I have returned to blogging after a summer of complete gluttony. My siblings were visiting New York for a month and then we were off to Paris for another few weeks. The word of the season was 'food.' We squeezed in some culture with plays and exhibitions but we made sure that these activities included pre-museum lunches and post theatre desserts. The meals ranged from Shake Shack burgers and Peter Luger steaks, to one star restaurants in Paris, and decadent desserts at Pierre Herme. As a result, I think I've cooked a handful of times in the past few months and sampled a good number of restaurants in both cities. Having finally returned to New York "sans famille" and thus reality, I've dusted off my pans and started cooking again. It feels good.
Yesterday, I was in the mood for seafood because of some delicious meals I had over the summer. One was an amazing dish at a buzzing restaurant called Jane. The dish, aptly named 'Jane Benedict', is decadent, with a base of crab cakes topped with poached eggs where the yolk oozes out to enhance the rich hollandaise sauce it is topped with. I know, for some, it sounds odd, but trust me it is to die for! The other, was an absolutely amazing fish we had at an Asian restaurant called Kittichai (see below)
I knew I couldn't replicate those crab cakes or the fish so I opted for a much easier seafood dish made with shrimps. I decided to use some Mediterranean flavors such as cherry tomatoes for a pungent flavor, onions for crunch, basil, and some balsamic vinegar in the sauce to give it a kick. First I put two boxes of cherry tomatoes in a pan with some olive oil until they started to pop, then I added some chopped onion with garlic, salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar to the pan and stirred it until it became a sauce adding the shrimps at the end. In the meantime, I had boiled some whole wheat spaghetti (you can use any pasta you like), which I added to the pan with the sauce and some pasta water. I sprinkled it with some basil leaves for flavor and we were done. It was simple, delicious, and flavorful. I would definitely recommend it and if you have some cheese laying around you can finish it off with a few shavings of parmesan.
Recipe for Cherry Tomato Shrimp Linguine (from the Noshery blog http://thenoshery.com/2010/04/13/cherry-tomato-shrimp-linguine/)
Cherry Tomato Shrimp Linguine (Serves 2)
- 5 oz dry linguine (or spaghetti)
- 3 Tbs olive oil
- 10 oz cherry or grape tomatoes
- 1/2 large red onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 Tbs balsamic vinegar
- salt and pepper to taste
- 24 large deveined and peeled shrimp
- fresh basil
Bring a pot of salted water to boil. Cook pasta until al dente.
While the pasta cooks heat a skillet with 3 tbs of olive oil at medium high heat. When the oil is nice and hot add 10 oz of cherry tomatoes and stand back. If you have a spatter screen you may want to use it. Fry the tomatoes until they start to pop. Add salt, pepper, garlic, balsamic vinegar and red onions to the skillet. Stir the until onions are tender and tomatoes are soft, about 10 minutes.
Add shrimp to the skillet. Cook until the shrimp is pink and begins to curl. Add cooked linguine and toss until evenly coated.
If you have fresh basil tear it and add to the pasta and toss.
