Katie Stew | A rich, simmering blend of my favorite things

August 12, 2010
by katie
1,057 Comments

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Maybe it is just me, but it bothers me that there isn’t a comma after “Brief” in the title. Stupid punctuation.

Anyways, I read “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” mostly on planes while traveling about two weeks ago. In that in the short amount of time between finishing the book and writing this, the book becoming fuzzy in my mind. I think that is a bad sign. Are there still crystal clear images? Yes. But I read the first half of the book on my way to Arkansas and the second half on the way back. And by the time I started the return part of my journey, I had no idea what was happening in the story.

The book was written by Junot Diaz, who is generally known for his short stories. This novel feels more to me like a collection of short stories than a novel. This novel is also a Pulitzer prize winner. Amusingly, I also just saw an article last week calling him one of the most overrated authors of our time. I don’t know about that, but I do know that I didn’t love this book.

This is a story about fukú — “generally a curse or a doom of some kind; specifically the Curse and the Doom of the New World.” It is a multigenerational story that shows us the slow decline of a Dominican family. It seems that there is some kind of curse or fukú on the family. As you read along, you begin to believe the superstitions and think that this family is cursed.

It is also a story about the Dominican Republic. It tells the history of brutality and oppression from the reign of Trujillo, who ruled the Republic from 1930-1961, keeping the nation sequestered, bullied, and completely under his thumb. It is about a country’s beauty and ugliness and how there can be both extremes at the same time.

It is also, and not mostly, about an idealistic, incredibly nerdy boy named Oscar. Oscar grows up in New Jersey, a Dominican boy with no lady skills, which is apparently the worst thing ever. He is overweight, obsessed with science fiction, obsessed with love, and obsessed with worry that he’ll never lose his virginity.

The novel tells stories of Oscar, his sister, his mother, and grandmother and how they all seem to be affected by this fukú. I was originally confused by all the back stories and couldn’t seem to figure out who the main character was. I see now the necessity of telling all the back stories and other perspectives. It showed how everyone was affected by the curse, while at the same time offering up the alternative possibility that there is no such thing as fukú, that all their tragedies are just life.

I didn’t love the novel. I had a hard time getting into it. It didn’t help that there was ample Spanish thrown in the text, and I don’t speak a lick. But, it had moments that were nice, and I really enjoyed the ending. More than because of the content, I loved the ending structurally, although the content was nice. I read what I thought was the ending and flipped the page to find another addendum to the story. There were a number of little endings, which I found very satisfying. I don’t like when a book ends abruptly. I need a little denouement.

All in all, I thought the book was ok. I wouldn’t recommend it to people, but it had some moments. I am a bit suprised that it is a Pulitzer winner, but there is no accounting for taste.

August 9, 2010
by katie
1,084 Comments

Enchiladas!

I have made enchiladas before and they are generally ok. They tide my Mexican food craving over until I can get the real deal. But not this weekend. This weekend, I kicked some enchilada ass! Did I use a recipe? No. It was all shear brilliance and blind luck on my part.

I made these randomly on Saturday night and they were so good, that we decided to make another batch on Sunday.

Katie’s Steak and Black Bean Enchiladas (makes 6 large ones)

Ingredients:

.75 lb flank steak (marinated and seasoned)

1 can black beans

1 can rotel

1 can diced green chilies

1 large tomato, diced

garlic

chili powder

cumin

red pepper flakes

4 oz cheddar cheese grated

2 oz goat cheese

about 4 oz mozzarella grated

tortillas

salt and pepper to season

The steak:

I had purchased a 1.75 pound flank steak and marinated it overnight in soy, worcheshire sauce, with garlic, black pepper, and rosemary. (Now, if I had known when I was marinating it that I would be using it in Mexican food, I probably would have gone a different route, but it was still awesome and not noticeably weird or anything.)

Flank steak is cheap, tasty, and awesome if you do it right. It has a tendency to be stringy, but here is how to cook and serve it. Heat up a large pan on your stovetop with some olive oil until hot and starting to smoke. Toss in the flank steak and sear it well on both sides. Pull it and let it sit for 10 minutes under foil. Flank steak should be left fairly rare. Then you slice it thinly against the grain. I then chopped half of it to add to my enchiladas. (The other half I saved for sandwiches, then ended up making into another batch of enchiladas).

