Happy Anniversary to Us

We've been blogging here at Minxeats for 11 years, but Mr Minx and I have been married for 16. Happy Anniversary to us!

(Cake by Patisserie Poupon)



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - Linguini and White Clam Sauce

Mr Minx loves his pasta. I love his pasta, too.

--Kathy

This post was originally published on September 11, 2009.
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Linguini and White Clam Sauce

Mr. Minx here to talk about our dinner from Labor Day: linguine and white clam sauce with shrimp thrown in for good measure.

Most of my favorite dishes involve pasta and liguini and white clam sauce is probably my second favorite thing to eat next to spaghetti and meatballs. It was a bit of a revelation for me when I first had it as a teenager because, up to that time, I thought all pasta dishes had to have a thick, heavy sauce and/or a heavy meat component like beef or pork. When made properly, liguini and white clam sauce is light and creamy with a mild seafood flavor enhanced with bright parsley notes.

I started making liguini and clam sauce after I had it at a family get-together. My Aunt Kathleen made it for us, which was a bit of a shock since her culinary ball park was more meat and potatoes. I was sitting next to my Uncle Al and, midway through the meal, he leaned over to me and said, "This is the kind of dish I just want to keep eating and eating." I had to agree as the flavors had an almost hypnotic effect on me. He and I polished off the very last remnants of liguini in the kitchen after the rest of the family had left the table. When I asked my Aunt Kathleen about the recipe, she said, "Oh, it's really easy. You just follow the recipe on the can of clams." I did just that for many years.

There are several recipes out there, but the simplest way to make white clam sauce is to saute two cloves of chopped garlic in about a 1/4 cup of olive oil. Once the garlic is lightly cooked, pour in the juice from a can of chopped or minced clams and bring it to a simmer. Let is simmer for a few minutes and then add the clams and some chopped parsley. Salt and pepper to taste. Pour over some cooked liguini and you're all set. This should make enough sauce for two average people or just me. If Minx wants to eat, I double the recipe.

Over time, familiarity has led to experimentation, adjusting the flavors to suit my personal taste. For example, the standard recipe tells you to saute two cloves of chopped garlic in olive oil. I always tend to burn my garlic, leading to a bitter taste, so I chop up some onion and saute that in olive oil first. Then I add the chopped garlic along with the clam juice reserved from the can of chopped or minced clams. This way you get some extra texture and flavor from the onions and the garlic cooks without burning. I also like to throw in extra shell fish if they are available. In this case, I added some shrimp.

The recipe calls for 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh parsley, but more is better in my book. When I haven't had parsley, I've used fresh basil, but it creates a different flavor. Everything with basil in it tastes strongly of basil, which isn't a bad thing necessarily, but parsley is less dominant. It just gives a bright, herbal note without overpowering. Some lemon juice can't hurt either.

Liguini and white clam sauce is one of those fun dishes because it is insanely easy to make, comes together in less than one half hour, and can be riffed on in so many different ways. I could never understand ordering this dish in a restaurant when anyone can make it well at home. You just have to make lots of it because, once you start eating it, you can't stop.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Mr. Minx's Gumbo Soup

Sometimes I get a hankerin' for a certain type of cuisine, but I just don't have the ingredients in my pantry that are intrinsic to that particular style of cooking. This happened to me not too long ago when I really got a craving for something in the Cajun/Creole department. I knew I had frozen okra, and we always have flour and butter on hand for a roux, so gumbo was a possibility. However, it was such a cold day, I decided a gumbo soup might be more comforting.

Then I looked in the fridge and realized that I didn't have the ingredients necessary for the trinity: onion, bell pepper, and celery. I had an onion, but no celery whatsoever and the only bell pepper I had was a jar of pickled sweet red peppers. This, however, would not deter me.

After some thought, I decided to use the pickled red peppers and add some ground celery seed to impart the celery flavor. Then I added chicken stock and seasoned the mixture with spices I felt would create that familiar Cajun flavor. It was still missing something, though. It had spicy heat, but a certain depth and sweetness was needed. I remembered how people added chocolate to chili, so I grabbed a jar of Nutella and dropped a blob of the chocolate and hazelnut spread into the soup. The added nuttiness and rich, chocolate sweetness balanced the spicy flavor nicely. The rest was just a matter of adding some frozen vegetables and protein.

