Eating Our Hearts Out » Seafood

Spinach and Shrimp Crepes

Valerie — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 03:50:50 +0000

More experimentation with seafood! Tonight I improvised a recipe for crepes, and I’m pretty happy with how they turned out. This was yet another adventure answering the question “what can I do with the food I already have?” The shrimp came from the same former roommate who left us the tilapia.

First I mixed up the crepe batter, which I refrigerated while I prepared the other ingredients. Here’s the recipe I used:

2 eggs
1/2 c milk
1/2 c water
2 T butter, melted
1 c flour
1/4 t salt

Mix the wet ingredients together first: that makes it easier to stir in the flour. Beat until smooth, then put in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to an hour. You may need to add more milk to get the batter runny enough. My first couple of crepes were more like pancakes.

Shrimp ready to be peeled

Next I boiled the shrimp (I boiled 2 pounds, but used less than half a pound) and sautéed the spinach just until it was wilted. I peeled the shrimp and diced it, and cut the spinach into smaller pieces. I made a creamy filling out of 3 ounces of softened cream cheese and about half a cup of sour cream, which I mixed with powdered garlic and ground mustard. Mmm the mustard made the filling slightly spicy.

I prepared the crepes (I don’t want to go into detail about that process). Next I spread the filling on them and placed various combinations of spinach, shrimp, and feta cheese on top. I rolled up the completed crepes, and they were ready to eat. Yummy!

This crepe had fresh spinach, feta, and the creamy filling.

business or pleasure?

Jenny — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:53:49 +0000

I don’t see why it can’t be both. I spent the weekend in Kitty Hawk, NC for work. You didn’t read that wrong. I really did get paid to go to the beach. We went on various field trips which were a blast, and I feel quite a bit more knowledgeable on the subject of beach erosion.

I couldn't think of a better way to start the morning.

I felt a little silly taking pictures of my food during business meetings, so my words will have to suffice. Dinner Friday night was divine. I ordered the pork tenderloin, and that’s what I got. An entire pork tenderloin. It was overwhelming to say the least. This was followed up by one of the best key lime pies I’ve ever eaten. Ok… I don’t have many words either. Deal.

Saturday, we went to Jockey’s Ridge, which include some of the largest sand dunes I’ve ever seen. Realize that my grandparents live 20 minutes from White Sands, NM. I got the bright idea to trek all the way to the top of the largest one.

See the huge dune and the tiny people?

Then, the Wright brothers’ memorial, which is nothing more than a glorified sand dune covered in grass with a big piece of rock at the top. My legs hurt like they haven’t hurt in a while. … and I really started thinking that it must have really sucked to pull a plane all the way up a huge sand dune just to have a failed flight down it. Props to Orville and Wilbur!

The drive back was miserable. 9pm to 1am, I listened to Adventures in Odyssey while throwing gummy worms and chex mix into my mouth. …ok, so it wasn’t SO miserable.

Work shmork, the purpose of my trip was accomplished at lunch the day after I got home.

Photo by Nathan Clendenin

The fresh rockfish was amazing. We drizzled with butter, topped with salt and pepper, wrapped in foil, and baked at 450 for about 20 minutes. Served with risotto and snow peas. Delicious.

Fish Made Tasty

Valerie — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 05:17:51 +0000

I’m not usually a fan of fish. My mom, who is an awesome cook, always fixed it the same way. I never thought of it as something I’d want to experiment with. However, this week when I ran low on food again (this is a theme with me since I try not to spend too much on groceries), I decided to try using some tilapia fillets we had in our freezer. We had a roommate move out in the summer who left behind all sorts of food, particularly fish and shrimp. She moved to Wilmington, where I guess she’ll get better seafood.

Anyway, this is what I made:

3 small tilapia fillets
1 onion
1 cup fresh mushrooms, chopped
2-3 T pesto
1 T olive oil
Lemon juice
Spaghetti noodles
Mozzarella cheese

Tilapia Pasta

I sautéed the onion and mushrooms in olive oil, then added in the fillets. I was amazed at how fast fish cooks! I’m used to working with chicken or ground beef. Next I mixed in pesto and squeezed lemon juice over everything. Meanwhile I boiled the spaghetti, which I added to the frying pan so it could cook with the sauté for a while (I learned this trick from The Splendid Table). Wow, it was good! I served it with mozzarella cheese melted on top.

Chimichurri and some other stuff

Jenny — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 16:27:05 +0000

My very first issue of Cooking Light came in the mail this week. When I ran across this recipe, I was more than a little excited. Rebecca’s brother shipped them Alaskan halibut for Christmas, and I was happy to have a use for it. We knew there had to be an occasion for such luxury, so we were happy to pull out the recipe for the Chungs’ visit this weekend. We couldn’t have made a better choice; they spent the entire weekend praising Friday night’s dinner.

Photo by Nathan Clendenin

A few critiques: First, I’m a little annoyed at Cooking Light for putting a recipe with zucchini in their Jan/Feb issue. I’m not opposed to eating some things out of season from time to time, but I feel like they could have done better. Second, I think the chimichurri would have been better if pureed into a green sauce, rather than the relish that they recommended.

Our rendition held pretty closely to the halibut and chimichurri part of the recipe, but we did change a few things: 1) creamy risotto instead of vegetable rice; 2) steamed broccoli on the side; 3) I lack a grill pan, so the halibut was pan-seared instead (small difference, but I feel I need to be honest); 4) the whole thing was served with lemon wedges which tasted amazing when squeezed over the halibut (and the color certainly didn’t hurt).