The filling:

For the filling, I chopped up a large clove of garlic and sauteed it with some olive oil. I then added a can of chopped green chilies. Once that was mixed and cooking, I added a chopped large tomato. And once that has started to cook down, I added a can of drained and rinsed black beans. Then add seasoning. I added about a teaspoon of cumin and 3/4 teaspoon of chili powder. Also, a generous shake of the red pepper flakes. These measurements are very approximate. Spice it up as much as you want!

While the beans are cooking, shred up about 3 oz of cheddar cheese. Put it in a large bowl. Add 2 oz of goat cheese. Once the beans are ready, toss them in with the cheese and add the steak to the bowl. I then added a generous handful of shredded mozzarella that I had around. I’m sure any other creamy white cheese would work.

The topping:

If I had had salsa at the house, I probably would have just poured it over the top. But, I didn’t. So, I had to make a enchilada sauce. What did I come up with? I poured a can of rotel into a small pan and cooked it down a bit. I added black pepper, some more cumin and chili powder, and once it had cooked a bit, I used it as my sauce.

Assembly:

I used two greased loaf pans instead of one large pan, so that I could freeze half for dinner another night. I used 6 flour tortillas. I filled each one, rolled it, and put it in the pan. Once they were loaded (three in each pan), I covered with the rotel sauce, another handful of the mozzarella, and another oz of the cheddar.

Bake:

At 350 for about 15 minutes, or until the cheese is melty and filling is oozing out the ends of the enchiladas.

Let me tell you, these enchiladas are killer! I think you could probably use sour cream instead of the goat cheese, but the cheese did give it an extra awesome gooeyness.

My man and I agreed, these were the best enchiladas we’ve had in Seattle!

I hope you make some up and enjoy!

July 29, 2010
by katie
887 Comments

Windrunner

This past weekend was my father’s 60th birthday. I thought about it for a long time. What do you get a man that doesn’t need anything? He usually tells me to get him something consumable. Something that won’t end up cluttering up the house. So, I send him seafood or fruit or bbq sauces. Fun little bits of yummy. But, 60 is a big year. I wanted something memorable.

So, I decided to do a painting for him. But what to paint? Then I decided that I should paint a picture of his sailboat, the Windrunner. He loves that boat. Loves lake Quachita where it is housed. We have many wonderful family memories of summers spent out on the water there.

I worked on this painting at the girl’s weekend, getting most of the background done. But the boat itself was a task of tedium and love. Took me forever! But, I think it turned out well.

And most importantly, I think he really liked it. He said he would hang it in his office. I was very flattered.

Happy birthday, Judge Daddio.

July 29, 2010
by katie
110 Comments

Girl’s weekend- pastas, ribs, okra and more

I have been terrible about posting this month, which is unfortunate because I’ve been up to some crazy stuff! I’ve been many places and eaten many wonderful things. For starters, I’m going to shoot back a few weeks to the weekend of July 16th-18th. That weekend I went on a girl’s weekend to Bainbridge Island. There we ladies indulged in a buffet of such extravagance that it is hard to describe. But don’t worry, I’m going to try. 🙂 And will list as many recipes from the weekend as I can.

The first night, we had pasta with pesto cream sauce, shrimp kabobs, and a beautiful salad. I made the pasta dish and it was decadent and wonderful. Making a great alfredo sauce is easy as pie, easier even!

Katie’s Alfredo and veggie pasta:

Get a little half pint of heavy cream and put it in a saucepan over low heat. Add a 4oz log of goat cheese and mix. Let this mixture simmer down until about 1/3 less than where it started. Add about 1/4 cup of julienned basil as it is simmering and loads of black pepper. Also, my mother always told me that a pinch of cayenne makes any white sauce better.

While this is going, I cut up two yellow squash and two zuchinni and sauteed them with butter, salt and lemon pepper. When they were almost done, I added a container of storebought, fresh pesto. Probably was 4 oz or so, whatever a regular small sized tub is. More or less to taste.

We boiled 1lb of pasta and when everything was ready, tossed all these things together. Creating this!

It was so yummy! Creamy and rich, but with a freshness of flavor from all that basil. Easy and a crowd pleaser.

The shrimp were just marinated in a storebought lemon deal and grilled. The salad was beautiful with carrots, radishes, and all kinds of goodies mixed in. This was a wonderful start to our weekend.

Also, for dessert one of the ladies brought cream puffs and we warmed up chocolate syrup to dip them in. So good!

