Langostinos

Langostinos pasta

I rarely post recipes with hard to find ingredients. Why? Because I have trouble getting them too. On my trek into the "big city" I went to Trader Joes. In the frozen foods  I found langostinos. I haven't had langostinos in over a decade (ok it has probably been two decades). Giddy with food excitement I quickly put the bag of frozen goodness in my cart. Steven asked "what's a langostino?" I channeled my inner food geek and answered: "a langostino is a member of the lobster family; they are caught off of the coast of Chile. Langostinos are about the size of a shrimp and look and taste like a cross between a shrimp and a lobster. I think they taste more like a lobster than a shrimp. They can be substituted for crawfish or shrimp in recipes." Yep, I am a walking encyclopedia of food knowledge.
I have a bag of langostinos that are fully cooked and then frozen. The question is what to do with them. I decided to recreate the dish I had oh so many years ago- langostinos with lots of garlic and olive oil served over pasta. My mouth is already watering.

Langostinos in a Garlic Butter Sauce
3 Tbsp of Butter
3 Tbsp of Olive Oil
5 Cloves of Garlic, Minced
1 Shallot, Thinly Sliced
Pinch of Salt
Couple of Turns of the Pepper Mill
12 oz. (340 g) of Langostinos, Thawed, Rinsed, and Drained
1/2 Cup (120 ml) of Dry White Wine
1/4 Cup (5 g) of Fresh Parsley
Parmesan Cheese

Important Note: Depending on the cooking time of your pasta: either have the water boiling and wait to add the pasta or once the water for the pasta is boiling and you are making the pasta start this recipe. Otherwise your sauce could be finished long before your pasta is cooked.

Add the butter and olive oil to a medium size saucepan. Melt the butter over medium-low heat.

Butter melting in oil; this is not going to be a healthy dish

Add the garlic, shallot, and salt and pepper. Sauté until the shallot is translucent.

Time to add the garlic and shallot

Add the langostinos and the wine and cook until heated through about 3 minutes. Do not overcook the langostinos they will turn rubbery.

Adding the langostinos

Add the parsley.

Adding the parsley

Taste and adjust the salt and pepper. Serve over pasta (sprinkle with Parmesan cheese).

The finished dish. Beautiful!

The bottom line: will I make this again? Oh my goodness yes! It was incredible, amazing, delicious ...

Gingerbread Cookies

Gingerbread cookies

My husband and daughter love gingerbread cookies. I think they are ok. I like to decorate them, but I would rather eat sugar cookies or shortbread. I don't have a favorite gingerbread cookie so I did some research and decided to combine several different recipes for this one. It has a light, not overpowering, ginger and molasses taste. The dough is a little difficult to work with but once you roll it out it gets easier. If you want a chewier cookie roll it a bit thicker.

Gingerbread Cookies

3/4 Cup (170 g) Butter, Softened
3/4 Cup (160 g) Brown Sugar
1 Large Egg
3 Tbsp of Molasses
3 1/2 Cups (420 g) of All-Purpose Flour
1 Tsp of Baking Soda
2 Tsp of Ground Cinnamon
1/2 Tsp of Ground Ginger
1/4 Tsp of Ground Allspice
1/2 Tsp of Salt

Cream butter and sugar. Add the egg and mix well. Mix in molasses. In a separate bowl mix together remaining ingredients.

Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture until well combined.

Divide dough into four pieces, wrap and chill for an hour.

Chilled dough

Preheat oven to 375F/190C/Gas Mark 5. If you (like me) chill the dough overnight allow the dough to sit out at room temperature until it can be worked with. Roll between pieces of wax paper and cut into desired shapes. (I tried it without the waxed paper and it was a mess - the dough kept sticking to the rolling pin. Also if you use wax paper no flour is needed).

Cutting out cookies

Place cookies one inch apart on a cookie sheet. I used parchment paper on one cookie sheet and just the cookie sheet for another batch. There was not a noticeable difference between the two. Bake for 6 to 12 minutes (depending on the size, thickness and shape of the cookie and type of cookie sheet) or until they feel firm.

Cooling cookies

Getting ready to decorate

To prevent spreading, use another cookie sheet for the next batch of cookies and allow the first cookie sheet to cool. The cookie should cool completely before decorating. I used decorating icing for the icing.

Katie's cookies

The bottom line: will I make these again? Yes, I liked these. I loved decorating them. Katie loved decorating them as well. We decorated them during our lunch break (one of the many benefits of home schooling). Steven though there should be more ginger. I thought it was just right. If you want more ginger just increase the ginger to 1 teaspoon. If you want in your face ginger, increase the ginger to 2 teaspoons.  

