooh, and the brown butter sauce? Divine! What I really enjoyed about this was how warm and satisfying it was. It's finally cold outside, and these dumplings are creamy and soothing and super-yummy.

And whats better, is it makes bags and bags of dumplings, so our freezer is two bags fuller!! So on nights I don't feel like going to the trouble of putting something new together, and I don't want take-out, I can just pop them into some boiling water and we have dinner! Sweet!

Butternut Dumplings with Brown Butter and Sage
c/o Alton Brown, Food Network Channel
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_17864,00.html

1 1/2 small butternut squash, halved and seeded
4 medium baking (russet) potatoes, pierced
1 egg
11/2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 pinch nutmeg
11/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus additional, for dusting
Oil
1 bunch sage, leaves chiffonade
8 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

On a sheet pan, place the squash flesh side down and roast until very tender (about 45 minutes). At the same time, bake potatoes directly on the rack of oven for 1 hour.

Split the potatoes and allow to cool slightly, or until you can handle them. Don't let them cool completely. Scoop the flesh of the potatoes and the squash into a bowl and mash with a hand masher. Mix in the egg, salt and nutmeg. Then add the flour and mix until a soft dough forms. Do not do this in a mixer, it will overwork the dough. Add flour by the spoonful if it's still too moist.

Turn out onto a floured board and divide into 8 portions. Roll out into ropes and cut into 1/2-inch pieces. Line the pieces up on a floured sheet pan as you work. At this point you could freeze them on the pan until solid, then transfer to zip top bags and store in the freezer.

In a large pot of boiling, salted water gently drop in the dumplings. Don't overcrowd. As they begin to float, remove them with a slotted spoon and toss them into an ice bath.

Drain off the water and toss in a little oil. Store loosely in containers until ready to use.

To reheat, in a saute pan over high heat add 1 tablespoon of soft butter. Cook until the butter begins to foam and turn brown. Add 2 teaspoons sage leaves and 1 cup of dumplings. Cook for an additional minute until the dumplings are heated through. Repeat until you have desired amount of servings. Plate and top with freshly grated Parmesan.

See the recipe...