We made breakfast each day with eggs and bacon, yogurt and fruit, and other wonderful things and even did a pork tenderloin for bbq sandwiches for lunch, but I must say that my favorite meal was dinner on Saturday. We had ribs, cornbread, fried okra, and sauteed spinach. Everything was amazing. Not a weak spot in the meal.

Let’s talk ribs. My brother gave me directions. My man and I have perfected them to a simple science. Everyone can do this. I showed my lady friends how to do this. Here is how it goes.

First, buy some pork loin back ribs. The night before you want to serve them, remove the membrane from the bonier, inside of the ribs. This is not as complicated as it sounds. Get a sharp knife under the edge of the fat on the underside and slide your fingers under there. Gently start to pull. Suddenly you’ll find there is a thin layer of film over the whole side that if you’re gently, you can pull off in one sweeping motion. It will look like this:

spare ribs membrane

Why are we doing this? Well, because it makes them more pleasant to eat (otherwise there is that weird papery layer) and also because you can get more flavor into the ribs without that there blocking the path.

Then I pat them dry, rub the ribs down with salt, pepper, and Emeril’s Creole seasoning. I then toss them in a large bag, turkey oven bags work well or just use a garbage bag. And then, toss in a whole bottle of this kind of wonderful:

Stubb’s Pork Marinade. This stuff is good.

Once the ribs have been marinated all night and you’re ready to start cooking, follow these simple instructions.

Place your ribs on a foil lined, lipped cookie sheet. Turn your oven to 275 degrees. Cover the ribs tightly with foil. Cook them for 2.5 hours at this temperature. Every half hour, quickly open them up and baste with your favorite bbq sauce. I personally like a half and half combo of Stubb’s original and Sweet Baby Ray’s sauces, but whatever you like.

After they’ve cooked for the 2.5 hours, have your grill ready and toss them on for another 15-30 minutes to firm up the sauce to a nice, gooey finish. Be careful getting them on and off the grill! They’ll fall apart on you they are so tender at this point. If you have a gas grill, I like to stick them on the top rack of the grill with a metal pie plate of water underneath them on the grill, this keeps them extra moist. If you have a charcoal grill, put them on off the heat and keep them on for a shorter time so they don’t dry out.

It’s easy! And look what you get:

Just beautiful.

Anyways, onto side dishes. Fried okra is one of my favorite things in the world. My mama made some while I was home in Arkansas last weekend and I nearly fell over from happiness. There is nothing as lovely as some fried okra with a slice of home grown tomato.

Fried okra is a easy thing. There are different schools of thought on this, I keep it pretty simple. Wash the okra and cut into popcorn sized pieces. Then you let it sit for awhile so the okra can start to get really gooey. (My uncle likes to toss an egg in at this point to make it gooier. I don’t think it is really necessary, but his okra is pretty tasty. ) Then, toss in a half flour and half corn meal combo with some salt and lots and lots of pepper. Mix until everything is coated evenly.

Get a large skillet and heat up about 1/2 inch of oil in the bottom. When the oil is hot, add in the okra. It should be in a single layer. You may have to do batches.

Now for me, this is the hardest part. I always want to mess with things on the stovetop. Don’t do that. DON’T TOUCH THE OKRA AT ALL! At least until it is well on its way to browning. If you mess with it too early, all that awesome coating will fall off. Once the coating is on securely, you can gently flip it. Personally, I like to get my okra really brown, but don’t take it out until it is at least golden brown. As soon as you take it out, toss it with salt while still hot so it sticks.

It is heavenly. Just heavenly.

I could eat fried okra all day like popcorn.

The cornbread was a Krusteez mix, which are awesome and the spinach was sauteed with butter and then had bacon and Parmesan tossed in at the last minute. It was heavenly.

My lady friends and myself, we don’t mess around. No low cal, no fat, pansy girly food for us on our weekend! It was a festival of food. And epic event. Sure we also did crafts and went for walks on the beach, but our heart was in the food. Hope you try these recipes out sometime!

July 13, 2010
by katie
1,010 Comments

Mrs. Dalloway

“Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.”

Thus begins the classic novel “Mrs. Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf.

I was first aquainted with Virginia Woolf and Mrs. Dalloway through the novel “The Hours” by Michael Cunningham, which is a wonderful book. I’ve been meaning to get around to this novel for a long time. It is also on the Time’s top 100 novels list, which I thought would be an excellent spot to look for some summer reading material. Though, to be honest, after reading this book I feel like I need to find something really cheesy and fun for my next summer reading selection.

