Month: April 2020

Jeremy, Remember when I was asked to come in to work a few extra hours back when I was a cashier? Oh yeah, You had to endure a ton with what was going on at the time so, I whipped up dinner for you when you got out as a hot happy treat.

Her favorite dishes have shellfish and shrimp was readily available cooked and raw, and Italian just like her. (3/4, with some French) Well, after troving the internet for a while, I came across it, shrimp fra diavolo. It can pack a mighty punch of spice, but that can be mitigated by cutting down and swapping some of the peppers for herbs. (so it’s not sooooo devilish I suppose.)

The name “fra diavolo” comes from the Italian for “from the devil”. It is a type of red sauce used with seafood where you put in a bunch of capsacin (red pepper flakes, chili peppers, etc.). Capsacin is a killer on the taste-buds, to the point of not being able to taste flavor anymore. A mouth plagued with hot sauce is a painting only done in 1 tone of the same color. 

For this reason, I decided not to add a ton of red pepper flakes opting for more of a traditional herbal red sauce – oregano, basil, parsley, etc. The herbs actually counteracted some of the capsacin, making it less spicy but not completely eliminating the spice all together. What’s life without a little zing?

I had no other choice but to use angel hair pasta underneath, playing off of the heaven vs hell motif. Thin noodles take much less time than thick ones. There’s an old nona’s tale about how to tell if it’s ready. But as fun as it may be to throw stuff at the walls, that isn’t a great indication of how it feels in your mouth. If you live with neat-freaks who don’t cook because they like a clean kitchen, it might get you in trouble. The only way to know how it tastes and the mouth-feel is just right is to simply taste it yourself after 8 minutes and test every minute if it’s not ready yet. Al-dente means “to the tooth” not to firm, but no squish either.

The recipe I used to prepare this was from Food Network and was remarkably easy. All you do is cook your shrimp in a pan with olive oil and spice par usual. Then (in the same pan) make your sauce pretty much like you would make any other red sauce. Since we don’t care much for wine, I cut their amount down to a quarter. This way, the wine can still contribute, but that kick is damped down too.

I was so delighted by the dinner and let’s just say, we put the leftovers in a very small container, and I got a lip-shaped sauce stain on your cheek.

Once we can go out again, I’m going to beg and plead you to make that with me. I’ll start now, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, pretty please?

Hello everyone, Jeremy here. It was the 4th anniversary of my first date with my lovely Lauren on March 25th. Despite this whole pandemic, we wanted to celebrate while still being sensitive about the situation. I had some heavy cream and chocolate lying around, so I figured, why not make some chocolate mousse to spoil ourselves? We had recently watched Jamie Oliver make some using eggs, sugar, cream, and chocolate. Normally I would just melt the chocolate, whip up the heavy cream, and fold them in together. This time around, I wanted to spice things up a bit and lighten them too (my previous attempts came out SUPER rich). I like making this dish since it doesn’t require a lot and come on, it’s chocolate! My darling angel loves milk dark  and chocolate, especially with peanut butter or berries.

This recipe is not exactly the simplest. (I actually needed to call my mom in for part of this. How embarrassing!) First, you need to whip the heavy cream until you get stiff peaks and let it cool in the fridge. This allows it to stabilize which leads to a fluffier end product precisely what we want. Then, after thoroughly cleaning out the mixing bowl, I whipped the egg whites together. Cross-contamination is a HUGE no-no, but as long as the eggs are fresh, this shouldn’t be a problem according to this website. That’s our meringue. I recommend not trying to whip either of these by hand, or else you will be at it for at least 10 or so minutes each just whipping. I guess it’s a good upper body workout, but if you have a wrist injury, do what I did, use a standard mixer. 

Now for the the fun part where we get to make a big fat mess, melting the chocolate. The original recipe called for adding water to the melting chocolate. Turns out according to: this article, as long as it is above roughly one tablespoon. Surprisingly, melted chocolate is considered a dry ingredient since the moisture content was removed when factories harvested it from cocoa beans. It’s the equivalent of adding water to flour, it causes the molecules in the chocolate to stick together, forming a paste, as mentioned here. However, if you add water to seized chocolate, it will help the chocolate come back to its . This is because, according to Fooducation, the water takes the place of the oil that binds the chocolate them together. Science comes in handy in the kitchen.

So, you add some butter and water to the melting chocolate over a double boiler and let it all ooze together. In a separate bowl, cream together the egg yolks and sugar. This also adds fluffiness. Now for the tricky part. Once all the chocolate is melted, SLOWLY add it to the beaten eggs while whisking, AND I MEAN SLOWLY. If you move too quickly, it will give you chocolate scrambled eggs, YUCKY! Once you’ve gotten it all smooth, mix in the rest of the chocolate. When it’s all together, pour it back over the double boiler to let the egg yolks cook and reduce. Finally, fold the chocolatey goodness in with the meringue and the whipped cream. I definitely enjoyed making Jamie Oliver’s truffles, especially since the final product came out tasty. I may have to try this again sometime. (and hopefully not gain weight…) But the biggest reward for me is seeing the look on Lauren’s face when she takes the first bite.