Grilled Shrimp Quesadillas

Last Year's Post: healthy white bean dip
Two Years Ago:  chicken quinoa salad with nectarine vinaigrette

Ahhh, summer.  Ideal summer foods are light, simple and tasty.  If they involve grilling, so much the better.  These shrimp quesadillas fit the bill in every way - they involve a grand total of five ingredients (not counting vegetable oil, which really shouldn't count) plus two brief grill visits to create something pretty special and very delicious.

You start by grilling some shrimp and red onion.  While they grill (a total of maybe 10 whole minutes) you could a) sip a glass of wine and enjoy the breeze or b) shred some cheese for the next step.  If you're really good you can do all three at the same time, but stay close to the grill - those shrimp go fast.

When the shrimp and onion are done, the onion is chopped and the shrimp sliced in half to form crescents.  Dump the cheese, onion and shrimp on flour tortillas and grill until pretty, folding partway through.  Serve with your favorite salsa or pico de gallo - just nothing too hot or bold that might overpower the shrimp.

A note about this recipe - it's from Rick Bayless, one of my favorite chefs.  He calls for a young Manchego cheese, which is Spanish.  He probably specifies young cheese because it gets stronger as it ages and again, he doesn't want to overpower the shrimp.  It was very good with Manchego but you could certainly substitute Monterey Jack if you felt like it.  You could also add lobster or crab in addition to the shrimp to make the quesadillas really special.

One quesadilla per person makes a light dinner with a side salad, or you could cut them into small pieces to use as an appetizer or part of a Mexican party table.

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Grilled Shrimp Quesadillas

Makes 6 quesadillas

½ medium red onion, cut into ½-inch rounds 12 ounces peeled and deveined shrimp  ¼ cup vegetable oil, divided 3 cups (about 12 ounces) shredded young Manchego cheese 6 (8-10 inch) flour tortillas Salsa, for serving

Heat a gas grill to medium-high on one side, medium on the other, or light a charcoal fire and let it burn until the charcoal is covered with white ash, then bank the coals to one side. Using an oil mister or pastry brush, oil each onion round on both sides and lay on the hottest side of the grill. Cook, flipping them half way through, until soft and grill-marked, 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool, then cut into ½-inch pieces.

Place shrimp on skewers for easy cooking.  Oil the shrimp on both sides and lay the hottest side of the grill. Cook, flipping halfway through, until just cooked through, about 5 minutes total. When the shrimp are cool enough to handle, cut them in half through the back making two crescents.

Lay the tortillas on the cooler side of the grill. Top each with about ½ cup of cheese and cook until the cheese starts to melt.  Divide the grilled onion and shrimp among the tortillas. When the cheese is about half melted, fold the tortillas in half, enclosing the filling. Cook the quesadillas until the tortillas are lightly grilled and the filling is warmed through, about 2 minutes per side. Serve with your favorite salsa.

Summer Harvest Quiche

Last Year's Post:  Chicken Gyros
Two Years Ago:   Grilled Shrimp and Corn Salad

You can never have too much of great summer tomatoes, corn and zucchini, can you?  The only question is how to use them in different ways so they don't get repetitive.  You've probably been using them in salads and as side dishes, but what about a quiche?  It makes a great light dinner or Sunday brunch, not to mention that it's ideal for work lunches throughout the week.

Quiche is easy to make and easy to customize, plus you can go fancy by making little individual ones or family-style by making one big one.  This recipe happens to be vegetarian but you could easily add crumbled cooked sausage, bacon, or even lump crab to make it special. Feel free to substitute whatever vegetables and cheese your family prefers or you happen to have on hand.

Serve with a big green salad and some crusty bread for a perfect late summer dinner. (Is there a sadder phrase than "late summer"?  Oh yes.  It's called "Winter". I remember a guy in my high school - a member of the ski team - who would wear a big "Think Snow" button on his jacket beginning in early November.  I wanted to slap him. )

Anyway, even if you have buckets of fresh tomatoes, roast them for this recipe (see how here) because fresh tomatoes are too watery for quiche.  Not to mention it's a great way to preserve all those fresh tomatoes for Winter.