Not that Mrs. Dalloway wasn’t a good book. It is. Virginia Woolf was on the forefront of Modernist writing. The book is beautifully written and poetic. It is very stream of consciousness. One character will be walking down the street thinking about something and pass by another character and the story will immediatly flip over to their point of view. The transitions are seemless and lovely and the wording, beautiful. I love how she uses parentheses and commas with such abandon. Sentences are terribly long. It is how I often think and write.

I’m going to add an excerpt. This scene is from the point of view of Peter Walsh, the man Mrs. Dalloway (Clarissa), may have married. This is a memory of Peter’s.

“He had never felt so happy in the whole of his life! Without a word they made it up. They walked down to the lake. He had twenty minutes of perfect happiness. Her voice, her laugh, her dress (something floating, white, crimson), her spirit, her adventurousness; she made them all disembark and explore the island; she startled a hen; she laughed; she sang. And all the time, he knew perfectly well, Dalloway was falling in love with her; she was falling in love with Dalloway; but it didn’t seem to matter. Nothing mattered. They sat on the ground and talked- he and Clarissa. They went in and out of each other’s minds without any effort. And then in a second it was over. He said to himself as they were getting into the boat, “She will marry that man,” dully, without any resentment; but it was an obvious thing. Dalloway would marry Clarissa.”

However, I was terribly disappointed by the book. Not a lot happens. The climax seemed anti-climactic and the ending, unsatisfying.

The book has many different story lines, but there are two main ones. Mrs. Dalloway is planning a party for the evening. The whole story takes place in one day. Throughout the day, she encounters people from her past and reminisces about what her life could have been like if she had made different decisions.

The other central story line is about Septimus, a war veteran going through severe post tramatic stress disorder and possibly other mental imbalances. He goes through his day and kills himself at the end of it.

The two story lines only cross at the “climax” of the book, when someone happens to mention at Mrs. Dalloway’s party about Septimus’s story and how he killed himself. Mrs. Dalloway then has a moment of reflection about this loss of life.

My biggest problem with the book is that there was no denoument. No, resolution. All of these storylines are headed together, and at the very end Mrs. Dalloway is about to reunite with her longtime friends, and then it ends. We don’t get to see the reunion. I read the last page and started flipping through the back of the book looking for more and was sad to see that it was over.

The style and writing make this book truly lovely. However, I feel that the story could have been more satisfying. It is an interesting read, but certainly did not become a favorite. It is more like reading a really, really long poem than a novel. Maybe that is what Modernist writing is all about. I’ve been meaning to read “Ulysses” as well, but with all the commentary on “Mrs. Dalloway” that I’ve read that compares the two stylistically, I’m a little nervous.

But, I’m not going to give up on my mission to read classics! I love discovering wonderful old books. I also like rereading books that were assigned to me in high school that I hated at the time. Mostly, I have come to love these books when I read them as an adult. I remember really disliking “Tess of the D’Urbervilles” and “The Awakening” in high school, but love both books as an adult. I think they choose the wrong books for teenagers to read.

Maybe I’ll reread “Mrs. Dalloway” ten years from now and love it. I’ll just have to wait and see.

July 2, 2010
by katie
4 Comments

Slapstick

I’m not really sure what to say about “Slapstick” by Kurt Vonnegut. I reread the book last week. I had read it once before. It is a terribly entertaining book and I would recommend it to people.

My loss of words is not because I am lacking an opinion on the novel. I think that the novel is bizarre and wonderful and well written. I’m at a loss for words because how can you describe such a nut ball of a book?

The book generally takes place in the future. A future where disease has killed most of the population and the Chinese have become so technologically advanced that they have shrunk themselves down to microscopic sizes and left the rest of us on Earth after moving to Mars. It is a book about a man who is a genius when near his twin, through their combined psychic efforts. A book with a plan to end American loneliness by giving everyone new families. Oh, and gravity is no longer consistent. There are heavy and light Earth days.

It is a crazy book that is dark, witty, humorous, and engaging. The story is rather abstract and not very deep in and of itself, but it is full of interesting ideas and segways.

It is interesting that in the Prologue, Vonnegut says “This is the closest I will ever come to writing an autobiography. I have called it “Slapstick” because it is grotesque, situational poetry — like the slapstick film comedies, especially those of Laurel and Hardy, of long ago. It is about what life feels like to me.”

