Greek-Style Shrimp & Cannellini Beans Recipe

Living in Germany has made it difficult to get fresh fish so I have started looking for recipes in which frozen fish could work well. Of course fresh fish is always better, but frozen works just as well for this. It is healthy and pretty inexpensive too! I got the recipe from Woman's Day, but changed it really slightly. I serve it with cous-cous.

INGREDIENTS

1 lb (16 to 20 per lb) peeled and deveined shrimp
1 can (about 15 oz) cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
6 oz fresh green beans, halved (I used snow peas)
1/4 cup Kalamata olives, sliced (I used regular olives)
1/4 cup olive oil
Juice of one lemon
3 garlic cloves minced
1/4 tsp each pepper and dried oregano
Crushed red pepper, if you like a little spice

Garnish: crumbled feta cheese, lemon wedges

PREPARATION

1.Place oven rack in center of oven. Heat oven to 500ºF.
2. Mix olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, pepper, oregano, and crushed red pepper in a bowl and whisk. Let sit for 1/2 hour to blend flavours.
3. In Dutch oven, put shrimp, cannellini beans, cherry tomatoes, green beans and olives. Toss with olive oil mix made earlier.
4. Cook for 15 minutes. Check to see if shrimp are done. If not cook for 5 more minutes.
5. Garnish with feta and lemon wedges.

Rabbit Moutarde

I tried this great recipe from the Balthazar cookbook. It looks long, but in the end it was delish! Remember to use regular rabbit (white meat) and not the wild rabbit. They have the wild rabbit here and I am not a fan. When making rabbit, it is important to make sure the meat is covered so it doesn't dry out. Because of this I adapted the recipe a bit so that I had enough liquid. Plus, I love sauce! I served this with egg noodles, but you could always just do rice. I also had a small Dutch oven so I had to fry my legs up in batches.

You could definitely do this with on the bone chicken. I would reduce the simmering time to about 30-45 minutes. Leave the liquid amounts the same and use about 10 drumsticks.

It will definitely add a hop to your step ;) !


Serves 2-4 ( I was very happy with one leg and some noodles)
Ingredients:
4-6 rabbit legs (6 will give you less sauce but will be just enough)
3/4 bottle of dry white wine (like a sauvignon blanc)
1 small onion, diced medium
2 carrots, diced medium
3 celery stalks, diced medium
3-4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
4 sprigs of thyme
Salt and Black Pepper
White Pepper
about 1/2 cup of vegetable oil (enough to cover the pan during browning)
400 grams white Mushrooms, quartered
4 cups Chicken Stock
50 grams unsalted butter
2 1/2 Tbsp. flour
3 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped

Grind some salt and black pepper on the rabbit legs. Combine rabbit legs, wine, onion, carrots, celery, garlic and thyme in a glass bowl. Cover and refrigerate overnight.


The next day remove the legs from the marinade and strain veggies from the wine. Reserve the wine in a bowl. Dry the legs with a paper towel and sprinkle with white pepper.

Heat up some vegetable oil (about 3 Tbsp.) in a Dutch oven (enough to fit everything- medium size) over a high flame. when it is hot add the mushrooms and cook until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Season with some salt and remove from pot and set aside.

Add more veg oil to brown the rabbit. Make sure it covers the bottom of the pan and then some. Heat the oil until it smokes and then add half the rabbit legs and brown well all around. When done, remove to a bowl and add a half cup of the stock to deglaze the pan. When finished pour the fat and stock over the browned legs. Give the pot a quick wipe.

Add more oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Heat the oil until it smokes and add the other half of the rabbit legs. Brown as before. When done, add to first batch. I then deglazed the pan with some white wine and poured it off.

Reduce the heat to medium and melt the butter. Add the marinated veggies and cook for 5 minutes or until softened and slightly brown. Add the flour until it disappear and becomes a bit thick. Add the wine marinade. Raise the heat, boil and reduce by half (about 10 minutes).

Add the rabbit legs and remaining stock. I made four legs, but just make sure you have enough liquid to cover the meat while simmering. I could have definitely fit two more legs in the pot. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook for 1 1/4 -1/2 hours.



Remove the rabbit legs gently. Strain the liquid and get rid of the solids. Return the liquid to the pot and reduce by half. This took about 10-15 minutes.

At this time I started boiling my egg noodles.

Add the mustard and cream. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add the rabbit and mushroom and simmer for another 5 minutes or until hot. Add parsley and serve with egg noodles.

Eat and enjoy!

Chocolate Souffle

After dinner tonight I made milk chocolate souffles. I used Lindt extra creamy milk chocolate and it made a nice light chocolate souffle. To make it richer one can use a dark chocolate. 70% by Lindt would work very well.

Souffles always make me nervous. I'm always worried they are going to fall. This recipe is pretty easy and not intimidating. It comes from Women's Weekly Modern Classics cookbook.

Here's the recipe:

1 Tbsp. sugar
50 grams butter
1 Tbsp. flour
200 grams chocolate (use a quality chocolate)
2 egg yolks
4 egg whites
1/4 cup sugar extra

1. Preheat oven to 200 C or 180 C if it is a fan forced oven. Grease four ramekins (3/4 cup size). Sprinkle inside with 1 Tbsp of sugar. Put ramekins on an oven tray.

2. Melt butter in small saucepan; cook flour, stirring for about 2 mins or until mixture thickens and bubbles. Remove from heat and add chocolate. add egg yolks, taking care to keep stirring so you don't cook the yolks. Transfer to a large bowl. (I didn't do this)



3. Beat egg whites in small bowl with electric mixer (or you could do by hand if you are feeling energetic!) until soft peaks form.


Gradually add sugar (1/4 cup) one tablespoon at a time until sugar dissolves. Fold egg white mixture into chocolate mixture, in two batches. I actually did the reverse b/c I was too lazy to get a new bowl. It turned out fine. It will look not completely mixed, resist the urge to completely mix it or you will ruin your egg whites!



4. Divide mixture among the four ramekins. Bake for about 15 minutes or until souffles are puffed.

5. Serve with fresh whipped cream or ice cream or a coulis! Yum.

Broccoli Pasta

Tonight I made Penne with Broccoli from the Sopranos cookbook. I've been making this for years and it is simple, cheap, and good! Beware, it is quite garlicky!

Ingredients

• 1 bunch broccoli
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 8 garlic cloves, thinly sliced or minced
  
• Crushed red pepper flakes (I love spice so I add a lot)
  
• salt
  
• 3 cups of penne
• 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese

Trim the broccoli and cut it into bite sized pieces. Bring 4 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot.Add the broccoli and salt to taste. Cook for 5 minutes. Scoop out the broccoli with a small sieve. Reserve the cooking water in the pot. Pour the olive oil into a skillet large enough to hold all the ingredients. Add the garlic and red pepper, cook over medium heat for about 2 minutes, or until the garlic is lightly golden. Add the broccoli and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes, or until the broccoli is soft. Meanwhile, bring the water back to a boil. Add the rigatoni and cook, stirring frequently, until the pasta is not quite tender. Scoop out about 1 - 1 1/2 cups of the cooking water and set it aside. Drain the rigatoni and add it to the skillet with the broccoli. add the reserved cooking water and cook, stirring often for 5 minutes or more. Sprinkle with cheese, toss and serve immediately.

This is my first blog post and I thought I would make a blog about my life here in Germany. I also thought I would concentrate on food and cooking since I have more time to do that here. Enjoy!