First, You Make a Roux

Grilled Basil Shrimp and Orzo Salad

 With the hot weather I've been wanting to cook light, refreshing dishes, so last night I made an orzo salad with grilled shrimp. It was super easy and quick.

 

Here's how to make it.

 

Ingredients:

1/2 package orzo pasta (or whatever kind of smallish pasta you have)

1/2 c. pesto (I used Alessi store bought because my basil plants still need some time to grow before they're turned into pesto.)

2 tbsp. white wine vinegar  

pinch of salt and pepper

cherry tomatoes

snow peas

handful of fresh basil leaves, shredded (I used a mixture of green and purple)

fresh parsley, minced

2-3 tbsp. olive oil

shrimp

 

Directions:

1. Cook orzo according to package directions, then toss with pesto, white wine vinegar, salt, pepper, cherry tomatoes, snow peas, half of the fresh basil, and parsley. Chill until ready to serve.

2. Combine the remaining basil leaves, the olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste in a small food processor.

3. Place peeled, uncooked shrimp on skewers, and brush with olive oil mixture.

4. Grill shimp until just cooked through (only takes a couple minutes).

5. Plate and enjoy!

 

 

Wine "pairing": We drank 2009 Cupcake Cabernet Sauvignon. I suppose we should have had a white or at least a light red to go with the seafood, but we're not fancy enough to worry about appropriate wine pairings, and I love Cupcake. 

Crawfish Omelette

 
Yet another crawfish dish (this may be the last one for a while) we made was a crawfish omelette.

This morning I realized that there was yet another bag of crawfish tails that I'd forgotten to clean and freeze, so we threw some crawfish tails, leftover mushrooms from the boil, and shredded cheese into an omelette. Turned out pretty well.

Crawfish tails, mushrooms, parmesan, and eggs. We didn't put any spices because the crawfish and mushrooms (especially the mushrooms!) were already pretty spicy.

 

Glad we took this photo before we tried to plate it because it totally fell apart and looked kind of gross - still delicious, though.

Crawfish Carbonara

The next dish we attempted was crawfish carbonara. We still had a LOT of crawfish!

It was very rich, but very delicious. Here are a couple of photos and the recipe below (similar to recipe from Ralph Brennan's Seafood Cookbook).

 Sauce before tossing in egg yolks and pasta.

Ready to serve!

 

Ingredients:

1 lb. linguine

a little salt

a few tbsp. olive oil

1/2 lb. pancetta, cut into small pieces

1 lb. peeled crawfish tails

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper

1/2 tsp. black pepper

2 c. heavy cream, half and half, or milk, depending on how creamy or healthy you want it to be (I used 2 c. half and half and 1 c. heavy cream)

3 egg yolks

1/3 c. parmesan, grated

handful fresh parsley

 

Directions:

Cook the pasta in salted water, then toss with olive oil and set aside.

Cook pancetta over low heat until slightly browned, then increase heat to medium high and add salt, crushed red pepper, and black pepper.

Stir in cream.

Beat egg yolks in a bowl and slowly add some of the cream from the crawfish mixture (very slowly so the eggs don't curdle).

Then add egg mixture back to crawfish mixture, and add cheese.

Toss linguine and parsley into crawfish mixture, and serve.

 

This recipe makes enough for about 6-8 people. We fed 4 and had a good bit left over.