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 Summer Harvest Quiche

Serves 6

1 9-inch pie crust

Pie weights or dried beans for blind-baking the crust

                                                                               

1 tablespoon olive oil   

1small zucchini

½ cup chopped onion                                                   

1 ear fresh corn

3 eggs, room temperature                                                          

1 ½ cups milk

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper                                                       

1/3 cup sun-dried (or roasted) tomatoes, chopped

1 cup grated Gruyere cheese (packed)

2 tablespoons chives, chopped

1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, finely chopped

1 tablespoon basil, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place the pie crust in a pie pan (preferably glass) and line with parchment paper or aluminum foil.  Fill the pie plate with pie weights or dried beans and bake for 10 minutes or until lightly brown.  Remove from the oven; remove the parchment paper and weights or beans. Let the pie crust cool for a few minutes.   Leave the oven at 350d.

Meanwhile, cut the zucchini in fourths lengthwise, then slice.  Sauté the zucchini and onion in the olive oil until softened and just beginning to brown, about 5 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper to taste and remove from the heat.

Briefly cook the ear of corn by boiling, steaming or grilling for 3-4 minutes.  Let cool, then cut the kernels off the cob.  Set aside.

Combine the eggs, milk, salt and pepper in a large bowl and whisk until well blended.  Add the chives, rosemary and basil and stir well.

Place the zucchini mixture, corn kernels, tomatoes and grated cheese in the pie crust.  Pour the egg mixture over the vegetables. 

Bake in the middle of the oven for 50-55 minutes at 350d until browned and set.

Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack for at least 10-15 minutes before serving.

Korean Seafood Pancakes

Last Year's Post: Spanakopita
Two Years Ago:  Chorizo and Mushroom Fideua

I can't seem to get enough Korean food lately.  I love the bold, clean flavors and particularly like adapting heavy recipes to be lighter but with the same flavor profile (for example, substituting ground turkey for beef in Korean Sliders).  I was attracted to these Korean Seafood Pancakes because they're already light and make a fast and easy (but exotic) weekday dinner.  The other thing that I liked was that this recipe is adapted to use ingredients commonly available in American grocery stores so I didn't have to go buy special items at the Asian market  (which I like to do, but there's a limit to how much stuff I can fit in the pantry).

Start to finish, they take maybe 30 minutes at most, and 10 minutes of that is spent prepping the vegetables into thin and pretty slivers, making the dipping sauce, and prepping the shrimp.

After prepping the vegetables and mixing a simple batter, all that's left is to cook each pancake for about 4 minutes.  You can keep the cooked pancakes warm on a plate in the oven, or serve them at room temperature - they're equally good both ways.  The pancakes may tear somewhat as you flip them, but don't worry - you'll cut the pancakes up for dipping anyway.

My favorite part is that you can use all shrimp, or substitute part or all of the shrimp with lump crab or lobster meat.  If you decide to add lobster, take the raw meat out of a lobster tail and cut it into relatively thin pieces similar to the shrimp so they'll cook at the same rate.  The pancakes cook for 3 minutes on one side and 1 minute on the other, which is enough time to cook the thin seafood pieces completely.

Don't be scared by the amount of jalapeno.  The first time I made the sauce, I cut the jalapeno in half just to be safe, and the sauce wasn't even remotely spicy - I needed both jalapenos to give it a kick.  However, jalapenos can vary widely in their heat, so my advice is to taste the dipping sauce with one jalapeno and then add the second as needed.

