Archive for February, 2012
Jarlsberg Sea Scallops over Pasta
February 29th, 2012 | 
Author: 
| Jarlsberg Sea Scallops over Pasta |
- 2 lbs. of Sea Scallops – fresh
- 1 cup Jarlsberg Cheese Spread (recipe below)
- 1 cup. heavy cream
- 4 Tbl butter
- 1/4 red pepper sliced
- 2 Green onions diced (green and white parts)
- pinch of Sea Salt
- pinch of Pepper
- 1/4 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
- 1 pound cooked pasta
Cheese Spread
- 1 cup Jarlsberg cheese, shredded
- ½ cup mayo
- ¼ cup scallions minced
- ¼ cup purple onions minced
- Melt the butter in skillet over medium-high.
- Add sea scallops and cook until opaque, about 5-7 mins.
- Remove scallops and place on a warm plate.
- In that same skillet, add your red peppers and sauté until soft, about 5 minutes.
- Add in cream and cheese spread and mix together until well blended into a creamy cheesy sauce.
- Add salt, pepper and red pepper flakes.
- Add your scallops back to the mixture and heat for one minute until bubbly.
- Add atop your cooked pasta and garnish with green onions.
Posted in Appetizers, Main Dishes, Seafood | 
Tags: jarlsberg, pasta, peppers, scallops, seafood | 
No Comments »
Storing your Olive Oil
So let me guess you bought one of those cutesy glass jars with the pour spout on it that sets on your counter top, right? *sigh* I, too, fell into that trap as well until I learned my lesson – a very expensive lesson.
Like vanilla extract, you should never EVER buy the imitation or even the 99cent stuff. Listen, you want QUALITY ingredients. Sales and deals are great – everyone loves getting the 100 pack of toilet paper at the warehouse stores or the Gunther-size boxes of cereals as well. Don’t think that you if you buy a 5 gallon container of olive oil for $5 that you’re getting QUALITY! Sorry but um no. You get below bottom shelf grade and it truly will reflect in your cooking. When you use olive oil in cooking you use it sparingly. So please, invest in a good quality olive oil (within your budget obviously).
When you buy a good quality olive oil if you notice it always comes in a darker colored container, either glass or metal. There’s a reason for this.
Remember that light can lead to oil rancidity, so a dark container is a must. If you happen to buy olive oil in a clear container, make sure to transfer the oil into a dark bottle. Glass bottles are ideal, but stainless steel containers are good alternatives. Never use plastic containers to avoid contaminating olive oil with toxic substances. Make sure to tightly cap the container to keep the air out.
Keep olive oil away from light. Because light can spoil olive oil, it makes pretty sense to store it in a dark area. You can put it, for example, in a cabinet or cupboard, provided of course that the area has the ideal temperature.
And yes, you can refrigerate olive oil. There are two benefits for refrigerating olive oil. One, it keeps olive oil in dark. And two, it keeps olive oil in a cold temperature. Remember, however, that olive oil will appear cloudy when refrigerated. You can restore its texture by leaving it at room temperature.
If you store your olive oil properly it can last up to two years.
If not and you leave it in those cutesy little bottles then you have money to throw away. And if that’s the case I am more than willing to give you one of my bank deposit slips as you can throw you money away into my account! 
Dessicated Coconut
Nope; there are several ways to get coconut and types but we can go into that another time. I don’t feel like ‘splaining tonight
Dessicated coconut is nothing more than the flesh of the coconut shredded or flaked (just like the stuff you buy in the bags to make macaroons out of it or coconut cakes) but it’s then dried to remove as much moisture out of it as possible. Think about the last time you opened a bag of coconut – it felt ‘tacky’, right? That’s how it should be in those bags. When it’s dessicated it’s then dried (not toasted) to be use as fillers or coatings for various desserts and meats. I use it on Lamingtons, Chicken, Coconut Shrimp (YUM!!!!), and a bajillion other things.
So why am I telling you all this? Well I am craving Lamingtons and Coconut shrimp. So if I’m going to share the recipes with you soon, you need have dessicated coconut on hand. Sure you can buy it in the store but they charge a whole lot more. And with gas going over $4 a gallon now, every penny saved helps! So go down to the market, spend a buck or so on a bag of coconut and make your own!
What’cha need?
| Dessicated Coconut |
- Bag of shredded coconut
- Baking sheet
- Spoon
- Bowl
- Oven (yes, must be plugged in and working)
- Arrange the coconut on the baking sheet spreading it out to a thin layer loosely stacking it. Do not clump or press it together as this will keep the coconut from drying.