Icing for Decorating Cookies

This icing is dry and it is still glossy

This is the best icing for decorating that I have ever used. It is easy to spread and dries glossy. The icing looks like the icing you would get on a cookie at a bakery. It does take a while to dry, but once it dries the cookies can be stacked without messing up the icing. This recipe can be doubled or tripled. Using color gels will give you more vibrant colors than food coloring.

Decorating Icing

1 Cup (120 g) of Powdered Sugar
3 Tsp of Milk
2 Tsp of Corn Syrup
1/2 Tsp of Extract, Optional
Food Coloring or Color Gel

Mix powdered sugar and milk together. Mix in corn syrup.

Mixing the icing

Stir in extract. Add more milk by the 1/2 teaspoon, if needed, until desired consistency is reached. If you add too much milk then add more powdered sugar.

Plastic bags of icing

Separate into bowls and add food coloring or color gel.

Clear icing

The bottom line: will I make this again. Yes. This is my favorite icing for decorating cookies.

Spicy Japanese Style Crab Salad

Crab salad

 It is December. It's cold outside and I am already wishing it was spring. Winter is beautiful in its own way, but I love spring. I love watching the world turn green again. Maybe because I am thinking about planting our garden,  I decided we were having a salad for lunch. This salad would be prefect for a spring day. Strangely, it was also perfect for a cold December day. The crab salad surrounded by veggies was a bit of spring. My only regret was I could not find sesame seeds. I searched everywhere for them; I am sure I will find them after we have eaten the salad. So I used panko (Japanese breadcrumbs) instead.

Dressing
1/2 Cup (120 g) of Mayonnaise
1 Tbsp of Rice Wine Vinegar
1/2 Tsp of Sugar
1/2 Tsp Sriracha
1/4 Tsp of Grated Fresh Ginger

In a medium sized bowl whisk ingredients together until well combined. Taste and add more Sriracha if needed. (I would prefer this with a teaspoon of hot sauce but that would be too spicy for Katie).

Dressing

Crab Salad

8 oz (227 g) Crab or Fake Crab
1 Tsp of Sesame Seeds or Panko
One Cucumber, Thinly Sliced
A Couple of Handfuls of Baby Carrots
Several Ribs of Celery, Chopped in Pieces

To assemble the salad, mix the crab with the dressing and surround with the veggies.

The bottom line: will I make this again? Yes. It is wonderful. I will change out the veggies for what is in season.

Craisin Almond White Chocolate Biscotti

Biscotti and coffee

While I am not normally a huge fan of white chocolate (it is not even really chocolate), there are three different cookies I love with white chocolate. (Drum roll please). They are white chocolate macadamia nut, biscotti, and dark chocolate cookies with white chocolate chips. Now that I am craving biscotti, I really hope I have white chocolate chips in the house......I don't so I am substituting chopped up almond bark. Because I am adding so much stuff to the biscotti I am making the Americanized version which is a bit softer and easier to work with. The more traditional version is harder and denser (it does not have eggs in the recipe).

Craisin Almond White Chocolate Biscotti
1/2 Cup (115g) of Butter, Softened
3/4 Cup (150g) of Sugar
1/4 Tsp of Salt
2 Large Eggs
2 Cups (250g) of Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 1/2 Tsp of Baking Powder
2/3 Cups (55 g) of Sliced Almonds
2/3 Cup (120g) of Craisins or Dried Cranberries
2/3 Cup (80g) of White Chocolate Chips or Chopped Almond Bark

Preheat the oven to 350F/176C/Gas Mark 4. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper. Cream the butter, sugar, and salt together. Add the eggs one at a time.

Adding the eggs

Add the flour and baking powder and beat until just blended. Stir in the almonds, craisins, and white chocolate.

Mountain of dough

On the prepared cookie sheet form the dough into a 13 inch (33 cm) by 3 inch (8 cm) log.

Forming the dough into a dough log

Bake for 15-25 minutes (it should be a light golden brown) and cool for 20 minutes.

Cooling cookie

 Reduce the oven temperature to 325F/162C/Gas Mark 3. Place log on a cutting board and lightly mist with water (this will make it easier to cut). Cut into 3/4 inch slices. Be sure to cut straight up and down and not on a slant. Set each biscotti upright on the baking sheet and bake 20 to 25 minutes. The biscotti should be crisp.

 The bottom line: will I make this again? Yes. I love biscotti with coffee. My husband is already asking for more biscotti. The next time I may substitute pine nuts for the almonds and dark chocolate for the white chocolate.