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Korean Seafood Pancakes

Serves 4

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ cup cornstarch

½ teaspoon salt

1 large egg

1 ¾ cups water

¼ cup vegetable oil

4 large green onions, halved crosswise and cut into very thin strips

1 red bell pepper, cored and seeded, cut into very thin strips

1 large jalapeno, halved, cored and seeded, cut into very thin strips

1 lb medium shrimp, peeled, deveined and halved lengthwise (or substitute lump crab or lobster meat pieces for all or part of the shrimp)

For the Dipping Sauce

½ cup soy sauce

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

2 green onions, minced

2 jalapenos, seeded and minced

1 ½ teaspoons toasted Asian sesame oil

To make the dipping sauce, combine all ingredients in a small bowl.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch and salt.  Whisk the egg with the water, then whisk into the flour mixture until smooth.

In an 8-inch non-stick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat until shimmering.  Add one quarter each of the green onions, red pepper and jalapeno.  Add one quarter of the shrimp, scattering them evenly in the pan.  Pour about 1/3 cup of the batter evenly over everything, tilting the pan to spread it.  Cook until the bottom is browned, about 3 minutes.

Using a large spatula, carefully flip the pancake (don’t worry if it tears) and cook on the other side for about 60 seconds, until lightly browned.  Slide the pancake onto a plate and make 3 more pancakes in the same way.

Cut into quarters (or medium pieces) and serve with the dipping sauce.

Grilled Lobster Cobb Salad

Last Year's Post: Lemon Polenta Cake

Two Years Ago:  Hoisin Burgers with Wasabi Slaw

It's definitely salad time of the year, and this salad is an interesting twist on the usual Cobb salad that has chunks of chicken; it substitutes lobster meat instead, and grilled lobster at that.  The cooking technique in itself is interesting - remove the lobster meat from the shell and par-boil for a minute, then place on the grill for a minute per side while basting with butter to give the meat a nice smoky taste.  If you really wanted to give the salad a pronounced grill character you could also grill the tomatoes (using something larger than cherry tomatoes) and zucchini as well.  Grilled lobster meat, yum.

I found some beautiful baby Romaine leaves at the store, but you could always used chopped regular Romaine instead.  You can use whatever cheese you prefer and can always substitute other vegetables to suit your choice in addition to using shrimp or crab in place of the lobster.

Other than the lobster, the only other cooked ingredients are hard-boiled eggs (cook in advance) and a little chopped bacon (can also be cooked in advance).  After that, it's really just a matter of whisking the dressing, prepping the other ingredients, and assembly.  Easy, delicious, healthy, and kind of special......a perfect summer dinner.

printable recipe

Grilled Lobster Cobb Salad

Serves 2

Dressing:

1/2 shallot, finely chopped

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 ½ teaspoons sherry vinegar

2 ½ tablespoons walnut oil

1/4 cup vegetable oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Salad:

2 (5-6 oz) lobster tails, thawed if frozen

2 tablespoons butter, melted

3 strips bacon, chopped

½ small zucchini, chopped

1 ripe avocado

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

1 heart baby romaine, trimmed and leaves separated

2 hard-boiled eggs, chilled and sliced

1/4 pound red grape tomatoes, halved

2 ounces your favorite cheese, crumbled or diced

Salt

Dressing:

Combine shallot, Dijon, and vinegars in a large bowl and whisk well. While whisking, slowly drizzle in the oils until incorporated into the dressing. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Salad:

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil.  Preheat grill to high or preheat the broiler.  Remove the lobster meat from tail and parboil for 1 minute or until no longer translucent. Place lobster meat on the grill basting with butter just long enough to get a little grill flavor (about 1 minute per side). If cooking indoors, broil until lightly golden.  Remove lobster from the grill and cut into cubes.

Cook the bacon until crisp. Drain on a paper towel lined plate and set aside.

Halve the avocado, discard the seed, score the flesh into chunks and scoop out into a small bowl. Toss with lemon juice.

