Shrimp, Scallops and Chourico!
#5
  Re: (...)
Special Today! Scallops and Shrimp with Chourico

Since it is Tuesday here in the grand valley, the fish trucks have arrived from California. So it is the best day to purchase seafood. I wandered down to the market to take a look at what came in on the trucks. I picked a few shrimp up and a smattering of scallops.

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Once the are cleaned, I ice them down til it is time to cook them. Seafood's most common problem is being over cooked. If you find yourself eating seafood with the consistency of window caulking or gum eraser quality,
someone fell a sleep at the switch and cooked the crap out of it. While that is on ice, I set up to do the vegetable, since that will take the most time. I toss the rice in the rice cooker as soon as I am done with the seafood prep, so it is already steaming.

Since this years vines produced an incredible about of acorn squash I have plenty on hand. I have been on the mission to develop some vegetable dishes that are useable through the winter for catering. I have some ideas!!!

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I lop the top off and seed the sucker. Most people split them through the stem. I like the presentation of them topped and seeded. A small slice off the bottom allows them to sit flat, both for roasting and for plating.

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I have selected a little butternut squash, a small amount of Mayan sweet onion, the acorn squash diced and some craisins. Still does not seem balanced to me, need some zip. I know...........

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Chourico sausage, a nice textured, well seasoned Portuguese sausage. I get mine shipped in from Gaspar's out of Rhode Island. This will do nicely along with a little salt, pepper, and a hint of fennel and cardamom.

Into the Ziploc steamer bag, and 8 minutes later it will be ready for roasting. I always steam first and the roast as a second step. I like the mouth feel better of roasted vegetables if they have been steamed prior to roasting.

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While that is steaming it is time to choose a wine. Looking in the wine cellar I spot a really nice Muller Thurgau, but not from Germany, this one hails from the Northeast corner of Italy. Nice light honeysuckle with meyer lemon on the nose, and a beautiful melon taste with a little lemon on the finish. This is a nice drinking white wine!

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I open it up and taste it...... yep the chef needs a glass of this now and with dinner.

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Things are getting close so I pull the seafood off the ice and pan it up in one of my Calphalon gratin pans. Seasoned with my version of Old Bay, and add in a little Chourico to tie it all together.

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Then I remove the Acorn filled squash from the steam bag and pan it for roasting.

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Once everything is panned it is into a 350 F oven for the roasting.

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And 15 minutes later dinner will be served! I was very happy with the outcome. If you are wondering how it gets done in 15 minutes, I place my Calphalon gratin pans in the oven when I preheat it, so my pans start hot and can transfer heat to the food immediately. Plus I cook with them on top the pizza stone, the stone hold a lot of heat and can very rapidly replace the heat being lost to the food. Now ya know!

And so I set out the table for my single person feast. Insane, maybe, enjoyable you bet!

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Now with dinner on a toast to all of you who love to cook, keep at it, the secret to hitting the spectacular dishes is to keep cooking, keep testing and keep refining it. I read a lot of cookbooks, I mean read them, when you read them try to understand what the flavor profile is and how they combine to create the unique taste. This is the secret to mapping the mind to produce excellent results out of your head!

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'til we speak again, put a little effort into dinner, even if it is just you eating, you will find it fun and the dinner is so much better when you put the effort into it!

Chef Bob Ballantyne
The Cowboy and The Rose Catering
Grand Junction, Colorado, USA
Chef de Cuisine
The Cowboy and The Rose Catering

USMC Sgt 1979-1985
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#6
  Re: Shrimp, Scallops and Chourico! by bbally (Special Today! Scall...)
Oooh this all looks just wonderful. What is that red gadget in the first picture??? Must be for the shrimp... a deveiner/sheller perhaps.

Don't keep me in suspense. What is that thing?

Again, wonderful pictorial. I love seeing the process and reading the explainations.

Thanks for sharing with us,

Laura
"Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time."
Laura
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#7
  Re: Re: Shrimp, Scallops and Chourico! by luvnit (Oooh this all looks ...)
Well, it sure is nice to meet you, Bob!!!

Three of my favorite ingredients--thanks for the lesson....
"Never eat more than you can lift" Miss Piggy
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#8
  Re: Re: Shrimp, Scallops and Chourico! by Roxanne 21 (Well, it sure is nic...)
Laura, the red thing is a deviner, peeler for shrimp. Living in New England for a long time before going west for the second time, you have to have one.

Glad to meet you to Roxanne, you live in a most glorious country. When I was doing metal spectrometers, South Africa was one of the hot spots for selling precious metal spectrometers.
Chef de Cuisine
The Cowboy and The Rose Catering

USMC Sgt 1979-1985
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