Fettuccine with Shrimp and New Peas in White Wine Sauce

Simple, delicious and takes very little time. This recipe is rather heavily tweaked from one I found on Yahoo!Voices by Julie McMurchie. I simplified hers and changed some ingredients so I consider it "mine" now! I'll give you her options as well, but I found the end result as I made it to be well worth making again.


Ingredients:
    300-350g dried fettuccine (I used spinach fettuccine)
Sauce:
    2 TBS olive oil
    2 shallots, finely chopped
    1 cup dry white wine
    4 TBS cold butter in chunks
    1/2 Knorr or Maggi chicken soup cube
    4 tsp. fresh grated lemon peel
    Juice of two smallish lemons or 1 large juicy one
    Few grinds black pepper
    250 g raw shrimp or scampi
    200g fresh shelled peas
    2 TBS fresh dill, finely chopped or snipped

How to make it:
Put a large pot of salted water on to boil for the pasta. Whenever it boils as you are making the sauce, put in pasta, add 1 TBS olive oil, and reduce heat just enough so it doesn't boil over. Give it a stir now and then while working on the sauce.

Saute the shallots in the olive oil over medium heat until it becomes soft, but don't let it brown --about 2 minutes.
Add the white wine, raise the heat and bring to a boil. Boil for about five minutes, or until it is reduced by half.
Crumble in chicken broth cube and stir.
Remove pan from heat, turn heat down to medium. While pan is off heat, add cold butter and allow to start melting.
Return to heat and cook, stirring, over medium low heat until the butter completely melts and incorporates. Remove from heat.
Now whisk in the lemon peel, lemon juice and pepper to taste. Set aside and keep warm until ready to use.

By this time the pasta should be almost done. In the last 3 minutes of boiling the pasta, place a strainer over or partly into the boiling water; fill with fresh peas and shrimp and steam only until peas are a bright green, shrimp are pink and pasta is al dente.
Drain pasta, peas and shrimp; return to pasta pot, add the snipped fresh dill and pour sauce over all, stirring well to coat the strands.
Serve immediately.

Julie strains the shallots from the sauce, omits the pepper and chicken cube (making the recipe too bland, in my opinion) and uses parsley rather than dill. If making the sauce on its own without shrimp or peas, that may be okay, but otherwise I'd strongly suggest using either dill or fresh basil.

Julie also says: This white wine sauce can be used as the basis for shrimp scampi. Make the sauce in a saute pan. Add the shrimp and cook until they are pink and opaque. Remove the scampi to a serving plate and pour the remaining white wine sauce over the top. (In this case by all means use parsley. I can really see this sauce working well simply poured over broiled or grilled scampi!)

Cheater's Cassoulet

This is my simple, though admittedly time-consuming, version of a French country classic. My French brother-in-law, who grew up in the countryside, laughed when I asked him about the definitive version of cassoulet. I had read so many recipes requiring (to me) exotic ingredients such as smoked duck or goose. He told me that cassoulet means about the same as what an American means by casserole. Every region and even every family in a region has its own "definitive" recipe. The only constants are sausage, some kind of poultry, bacon and white beans in tomato sauce, though the duck or goose fat (if you can get it) really does make a difference to the richness of the flavor of the final product; so do use it if you possibly can. (If you're a low-fat advocate, just go away; you shouldn't be looking at this recipe anyway. 2 TBS of goose grease will not kill the 4-6 people this recipe feeds!!) This is a great way to recycle leftovers in such a way that all will clamor for more.


Ingredients:
2 TBS rendered duck, goose, chicken or bacon fat, or ghee (clarified butter)
6 chicken wings, OR 3 legs, OR 3 thighs, skin on (not breast meat)
1 smoked sausage of any kind (Kielbasa, cured Bratwurst), sliced 1/2" thick
2 slices bacon, sliced crosswise OR 2 TBS chopped pancetta
1 cup leftover cooked lamb, beef, pork or in a pinch even ham, in chunks
1 large or 2 small onions, chopped coarsely
2 cloves pressed (or finely chopped) garlic
1 rib celery, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, peeled and chopped
Generous 1/2 cup red wine
1 15-oz. can chopped tomatoes in juice
2 15-oz. cans white beans (do not drain liquid) --OR 1 can plain white beans and 1 can beans in tomato sauce
1/2 Knorr beef bouillon cube
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs fresh rosemary (if you have it)
Several grinds fresh black pepper
1 tsp. dried Herbes de Provence mixture OR
a goodly pinch each of dried rosemary, savory, and thyme
(Don't add salt --believe me, you will not need it!)

How to make it:
Preheat oven to 450°F/220°C.
Heat fat in a skillet over medium-high heat.
Brown chicken in it, turning to brown evenly, about 5-6 minutes (there is no need for meat to cook through, just get the skin browned).
Remove chicken with a slotted spoon to a deep oven-proof casserole.
In the remaining fat, sauté bacon or pancetta until crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon and add to chicken, along with the chunks of leftover meat.
Turn the heat down to medium. Now sauté chopped onion, carrot and celery for about 5 minutes, or until onions are transparent but not browned.
Add garlic and cook another minute.
Pour in red wine and stir well.
Add tomatoes, beans, and seasonings. Heat, stirring, until mixture just comes to a boil.
Pour it all over the meat in the casserole, and stir to combine.
Place casserole in hot oven. Close the door and turn the heat down to 325°F/160°C.
Bake, uncovered, for an hour. Stir and return to oven.
Bake another hour; stir, and return to oven. If it seems a bit dry, you may stir in up to 1/2 cup water.
(If you wish to top the cassoulet with buttered crumbs-- this is a common variation, but I find it overkill-- you may add them now.)
Bake one more hour. Remove from oven and allow to settle for 15 minutes before serving.

A green salad and crusty bread are great with this. It's even better the next day, warmed up, in the unlikely event some is left over.

Grated Carrot Salad, Austrian Style

This is a simple, delicious and nutritious way to use carrots, even those which have become a bit soft. Ready in 5 minutes and I have never met anyone who didn't like it.
This is not a sweet salad; the bit of sugar only helps to balances out the lemon juice, and the oil helps your body absorb the vitamins. You can experiment with adding raisins, dried cranberries, drained pineapple chunks, chopped nuts or any shredded veg you like, but I enjoy this salad just the way it is. An excellent side dish for grilled meats or really, almost anything else.


Ingredients:
3-4 medium-sized carrots
Juice of 1/2 large lemon
1/2 TBS vegetable oil
1/2 tsp. white sugar
Salt and freshly-ground pepper to taste

How to make it:
Peel and grate the carrots into a medium mixing bowl. Do not drain if they are juicy.
In a cup, whisk together the fresh lemon juice, oil, and sugar; pour over carrots.
Add salt and pepper to taste and stir well.