 Arrange half of the romaine leaves on each serving plate and drizzle with some of the dressing.  Add the toppings in strips on top, starting on one end with the bacon, egg, tomato, lobster, zucchini, cheese, and avocado. Drizzle the remaining dressing on top.

Lobster and Shrimp Gratin

Last Year's Post: Italian Sausage and Wild Mushroom Risotto
Two Years Ago:  Salmon with Pumpkin-Seed Cilantro Pesto

I'm posting this recipe now because Valentine's Day is coming up and you might be thinking about making a special meal.  If you love seafood, this is a great way to enjoy a very special meal without breaking the bank.  I made this gratin with lobster and shrimp, but you could use all lobster or all shrimp or even crab.  The sauce is rich and creamy, and the breadcrumb topping adds a wonderful crunch.  Served over pasta, the gratin is filling enough that a moderate amount of seafood is more than plenty.  I bought two small (6-8 oz) lobster tails and 10 extra-large (U13-15) shrimp at the store for about $30.  Including the other ingredients, this dish cost around $35 to make, which is under $9 per serving.  That's very affordable considering what you would pay for it in a restaurant.

Although the lobster tails were small and there were only 10 shrimp, the lobster meat is cut into pieces and the shrimp are cut in half lengthwise (head to tail) so each diner receives half a lobster tail in addition to 5 shrimp pieces in their portion.  The other cool thing about cutting the shrimp lengthwise is that they curl into very pretty corkscrew shapes when they cook.  (The slight yellow tint after cooking is due to the saffron in the cooking sauce.)

In the interest of full disclosure, I will tell you that there is a fair amount of prep work involved in preparing the seafood, chopping vegetables, making the sauce, cooking the vegetables, and preparing the breadcrumb topping.  First of all, it's SO worth it.  And second, the good news is that it can all be done in advance.  I mean, who wants to be slaving away in the kitchen when you're trying to have a special dinner?  If you assemble the dish in advance you may want to extend the cooking time by a few minutes just to be sure the sauce gets good and hot - check for bubbles around the edges.

Speaking of vegetables, I have to get in a plug for farmer's markets whenever possible - check out the spectacular carrots I found this week.

I know this isn't the lowest-calorie menu I've ever posted, but you can lighten it somewhat if you want by using half and half instead of heavy cream.  And hey, it's a special meal.  I read a quote yesterday by some celebrity or other who said that she tried to eat healthy but also allowed herself to splurge.  She said it's all about the balance of good to bad, and I agree.  What fun is life if you don't allow yourself a treat once in a while?  Just be sure to go back to healthy eating again the next day!

My last comment is about the gratin dish - I love my gratin dish but if you don't happen to have one, don't worry.  Use any baking dish you have that's relatively wide and shallow (this dish is about 12" x 9") rather than small and deep.  That's because it's all about spreading the breadcrumb topping as widely as possible so every bite has that wonderful crunch in addition to the creamy sauce and seafood.

Serve the gratin with a fresh green salad, crusty bread and a good wine and your guests will be very impressed.

printable recipe

Lobster and Shrimp Gratin

Serves 4

1 cup seafood stock or clam juice

1 cup heavy cream (or half and half)

½ cup plus 3 tablespoons white wine, divided

3 tablespoons tomato puree

¼ teaspoon saffron threads

10 very large (U13-15) raw shrimp, peeled, deveined and tails removed, cut in half lengthwise (head to tail)

2 small (6-8 oz) raw lobster tails, meat removed from shell and cut into pieces

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Salt and pepper

1 leek, white and light green parts only, cut in half lengthwise and sliced

¾ cup chopped carrot

¾ cup panko bread crumbs

1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan

2 tablespoons minced fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon leaves

2 cloves minced fresh garlic

8 oz spaghetti or fettuccine, cooked

For the Sauce:

Combine the stock, cream, ½ cup of wine, tomato puree and saffron in a medium saucepan.  Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and add the shrimp and lobster pieces.  After 3 minutes, use a slotted spoon to remove the shrimp and lobster to a bowl and set aside. 