The result was a satisfying soup that closely imitates the flavor elements of gumbo while having its own unique qualities. For example, the pickled sweet red peppers add a certain brightness and acidity. The Minx even said it tasted better than most gumbos she's eaten. Give it a try!

Mr. Minx's Gumbo Soup

1 medium onion, chopped
2 slices of pickled bell pepper, chopped (about a quarter of a pepper)
1 tsp. celery seed, ground to a powder in a mortar and pestle or coffee grinder
¼ cup flour
¼ cup butter
2 cups chicken stock
4 cups water
½ tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. paprika
½ tsp thyme
2 tsp. Nutella spread
Salt to taste
2 gloves garlic, chopped
1 cup corn
1 cup okra
1 cup string beans
1 pound raw shrimp, shelled and deveined

Start a roux by adding the flour and cold butter into a dutch oven over high heat. As the butter melts, the flour will begin to toast. Stir the melting butter into the flour so that, by the time the butter is thoroughly melted, the mixture should take on a caramel color. Continue stirring until the roux turns a milk chocolate color.

Turn the heat down a bit to medium-high and add the onion, red bell pepper, and celery seed to the roux and stir together. Sprinkle some salt in at this point to sweat the onions. Once the onions are softened, put in the garlic, chicken stock, and water. Mix to combine and bring the liquid to a boil.

Add the okra, corn, and string beans along with the cayenne pepper, paprika, thyme, and Nutella spread. Stir everything together and bring it to a boil. Then turn the flame to low and let the soup simmer, covered, for about 1 ½ hours.

After the soup has simmered for 1 ½ hours, taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary. At this stage, if you want to give the soup a restaurant look, you can puree everything together with a stick blender. Otherwise, you can leave it chunky and rustic as shown in the picture.

Add your raw shrimp and leave to cook for a few more minutes (until the shrimp turn pink). If you don't have shrimp, you can substitute almost any precooked protein like leftover chicken or pork.

Serve with hot steamed rice. Makes 4 entree servings or 6-8 appetizer servings.

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theminx's thoughts: I was pretty amazed when Mr Minx told me he used Nutella in the soup. I couldn't taste it at all, and thought that he had to be kidding. But no, he was serious, and I have to give him credit for being daring. It worked. And the celery seed and pickled pepper combo was a dead ringer for fresh celery and bell pepper. Whoda thunk it?

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Vote for Me!

Minxeats has been nominated for a Mobbie award for best foodie blog! So has our Top Chef-related blog, All Top Chef. Also, Mr Minx's Twitter feed, @carlawhatever, and its corresponding blog, Codename: Carla, have been nominated for best personal Twitter Feed and best uncategorizable blog, respectively.

We'd appreciate if you could take the time to vote for us. Vote early and vote often! Thanks so much!

TC Recap Up Soon....

...in the meantime, why not visit CodenameCarla.com?

My husband, Mr Minx, is a writer and we've started a grassroots campaign to garner interest in his series of action/adventure books. They feature a kick-ass female government agent, codenamed "Carla," who is sent out on some very, shall we say, interesting, cases.

Follow Carla's exploits as she works undercover and blogs and tweets in real time. Also check out the Web site which contains more info on Carla, aka Angela Bayard, including short stories about the various cases with which she's been involved. And if you like what you read, please spread the word!

Birthday Food

My handsome hubby, aka Mr Minx, had a birthday this weekend. Traditionally we partake of steamed crabs with his family on the nearest weekend. This year was no different.

The bounty of crabs came from some joint on Wise Avenue. They were big and heavy but probably steamed a mite too long, as the meat was on the mushy side. Flavorful, but mushy.

We had a bunch of leftover bread and some heavy cream that I had originally bought for another use, so I whipped up a savory bread pudding (using this recipe, more or less) to go with the crabs. (Onion rings are my usual preferred accompaniment, but I have a fear of frying.)

For dessert: a chocolate bundt cake. Mr Minx likes his cakes simple, chocolate, and sans frosting, and that's what he got. It wasn't as moist as I would have liked, but it went well with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

There were almost a dozen crabs left over, so looks like we'll be having crab cakes and Lord knows what else this week!