If this book is what life feels like to Vonnegut, he would make a very interesting or terrible dinner guest. It would be a hard call.

June 24, 2010
by katie
900 Comments

Craft night

Earlier this week, my girlfriends and I had the second of our new weekly craft nights. Last week, we drank grapefruit margaritas and did very little crafting at all. This week, we drank my classic margarita and actually did a bit of crafting.

I got this margarita recipe in college. It is foolproof, insanely tasty, and simple.

Katie’s Classic Blended Margaritas

Ingredients:

Ice
tequila (I like gold, but made it with white this time and it was fine)
frozen limeade concentrate
apple juice

Sounds weird right? Well, it is the perfect blend I assure you. Here is how you make it.

Fill a blender 2/3 full of ice. Then pour in enough tequila to cover about 1/3 of the ice. (You can fill it halfway up the ice if you want to get people sloshed. 1/3 the way up is for a reasonable evening.) Then, add 1/2 of a container of frozen limeade concentrate. Finish it up with a nice glug of apple juice. I would estimate about 1/2 a cup. Or to the top of the ice, depending on how strong and how sweet you like them.

Blend it up and voila! Magic! The apple juice gives it a nice sweetness and the limeade gives it the tang. This is way better than any premade mix you’d buy and about as easy.

I did another palate knife painting on our craft night. I found this picture of a bird that I just loved. Check out my interpretation! (Picture taken on my phone. Not good quality. The colors are brighter.)

Cute little bird.

I will name him George.

Just goes to show, that the girls and I can get some crafts done on craft night and not just drink margaritas. Shocking, but true.

June 15, 2010
by katie
5 Comments

Pink Grapefruit Margaritas

Last week I saw the Barefoot Contessa make Pink Grapefruit Margaritas with a friend on her cooking show. They made them to go with chili. They were pink and beautiful and both women looked like they were really enjoying them. I decided I had to have one.

Summer has not arrived in Seattle yet. It keeps teasing us with warm, sunny days and then it shies away again. This weekend was hot and beautiful out. I worked in my garden and soaked up the sun. I was a bit of a homebody and decided not to have company, but I did want others to be able to come and hang in my yard. So, I decided to have the girls over Monday night instead. I don’t know what the deal is, but by Monday night the cold weather was back. Oh, we still sat in my backyard and drank margaritas. We did a fine job pretending it was summer, but we all had to wear sweaters.

So, summertime or not, these margaritas are a sucess. They are super tasty and will help you pretend it is summer when it is cold out. I will be making this recipe again and again.

The Barefoot Contessa’s Pink Grapefruit Margaritas

1 lime, cut in wedges, optional

Kosher salt, optional

1 cup ruby red grapefruit juice

1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (4 limes)

1 cup orange liqueur, such a Triple Sec

2 cups ice

1 cup white tequila

Use the optional lime wedges and salt to salt the rims of your cups. Now, if you are like me and don’t really care for a salted rim, add 1/4 teaspoon of salt to the pitcher of margaritas instead. Don’t skip this. It will make all the difference in the world!

To make the pitcher of margaritas, simply blend all the other ingredients together and serve!

June 14, 2010
by katie
1,169 Comments

Strawberry and Rhubarb pie

I went to the farmer’s market yesterday and was thrilled to see that strawberry season has arrived! There were a number of stands selling them and each one looked more amazing than the last. I bought a whole flat of them. Then as I continued my market voyage, I came across some fresh rhubarb. It’s pie time!

So, I went and bought a frozen crust, because I was already making scampi and scones. I mean, I need a little time to chill on my Sunday. And really, I don’t see any problem with frozen crusts. I think they serve my purposes just fine. And frozen puff pastry is a heavenly thing.

Anyways, I’m off topic. I had crust, strawberries, and rhubarb. So, when I got home with all of these things, my man and I made a pie.

I love cooking in the kitchen with my man.

Cooking in general is more fun with other people, but there is something about a man in the kitchen that I like.

Anyways, the last time that we did this pie, I chose a recipe from Foodnetwork called Grandma’s Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie. It comes up on their site if you want to search for it. When I followed those instructions, I got a pretty good pie. However, it was a little overcomplicated for my tastes. My man said that it was too sweet, too lemony, and had too much cinnamon. All the extra flavoring just seemed to take away from the main ingredients. We couldn’t taste the strawberry or rhubarb! So, looking at my notes from last time, I made a number of major adjustments. I feel confident in taking ownership of this recipe. It is now, Katie’s Strawberry and Rhubarb Pie. Sure, as you can see, it still turned out kinda soupy, (I can never stand to let a pie sit as long as I should before cutting it. Who can? If you cut a pie when still hot, all the filling rushes to fill in the gap because it hasn’t set properly.) but it was really tasty last night. So what if it looks more like a cobbler than a pie! Throw some ice cream on top and no one will notice that it looks a mess.