Continue to simmer the sauce until reduced by half, about 12 minutes.  Mash 1 tablespoon of butter together with the flour.  Whisk the butter mixture into the sauce along with ½ teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper.  Simmer, stirring constantly until thickened, about 5 minutes.  Set aside.

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a medium sauté pan.  Add the leeks and carrots and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, until softened.  Add the remaining 3 tablespoons of wine, ¼ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper and cook for 5 to 10 minutes, until tender.  Set aside.

Combine the panko, Parmesan, parsley, tarragon, and garlic.  Melt the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter and mix it into the crumbs until moistened.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Spray a 9” x 12” grain dish (or similar-sized shallow baking dish) with nonstick cooking spray.  Place the shrimp and lobster pieces in the dish, followed by the vegetables.  Pour the sauce evenly over the top and cover with the breadcrumb mixture.  Place on a baking sheet (for ease of lifting) and bake for 20-25 minutes until the top is browned and the sauce is bubbly.

Serve hot over hot cooked pasta.

Seafood Cobb Salad

The inspiration for this recipe was a dish that I had at a restaurant on Coronado Island in California a few years back.  I was so impressed with the salad that I wrote the main components down on a piece of paper while we were at the restaurant and then re-created it at home.  If you like seafood you will love this salad.  It's a special occasion dish with the lobster, crab and shrimp, but you could cut down on the cost by eliminating the lobster or substituting imitation crab for the lump crab meat.  You could even cut out the lobster and crab and make it with just shrimp.  My grocer occasionally has small (4 oz) frozen lobster tails on special so I watch for the sale specifically to make this salad.    Even with all the seafood this dinner cost about $16.00 per person.  That's the advantage of making a special meal at home - you can splurge on spectacular ingredients and still spend about the same as you would for an ordinary dinner at a restaurant.  Surprise the seafood-lover in your life!

We prepared this salad to celebrate the first year anniversary of my blog.  I wasn't sure what to expect when I started it last year but it's turned out to be really fun and the best part is that people actually read it!  I can track the number of views (but not the number of people or who they are) and it's gone up steadily over the months.  So, thanks to all of you who find it interesting enough to tune in once in a while!

I had just found the small lobster tails on sale so seafood salad seemed like a natural for a celebration dinner. This salad has several colors of bell peppers, goat cheese, and bacon in addition to the three types of seafood.  Another money-saving tip is to buy a bag of multi-colored mini peppers rather than full-sized versions of each color. One bag of mini-peppers costs approximately the same as one full-sized pepper so you save the cost of the other two peppers.  I've seen the mini-peppers at several different grocery stores so I think they're pretty commonly available.

Once you cook the bacon and lobster this salad comes together really fast.  Serve with a baguette and a nice glass of Chardonnay for a really special feast!

* * click here for a printable recipe * *

Seafood Cobb Salad
Serves 2

Salad:

Salad greens

1 8 - 10 oz lobster tail, thawed (or two 4-oz tails)

6 - 8 cooked shrimp

4 oz. canned lump crab meat

1/3 c. chopped red pepper

1/3 c. chopped yellow pepper

1/3 c. chopped orange pepper

1/3 c. crumbled goat cheese

2 – 3 pieces bacon, cooked and crumbled

chopped parsley for garnish

Salad dressing:

¼ c olive oil

2 T lemon juice

¼ teaspoon salt

Cook lobster tail in boiling water for approximately 6 minutes, then briefly plunge in ice water. Remove and pat dry, then remove the meat from the shell and slice into medallions.

Combine the salad dressing ingredients by shaking in a jar or whisking in a bowl.

Toss salad greens with some of the dressing and place on plates. Arrange shrimp, lobster, crab, goat cheese, bacon and chopped peppers decoratively on top. Drizzle with additional dressing. Garnish with chopped parsley.