Hello everyone! For today’s blog post, I would like to share some dishes that I have made in the past couple of weeks. Lately, I have been into experimenting with different dishes and have not really been using a set recipe. Basically, I have been using my knowledge of ingredients and flavors I have used before to make my meals. There are two dishes that I have cooked recently that have stood out to me. One of them is an orecchiette pasta with sausage and broccolini. The other dish is a shrimp taco with a tangy slaw and avocado. So, here are the ingredients I used and steps I took to make these two amazing dishes.
Orecchiette With Sausage And Broccolini:
The first dish I would like to share with you is a pasta dish that I made the other night. I do not remember why I wanted to cook this but for some reason I really wanted pasta with sausage. This dish combines orecchiette pasta with sausage, broccolini, garlic, parmesan cheese and butter.
Ingredients I Used To Cook This Dish:
- This dish serves 2 people
- 1/2 box orecchiette pasta
- 1 bunch broccolini–washed with the stems cut off
- 2 Italian sausages or 3/4 pound ground sausage– if using whole Italian sausage, cut into pieces before cooking
- 4 cloves minced garlic
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- salt and pepper– to taste
- Parmesan cheese–a lot of it, grated
- red pepper flakes
Steps I took To Make This Pasta:
- To Start this dish, boil your pasta water over a high heat with plenty of salt. Once it is boiling, add a touch of olive oil and throw in your orecchiette pasta. Let the pasta cook until it is al dente and still has a slight bite to it. Drain and set aside.
2. While your pasta is cooking, proceed to heat up a large deep bottomed pan over medium high heat. Once you think its hot, add the olive oil to the pan and spread it around.
3 . After adding the oil to your pan, proceed to add the sausage. Let the sausage cook until it is browned and cooked through, breaking up the big pieces with a spatula.
4. Once your sausage is cooked, it is time to add your garlic. Add your minced garlic to the pan and stir it around with the sausage. Let the two ingredients cook together for about a minute and season with salt and pepper.
5. After about a minute with the garlic in the pan, its time to add your broccolini and sauté it. Proceed to place your broccolini into the pan and stir it around with your spatula. Let the ingredients cook together for about 5 minutes or until the broccolini is tender and soft.
6. Once the broccolini is cooked, it is time to bring your pasta into the main pan. Pour your drained pasta in with the other ingredients and begin stirring. After your ingredients are mixed, add the butter to the pan and mix until melted.
7. After the butter is in the dish, add your grated parmesan cheese to the pan as well as your red pepper flakes. Toss once again and then taste for seasoning. If the pasta lacks any seasoning, add some at this point.
8. Now that the seasoning is done, it is time to serve your dish. Take out some bowls and load them up with the pasta, sausage and broccolini. Top with more parmesan cheese. Enjoy!
My Thoughts On This Dish:
When I first wanted to cook this dish, I began to look up recipes and none of them seemed to click for me. Many of the recipes for orecchiette either required a ton of ingredients or were overly complicated. As a result of this, I decided to wing it and trust my palate. The sausage paired well with the broccolini and the garlic added an amazing flavor. Furthermore, the butter and parmesan cheese provided the creamy element to round it all out. So, if you are looking for a new and simple pasta dish then this is the dish for you.
Shrimp Tacos:
The next dish I would like to share with you in this blog post are the shrimp tacos that I made. These tacos combine buttery shrimp with a tangy slaw and a crispy shell to make for a simple weeknight dinner. Also, when you top the taco off with avocado, sour cream and a bit of Tapatio the flavors just pop out and this dish tastes amazing.
Taco Ingredients:
- This dish serves 2 people
- 3/4 pound peeled and deveined shrimp with the tails pulled off
- 1/2 onion diced
- 1/4 head green cabbage — sliced thin
- 1/4 head purple cabbage- sliced thin
- 3/4 cup Champagne dressing- I used Girard’s but there are other brands you can use too
- 3 cloves minced garlic
- 6 corn tortillas
- 1 avocado- cut into slices with salt
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 4-5 tablespoons canola oil
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- black beans- as a side to the dish, not necessarily needed
- sour cream and TapatÃo Hot Sauce- for serving
Steps I took To Cook These Tacos:
- Heat up a medium sized deep bottomed pan over a medium heat. Once it is hot, add the olive oil to the pan and swirl it around. After the oil is in, proceed to add your onions to the pan and let them sweat and caramelize for about five minutes, stirring every little while.
2. While you are cooking the onions, it is time to season the shrimp. First, pat the shrimp dry and set them aside in a bowl. After that proceed to season the shrimp with salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. While you are seasoning them, feel free to toss them around in the bowl to spread the seasoning around. Once your shrimp are seasoned, set them aside.
3. Also while you are cooking the onions, it is time to make your slaw. First, put your sliced cabbage into a big bowl. Once you have done that, add your champagne dressing followed by some salt, pepper and the sugar. Stir the bowl with a spoon and make sure that all your cabbage is dressed. Set aside for later when you are serving your dish.
4. Once the onions have been cooking for a while, add the garlic to the pan and begin to stir constantly. If the pan looks a bit dry add some more oil to it. After about two minutes of this, proceed to add your shrimp to the pan.
5 Let your shrimp cook for about four minutes, stirring throughout. At the end of this cooking time, they should be pink and fully cooked.
6. After your shrimp are cooked, its time to add some butter to the pan. Put your three tablespoons of butter in with the shrimp, onions and garlic. Let the ingredients cook until the butter melts and is all incorporated into the dish, stirring throughout.
7. Once the butter is in, taste your dish for seasoning. If the mixture lacks any seasoning, add some extra salt and pepper to it. After seasoning, take it off the heat.
8. Now that your shrimp mixture is complete, it is time to start crisping up your tortillas. First, heat up a small pan with the canola oil. Let the oil get nice and hot.
9. While the oil is heating up, heat up your black beans in a pot over medium heat. Stir frequently as to not burn them and take them off of the heat once they are warm.
10. Now that the oil is hot, proceed to add one tortilla to it. Cook for about 30 seconds or until you notice that it is considerably cooked. After 30 seconds, flip the tortilla and cook for another 30 seconds on the other side. Now that the tortilla has been cooked on each side, take it out of the pan and set it onto a plate lined with a paper towel to get the excess oil removed.
11. Repeat step ten for the remaining tortillas that need to cook.
12. After your tortillas are all cooked, it is time to assemble your tacos. Proceed to place a crispy tortilla onto each plate. Once that is done, load the tortilla up with your shrimp, slaw and avocado. Finally, drizzle the sour cream and hot sauce over the top and serve with the black beans on the side. Enjoy!
My Thoughts On This Dish:
While making these shrimp tacos, I really surprised myself. The shrimp (seasoned with the cayenne, salt and pepper) combined with the onions, garlic and butter tasted amazing and was the highlight of this dish for me. I did not realize that the shrimp would turn out as good as it did. Furthermore, the slaw, avocado and crisp of the tortilla made for great compliments to the shrimp. Now after making this, I definitely plan to experiment more with different flavor combinations.
Final Thoughts:
Overall, I am really happy with how both of these dishes turned out and I am excited that I can share them with you. I often use recipes when I am cooking and to be honest, it felt nice to just experiment and get back to the basics for a bit. These dishes were both super simple and used mostly ingredients that people have on hand at home. So, I hope you enjoy these dishes as much as I do and that you can cook them in the future. Thanks so much for reading this blog post!
Walker's World 