Vanilla and Chocolate Pinwheels

Vanilla and chocolate pinwheels

I think these are the prettiest cookies. I took dozens of pictures. It is so nice to have food that photographs so well. Before I started doing this blog, I never thought about how different foods photograph. Some foods just are not photogenic and others are. These cookies are; I used chocolate and vanilla doughs but you can use different doughs to create your unique pinwheel (e.g., vanilla and a fruit flavor).
My husband's favorite pinwheel cookies are lemon and ginger. I didn't make those; I still may make them. It depends on how much I can get done before Christmas.
These doughs are easy to make and easy to work with. The only tricky part of these cookies are rolling them up into a log. I don't have mad dough rolling skills so I know that I am going to have two ugly cookies on each side. I am ok with that because I get to eat the ugly cookies. I also believe that broken cookies don't have any calories; I eat those too. These are two of the many reasons that I only make Christmas cookies once a year.

Vanilla Dough

3/4 Cup (170 g) of Butter
1/2 Cup (60g) of Powdered Sugar
2 Tsp of Vanilla
1 1/2 Cups (180g) of Flour
1/2 Tsp of Salt
Cream the butter, sugar, and vanilla together. Slowly add the flour and salt until well mixed.

Vanilla dough

Take half of the dough and flatten into a disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Chocolate Kahlua Dough

3/4 Cup (170g) of Butter
1/2 Cup (60g) of Powdered Sugar
1 Tbsp of Kahlua
1 1/4 Cups (150g) of Flour
1/4 Cup (40 g) of Cocoa 
1/2 Tsp of Salt
Cream the butter, sugar, and Kahlua together. Slowly add the flour, cocoa and salt until well mixed.

Chocolate dough

Take half of the dough and flatten into a disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Assembly

Place dough on a piece of wax paper and roll flat with a rolling pin. (In a perfect world you should have two rectangles one slightly smaller than the other). The dough should be firm for the next step (if it isn't chill the dough).

My not so perfect rectangles

Carefully place alternating colored dough on top and cover with a piece of wax paper.

Ready to be rolled

Carefully with a rolling pin, roll the dough together. Remove the top pieces of wax paper and roll the dough into a log. Wrap in wax paper and chill. Repeat with the last two pieces of dough.

Dough log

Baking

Preheat oven to 350F/176C/Gas Mark 4. With a sharp knife cut the log into 1/4 inch (1/2 cm) slices.

Dough log

Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until the cookies feel firm. Allow the cookies to cool.

Chocolate dough on the outside

The bottom line: will these be added to the Christmas line up of cookies? Yes, I will probably end up making these and the lemon ginger pinwheels each year.

Vanilla dough on the outside

Sweet and Sour Mix- Just in Time for Your Holiday Parties!

Whiskey sour

 I have tried bottled sweet and sour mixes, and I intensely dislike them. I just don't think they are any good, and I think they ruin a drink. (I know-- how to really feel about this?)  Once you try a drink made with homemade sweet and sour mix you won't use the bottled stuff again. It doesn't take long to make and it makes all the difference in the world. Have I convinced you yet?
I use two different recipes one with all lemons and one with limes and lemons. I think the one with lemons and limes is best. I make the all lemon version whenever I make limoncello and have all of those zested lemons. You can actually cut out a step by using superfine sugar and water (that way you don't have to heat the water to dissolve the sugar).

Sweet and Sour Mix

3 Cups Sugar
3 Cups Water
3 Cups Lemon Juice (About 12-14 Lemons) or 2 Cups Lemon Juice and 2 Cups Lime Juice

Heat the sugar and water in a small saucepan until the sugar is completely dissolved. Cool the syrup and add the juice. Cool completely before using. The sweet and sour mix will last up to a week in the refrigerator.

Amaretto Sour

One Shot of Amaretto
Sweet and Sour Mix

Fill a glass with ice. Add a shot of amaretto and fill the remainder of the glass with sweet and sour mix.

Whiskey Sour

One Shot of Whiskey
Sweet and Sour Mix

Fill a glass with ice. Add a shot of whiskey and fill the remainder of the glass with sweet and sour mix.

Kiddie Cocktail

Kiddie Cocktail

Sweet and Sour Mix
Splash of Grenadine

Fill a glass with ice. Fill the glass with sweet and sour mix and add a splash of grenadine.

The bottom line: is it worth the time to make the sweet and sour mix from scratch? Yes it is worth the time to juice all of those lemons.