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.

Grilled Lobster Tails

Last Year's Post: Southwest Grilled Shrimp Salad
Two Years Ago:   Spinach Strawberry Salad with Raspberry Vinaigrette

I'm a lobster lover and have posted several recipes using lobster in the past such as lobster with pasta and white wine-butter sauce, seafood cobb salad, Korean seafood pancakes, and hibachi shrimp (or lobster).  Lobster tails are a perennial favorite but can be messy in the kitchen so I prefer them on the grill.  We used to simply cut them in half lengthwise for grilling but they tend to really curl up.  I recently discovered another method that slightly edges out the old method because it leaves the lobster tail intact so it's easier to handle on the grill, while having the same advantage of exposing the flesh for even cooking.

It's just like cutting the lobster tail in half lengthwise, except you stop before cutting all the way through.  Starting by cutting the shell with a kitchen shears, stopping just before the tail end.

Then switch to a knife and deepen the cut along the same line, stopping before you cut all the way through.  Grab the cut edges of the shell and open it up like a book.

This also makes for a very pretty presentation on the plate.  Try it out the next time you see a decent deal on lobster tails at the store - Costco typically carries cold water tails in the frozen food case for a very good price.

Grilled Lobster Tails

Serves 4

For the seasoned butter:

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 shallots, minced

2 garlic cloves, minced

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

For the lobster tails

4 (10-12 ounce) lobster tails, thawed

Combine all ingredients for the seasoned butter in a small saucepan and heat over low until the butter is melted.  Keep warm.

Preheat the grill to medium heat.

Place each lobster tail shell-side up on a cutting board.  Using a kitchen shears, cut the shell lengthwise stopping just before the tail end.  Switch to a knife and partially cut through the lobster meat following the same path as the shell cut line.  Be careful not to cut all the way through the lobster.  Grasping the cut edges of the shell, gently open the lobster like a book.  The soft membrane on the bottom will keep the lobster intact while the meat is exposed for even cooking.

Divide the seasoned butter 60/40, reserving the larger portion for dipping.

Rub the lobster flesh with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill flesh side down for approximately 5-7 minutes, then flip and baste with the smaller portion of seasoned butter.  Grill an additional four minutes. 

Serve immediately with the reserved butter for dipping. 

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.

printable recipe

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.

Hibachi Shrimp (or Chicken or Beef)

Last year's post: Swordfish en Papillote

Who doesn't like the food at Japanese steakhouses?  But it can get pricey, and it's surprisingly easy to create your own hibachi dinner at home that tastes exactly like the restaurant version.  You could always cook chicken or beef instead of or in addition to the shrimp, but I particularly like hibachi shrimp (or even lobster!).  You can indulge when you make your own meal at home, because it's so much less expensive than a restaurant.

Hibachi dinners are usually served with sauteed vegetables and rice.  Another benefit of cooking at home is that you choose the vegetables you like - zucchini and onion are traditional, but broccoli, carrot, mushrooms and even red peppers are fun.  For this dinner, we chose to serve zucchini, onion and mushrooms.

The final ingredient is the dipping sauce.  I've seen three different sauces served at Japanese steakhouses - a soy-based ginger sauce, a pale creamy pinkish sauce (aka Japanese white sauce), and a mustard sauce.  Some restaurants serve two and claim one is better for steak and the other is better for seafood; others serve you one for everything. The pale pink sauce is supposedly for seafood and the mustard sauce is for steak, although we recently ate at a restaurant that served the pink sauce with everything. Whatever. My personal opinion is to make whatever sauce(s) you like best.  I've included recipes for all three, although we opted to make the ginger sauce to go with shrimp.  The Lawyer liked the sauce so much that he dumped it on the rest of his rice and vegetables and mixed the whole thing together after his shrimp were eaten.

So basically you have four components - the dipping sauce (make in advance), the rice (make second), the sauteed vegetables and the shrimp/chicken/steak (make last).  Making the dipping sauce in advance simplifies things, plus the foam from blending everything goes away in a half hour or so and the beautiful dark sauce is clear.

Because the preparation is so simple, the quality of your meat or seafood will make all the difference.  That's why Japanese steakhouses use filet mignon or sirloin rather than top round. Start by buying the best - in our case, the most beautiful raw shrimp we could find. It's easiest if they're shelled and deveined first, then all you have to do is pull the tails off and butterfly them by cutting down the curved back (where the vein was) almost but not all the way through. That helps them cook more evenly.  If you're using chicken or steak, just cut them into bite-sized pieces.

click here for a printable recipe version
Hibachi Shrimp (or Chicken or Steak)

Makes 4 servings

For the ginger dipping sauce (see the other two sauces below):

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

½ lemon, juiced

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon white vinegar

For the hibachi vegetables:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

½ teaspoon sesame oil

½ onion, sliced

3 cups zucchini, cut into bite-sized pieces (or broccoli, carrots, red pepper, mushrooms, etc.)