- Heat the oven to 250 and place the pan inside (middle rack).
- Bake on low for 5-10 minutes. This really depends on how moist your coconut is to begin with (then factor in the humidity and so forth). You aren’t cooking it, just drying it out. You don’t want to toast it! To know it’s dry it’ll feel brittle to the touch instead of creamy/tacky.
- Remove from the oven and transfer it to a air tight bowl.
So once you have that, and a recipe, you can make this:
Raspberry Lamingtons
Smokey Roasted Crispy Chickpeas
So of course with us being the 3rd day into Lent I am CRAVING hardcore for 1 just potato chip. Yeah I know, “you can’t eat just one” which is true but at least I am starting with 1 It’s funny as I could go months without ever giving chips a 2nd thought but the minute I can’t have one I NEED it NOW! LOL
This morning, as I was making 20qts of Italian Gravy and more Sourdough Bread I get this unreal craving for potato chips. Now knowing I don’t want to go to Hell (at least not any sooner) I rummage through for something salty and crunchy. Crackers? Eh… nah, not in the mood for them. Ohh! Pretzels…. crap, can’t have those. Damn it! Um.. raw noodles? LOL Hey I was getting desperate! Then I found a can of chickpeas/garbanzo beans (whatever you call them). Is there a difference between them?
Now these little things are super healthy for you, low in fat, high in protein and fiber but they aren’t crispy. Hmmm After about 20 minutes of staring at the can I remembered I had toasted them a while back and they got this ‘crunch’ to them.
So from that glimmer from my past I threw this together. SUPER easy but AMAZINGLY GOOD!
And the best part… I’m not going to hell today (at least not for this!) LOL
| Smokey Roasted Crispy Chickpeas |
- 1 can drained and rinsed chickpeas
- 1 1/2 Tbl olive oil
- 1 tsp Sea Salt
- 1/2 tsp Smoked Paprika
- Preheat oven to 400.
- Place the chickpeas between 2 paper towels and pat dry.
- Discard any skins.
- Put the chickpeas in a bowl and add the olive oil; gently mix to coat the chickpeas.
- Pour chickpeas out on to a rimmed pan.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes until golden brown and crispy – stirring every 10 minutes.
- When done sprinkle with salt and paprika.
Sourdough Soft Pretzels
The recipe is originally from KAF but I tweaked it slightly as honestly, the originally recipe is THAT good! I STRONGLY recommend this!
| Sourdough Soft Pretzels |
- 3/4 cup lukewarm water*
- 1 cup unfed sourdough starter, straight from the refrigerator
- 3 cups Hi-Gluten Flour* or All-Purpose Flour
- 1/4 cup Baker’s Special Dry Milk or nonfat dry milk
- 2 tablespoons (1/2 ounce) non-diastatic malt powder or 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon butter or vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons instant yeast
- *Add an additional 2 tablespoons water if using high-gluten flour.
Topping
- 1 tablespoon non-diastatic malt powder or sugar
- 2 tablespoons water
- pretzel salt or coarse sea salt
- 2 tablespoons melted butter
- Mix and knead the dough ingredients in a stand mixer using a dough hook to make a cohesive, fairly smooth dough. It should be slightly sticky; if it seems dry, knead in an additional tablespoon or two of water.
- Cover the dough and let it rest for 45 minutes. It will rise minimally. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly greased work surface (DO NOT ADD FLOUR!), fold it over a few times to gently deflate it, then divide it into 8 pieces. -We like bigger pretzels
- Roll each piece of dough into an 18″ rope. Shape each rope into a pretzel.
- Dissolve the malt in the water. Brush the pretzels with the solution, and sprinkle lightly with coarse pretzel salt.
- Bake the pretzels for 20 minutes.
- Remove the pretzels from the oven, and brush with melted butter.
- Return to the oven and bake for 5-10 minutes or until they are a nice golden brown color.
If you want to make shape the pretzels but not bake them right away, shape them and lay on a parchment lined pan. Place the entire pan in the freezer until frozen. Remove from tray and place in sealed bag. To bake them, simple preheat the oven, brush the frozen pretzel with the malted water, add the salt and bake normally. No additional time is needed.
If you wanted to, you could really mix this recipe up by adding pepperoni, cheese, veggies, etc to the dough do this… Roll out a piece of dough into a long rope and flatten. Line with slivers of pepperoni slices and shredded mozzarella cheese. Pinch the sides of dough together encasing the filling in the dough. Form into the pretzel shape.
You could add chocolate pieces too! How about seafood stuffed
pretzels?!
