Amalfi-Style Shrimp

Many moons ago, I had a fabulous vacation not too far from the Amalfi area of Italy, staying in a lovely place called Sorento. While there I had the opportunity to visit many historic places such as Pompeii, Herculaneum, Monte Casino, and even revisited one of my favorite cities, Rome, for a weekend. I also went to the top of the still active volcano, Vesuvius, and to the island of Capri, so I have many happy memories of this region.

On a less happy note, it’s been sweltering here this week, we’ve been melting in 100°F temperatures, which were further compounded by high humidity. Even at night, temps have been in the low 80’s so it’s been thoroughly unpleasant.

Anyway, it's no use moaning, 'cos I can't do a damn thing about it. Today’s recipe is another one from good old Auntie Beeb and another winner. As usual I changed it up a bit, the recipe said to marinate the shrimp for 1 hour, but I thought that was too long as I felt the mint would completely dominate the flavor of the shrimp, so I only did them for 10 minutes. Personally, I thought that was just right, but by all means marinate them for longer if you like.

I highly recommend this dish, the shrimp were finger-licking good. Also, they only took 5 minutes to cook on the grill, so poor old Mick didn’t have to spend too long sweating over a hot BBQ. Try these, you’ll be glad you did.


Amalfi-Style Shrimp





Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2-3 sprigs of mint, (about 15 leaves) finely chopped
Black pepper, to taste
25-30 large uncooked shrimp
¼ cup Italian breadcrumbs

Directions:

• Peel shrimp, but leave tails on.
• In a medium bowl combine the olive oil, garlic, mint, and black pepper, add the shrimp and toss to coat. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.
• Pre-heat BBQ to low.
• Thread 5-6 shrimp onto skewers, (I used metal ones, but if you use bamboo you’ll need to soak them in water for a few minutes).
• Place the breadcrumbs on a plate then press the skewered shrimp into the crumbs.
• Brush a piece of heavy-duty foil with olive oil. Place the skewers on the foil and grill for about 2 minutes a side, until shrimp have turned pink, and breadcrumbs are golden.
  Serve with lemon wedges.
  
  
  

Parmesan Chicken

It’s 95°F here today, and as humid and sweaty as an old sock, despite this we are still being battered by severe thunderstorms on a regular basis. Last week we had a particularly bad one with straight-line winds that brought down one of our persimmon trees.

We had a really nice grouping of three of these trees, when they were all in leaf they looked like one magnificent tree. These trees have had an unfortunate year; one was struck by lightning and will have to be cut down – now this.


The remaining one looks totally forlorn without his chums. But on a brighter note, we have had a bit of a tree planting frenzy this spring, and have put in 14 new trees. Admittedly, they are not much more than twigs right now, but one-day. :-)

Anyway, on with the food. We have finally had some luck with some salad greens. Yay! We’ve tried growing lettuce and spinach before with very little success. The weather here in Oklahoma changes from warm to baking hot so rapidly that the plants always bolted before we had a chance to eat them. This year Mick planted some mesclun greens which did very well indeedy, in fact, they grew back almost as fast as we could pick them. Mesclun mixes vary, ours was made up of arugula and dinky little spinach leaves. Although they kept us in salads during the spring, that avenue of pleasure is now closed, as they too have bolted in the heat. Oh hum!

To this mix of salad greens, I added a few baby Swiss rainbow chard leaves from our garden, some chopped tomato, a drizzle of olive oil and red wine vinegar, a dash of cracked pepper, feta cheese. You can also add a few toasted slivered almonds for a little extra crunch. I served this salad with the Parmesan chicken. This chicken is light but full of flavor. We cooked it on the BBQ, but you could do it in the oven at 350F, for about 10-15 minutes.

Parmesan Chicken


Ingredients:

1/3 cup Italian breadcrumbs
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
Cracked black pepper, to taste
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

Directions:

• Pre-heat grill to low, or oven to 350F
• Mix Italian breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, and a dash of cracked black pepper on a plate.
• Beat egg in a shallow bowl.
• Slice chicken in half into 2 flat pieces.
• Dip chicken in egg, then into parmesan/breadcrumb mix.
• Place chicken in an ovenproof dish, or if grilling, on a double sheet of heavy-duty foil, greased with olive oil. Grill or bake for 10 – 15 minutes.
  
  
  

Wild Cod in a Tomato, Pepper and Olive Sauce

I’ve been having a bit of a break from writing, and catching up on some gardening (yay!), and housework (yuk!), both of which needed some attention after all my recent bouts of illness. But I still found plenty of time for dossing around (English slang for idling about) enjoying a glass or two of wine on the porch in the evenings, reading, doing crosswords, watching some telly, and of course, cooking.


I usually get my gardening and flower planting done much earlier than this, but the weather this spring has been pretty dire. Lots of storms, rain of biblical proportions, and the odd tornado scare thrown in for good measure. Not that I mind gardening in the rain, if the Brits allowed a little rain to stop them they would never garden. :-) Mick’s veggie garden is coming along great, if you’re interested you can check out his blog here: http://oklahomegrownveg.blogspot.com/


This week, however, has been largely hot and sunny, though we did have one day that was really cloudy and cool, thus a perfect gardening day for me. I loathe laboring in the heat. This type of weather always reminds me of summer days in England, endless gray skies, with the ever-present threat of rain.


Anyway, enough of my drivel, let’s get on with the recipe. As many of you know, I am often bemoaning the fact that I can’t get any decent fresh fish here, and my experiences with frozen fish have not been very good. Anyway, the last time I went to Sam’s Club, I picked up a bag of frozen wild cod that turned out to be surprisingly good. They had a number of other varieties of fish by the same producer, so I will definitely be checking those out next time I go there.


Wild Cod in a Tomato, Pepper and Olive Sauce




Ingredients:


1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
½ green pepper, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 14-ounce can whole tomatoes (I used my tomato gloop, recipe here: http://range-warfare.blogspot.com/2008/08/tomato-gloop-2.html) As the gloop already contains peppers and onions I didn’t need to add them, but I did throw in a few chopped spring onions).
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Black pepper
3-4 wild cod fillets
2 tablespoons feta cheese, crumbled
2 tablespoons flat leaf parsley, chopped


Directions:

• Pre-heat oven to 400°F


• Heat oil in a large skillet over a medium heat, add onions and green pepper and sauté until onion is translucent. Stir in tomatoes, (break them up a little with the spoon), tomato paste, olives, oregano, and black pepper. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for about 5 minutes.


• Brush an 11 x 7-inch baking dish with a little olive oil and add cod fillets to dish. Spoon the tomato mixture over the fish and bake for 15 – 20 minutes or until fish flakes easily.


• To serve, sprinkle with feta cheese and chopped parsley.