Fall into a Stew

Fall, it's one of my favorite times of the year.  It's the time you make soups, stews, casseroles ... stick to your ribs kind of dishes.  The comfort food time.  I love seafood, so I made one of my favorite stews, cioppino.  My first taste of this was during a Christmas vacation visiting my daughter in San Francisco.  What a treat it was!  I think I ate it three or four times (different restaurants) while we were there.  My seafood of choice here is bay scallops, tiger prawns, cod, and of course from my region, dungeness crab.  However, you can use whatever seafood you like to eat.  Here's a quick version of the recipe:

4 tablespoons of olive oil

1 1/4 cups onions, chopped
2 tablespoons garlic, chopped
4 teaspoons oregano, dried
2 cans diced tomatoes
2 1/2 cups of seafood stock or bottled clam juice
6 1/2 ounces minced or whole clams (reserving the liquid)
1 cup dry white wine
1 lb shrimp, shelled and deveined
6 ounces crabmeat or whole crab claws
2 tablespoons dried basil
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
 
Heat oil. (Medium heat)
Add onions, garlic, oregano and sweat onions until tender.

Add tomatoes, clam juice, wine and liquid from canned clams.

Cook for about 12 - 15 minutes (stew consistency).

Add shrimp, clams, and crab meat.

Cook on medium heat about 2 minutes.

Add basil, cayenne,and black pepper to taste.

Stir and simmer 2 more minutes.

A Mistake Worth Repeating

"Scrumtious tender veal burger topped with four-pepper goat cheese spritzed with the citrus note of a wedge of lemon and accompanied by perfectly cooked asparagus and a fully loaded baked potato."


This is what my daughter described for my dinner as I was sharing with her how I thought I had picked up ground lamb at the market only to find that I had looked at the lamb but picked up ground veal instead.  However, what do you do with lemons ... well you make lemonade.  So, for the first time I made veal burgers.  I added a little lemon juice, nutmeg, salt and pepper and softened butter to the ground veal.  Made patties and slowly sauteed in a skillet.  Topped it off with a little goat cheese and a squeeze of lemon.  It was definitely a mistake I would make again!

Quick and nutritious meal

I needed to make something quick and easy for dinner and this is what I came up with... roasted veggies tossed in penne pasta.  I cut 1/2" slices each of eggplant (peeled), zucchini, onions, and sliced peppers.  Oven was at 400 degrees.  I also roasted one whole garlic bulb (place a whole bulb in foil cutting the top off slightly (just exposing the raw garlic) and dose with olive oil).  Use a heavy duty shallow pan and place each slice of veggie (each slide dosed with olive oil) onto the pan. Lay the foiled garlic in the pan also.  Season with salt and pepper (to taste) and roast until tender, turning once carefully.  Don't worry if some get a little brown.  While the veggies are roasting, cook your penne, drain and set aside.  Now you have your veggies done cut into bite size pieces.  The magic begins, pour a tablespoon of olive oil in the same pot you  cooked the pasta in (save washing another pan), squeeze the cloves of garlic out into the pan and if you like, add one small tin of anchovies with the oil from the tin.  Add the chopped veggies and pasta and toss.  Wallah, dinner!!