Katie’s Strawberry and Rhubarb Pie

3 cups chopped red rhubarb, fresh
2 cups de-stemmed, washed and cut strawberries (in larger pieces)
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 tablespoons minute tapioca
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons butter, cubed small
1 egg white beaten with 1 teaspoon water
two thawed, formerly frozen pie crusts

Mix all the ingredients except the butter and egg white in a large bowl. Pour mixture into thawed, frozen pie crust. Dot the top of the filling with the cubed butter. Lay the second pie crust over the top and crimp the edges together with your fingers. Then, apply the egg wash to the crust with a brush.

Collar the pie with foil and bake at 425 for 15 minutes. Then, reduce the temperature to 375 for the next 45-50 minutes, or until the filling is bubbling.

Let it sit and cool, otherwise you get a soupy mess instead of a pretty pie piece, but it will taste just as good either way!!!

June 14, 2010
by katie
1,146 Comments

The Contessa strikes again!

I haven’t been cooking much lately. I’m not sure why. It just seems that I’ve been wanting the easy option the last few weeks, which means pasta, delivery, or Taco Time. However, this weekend I decided I needed to break this slump. So, I went to my Barefoot Contessa cookbooks and decided to look for something yummy. I chose two recipes and they were both just wonderful.

The first was her Baked Shrimp Scampi recipe. This recipe is easy, simple, fairly fast, and delicious. It also contains an obscene amount of butter. The panko mixed into the butter mixture makes a nice crust on the top of the shrimp. I served it over rice, so that there was something to soak up all that butter wonderful. The crusty parts mixed with the rice were my favorite part! The presentation is just beautiful and would be an excellent dish for a dinner party.

When I made it yesterday, I halved the recipe, and it worked out just fine. In fact, another note on the recipe. I used frozen shrimp that were already peeled and deveined with the tail on. I placed the frozen shrimp in a colander and ran cold water over them until they thawed, then I butterflied them. Keeping a bag of frozen shrimp in the freezer is a must for me these days. It is the easiest meat in the freezer to defrost and you can quickly and easily make impressive snacks for unexpected guests.

I wish I had taken a picture, because it was really pretty! I’m just going to add in the picture from the cookbook. Mine looked just as good. 🙂

Barefoot Contessa’s Baked Shrimp Scampi

Ingredients

2 pounds (12 to 15 per pound) shrimp in the shell
3 tablespoons good olive oil
2 tablespoons dry white wine
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 teaspoons minced garlic (4 cloves)
1/4 cup minced shallots
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves
1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary leaves
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 extra-large egg yolk
2/3 cup panko (Japanese dried bread flakes)
Lemon wedges, for serving

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Peel, devein, and butterfly the shrimp, leaving the tails on. Place the shrimp in a mixing bowl and toss gently with the olive oil, wine, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper. Allow to sit at room temperature while you make the butter and garlic mixture.

In a small bowl, mash the softened butter with the garlic, shallots, parsley, rosemary, red pepper flakes, lemon zest, lemon juice, egg yolk, panko, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper until combined.

Starting from the outer edge of a 14-inch oval gratin dish, arrange the shrimp in a single layer cut side down with the tails curling up and towards the center of the dish. Pour the remaining marinade over the shrimp. Spread the butter mixture evenly over the shrimp. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until hot and bubbly. If you like the top browned, place under a broiler for 1 minute. Serve with lemon wedges.

The other amazing Barefoot Contessa recipe I made yesterday was from her first cookbook and it was her Cheddar and Dill Scones.

Oh my goodness. I don’t know if anyone else has this obsession, but when I was a child, my parents would take me to Red Lobster and all I would eat would be their cheddar biscuits. I haven’t been to a Red Lobster in probably 10 years now, but the biscuits haunt me. So, when I was searching for inspiration and came across her recipe, I knew I had to do it. I had to know if I could make something so wonderful on my own.

They were my favorite part of dinner last night, and the scampi was pretty darn good.

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