1 tablespoon butter

2 tablespoons soy sauce

salt and pepper

For the shrimp (or chicken or steak):

16 large or 12 jumbo shrimp, shelled, tails removed, butterflied (or 16 oz chicken or steak, cut into bite-sized pieces)

3 tbsp butter

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp lemon juice

pepper

hot cooked white or brown rice

For the dipping sauce: combine all sauce ingredients in a blender and process until smooth.  Serve at room temperature.

For the vegetables: heat the vegetable oil and sesame oil in a large skillet or wok on medium high heat. Add the onion and other vegetables and sauté for 4-5 minutes or until crisp-tender. Add butter, soy sauce, and salt and pepper to taste.

Meanwhile, heat a second wok or skillet over high heat letting it get very hot. Add shrimp and butter, then add soy sauce and lemon juice. Stir-fry until cooked, about 2 minutes. Add pepper to taste.  (For chicken, stir-fry until no longer pink in the middle, approximately 3-4 minutes.  For steak, stir-fry to desired degree of doneness.)

Serve the shrimp and vegetables with hot cooked brown or white rice and the ginger (or alternate) dipping sauce.

Alternate Sauces:

#2 - mustard

3 tablespoons dry mustard

2 tablespoons hot water

1/2 cup soy sauce

2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted

1 garlic clove

In a small bowl, blend mustard and water into a paste.

Pour paste into blender container; add remaining ingredients and process about 1 minute or until smooth.

#3- pink  (also called Japanese white sauce)

1-1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon melted butter
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon paprika
dash cayenne pepper

Mix all ingredients together thoroughly until well combined and the sauce is smooth. Refrigerate overnight to allow flavors to blend. 

Lobster with Pasta and White Wine-Butter Sauce

Last Year's Post: Tuxedo Strawberries

Time for a special dinner - Valentine's Day is coming up!  I think nothing is more romantic or special than an elegant and intimate dinner for two that you took the time and effort to prepare yourself.  And when I think about a special dinner, I usually think of lobster.  That good news is that although lobster is expensive in a nice restaurant, it's affordable when you prepare it at home.  You don't even need to buy really big lobster tails for this dish (although you certainly could if you wanted) because the lobster meat is combined with pasta and a delicious white wine-butter sauce.  A small-ish lobster tail per person is plenty (that's what I used in the picture above) and is often on sale at your local store around New Year's Eve and Valentine's Day for a very reasonable price.  I bought two 8-ounce tails for $8.99 each.  Including the rest of the ingredients, a loaf of french bread, and a very nice bottle of wine, I spent about $50 for this meal.  Think about what a bottle of wine and two lobster dinners would cost at a restaurant!

I've always liked the idea of lobster with pasta and spent many years searching for a great recipe.  I noticed that most lobster pasta recipes have either a heavy tomato sauce or a heavy cream sauce.  Either way, they tend to smother the lobster.  What's the point if you can't taste the lobster?    Plus, I love the taste of lobster and butter, so I knew I found the perfect recipe when I found this one and switched out olive oil for butter instead.  The sauce is light but very flavorful, and complements the lobster flavor rather than smothering it. The arugula adds a bit of color and flavor as well. The net result is truly a restaurant-quality dish.  As if that wasn't enough, it's really easy to make and isn't as messy as most lobster recipes because you simply take the raw meat out of the shell and saute it in the sauce.


Butter, wine, garlic, a little tomato puree, and lobster...yum yum

It's also easier to eat lobster this way rather than trying to get it out of a shell after it's cooked.  The Lawyer and I enjoy cooking together and we had fun preparing this meal, which is a great idea if you and your partner both like to cook.  (Not so great if you don't.)


Because the sauce isn't thick and heavy, it's important to add the cooked pasta to the sauce and toss it over the heat for a couple of minutes to allow the sauce to thoroughly coat the pasta and infuse it with flavor.  The entire meal only takes about a half hour to prepare.  Set a pretty table with some candles and flowers and you're all set!

click here for a printable recipe

Lobster with Pasta and White Wine-Butter Sauce

serves 2

2 small to medium lobster tails (7-10 ounces each), thawed

2 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons butter
½ cup white wine
2 tablespoons tomato puree
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
6 ounces uncooked spaghetti (slightly less than half of a 1 lb package)
1 cup fresh arugula or baby spinach, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Using a sturdy scissors, cut down the middle of the lobster shells without cutting into the meat.  Pull the shells open and carefully remove the meat.  Cut into 1 inch pieces and set aside.

In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium-low heat.  Sauté the garlic in the butter for 1 minute, watching so the butter doesn’t brown.  Add the wine, tomato puree, salt and pepper.  Bring to a simmer over medium heat, then add the lobster and lower the heat to maintain a low simmer uncovered for 5-6 minutes or until the lobster is firm and opaque.

Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions.  Drain the pasta; add to the lobster mixture and toss to coat.  Stir in the arugula, lemon juice and peel; cook for 1-2 minutes or until the arugula is wilted.  Serve immediately.

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.