Shrimp Pasta Florentine

Here's a wonderful simple pasta dish that has all the flavor of a rich cream sauce, but very little of the fat. This dish uses only 1 tablespoons of butter per servings. The key to this dish is to not over cook the shrimp.

Ingredients:

1/2 lb. Farfalle pasta AKA bow tie pasta
 1 lb. large shrimp. Preferred brand;

Costo frozen pre cooked in the orange bag

2 cups Fresh spinach,
cooked and drained making about 1/4 cup

2 cloves garlic

2 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons Wondra brand flour

1/2 cup milk.

Preparation:

Melt the butter in a sauce pan and add chopped garlic and cook 30 seconds. Combine the milk and Wondra flour and mix until the flour is incorporated. Add the milk / flour mixture to the melted garlic butter stirring constantly until a thick sauce forms. Add the precooked shrimp, cooked spinach and remove from heat and set aside, your sauce is done.

Boil water with plenty of salt and cook the pasta to al dente according to directions, about 10 to 11 minutes.

Add the cooked, well drained pasta to the sauce, heat and cook for 5 minutes and serve.

Yellow Squash

Yellow Squash has to be one of my favorite vegetables. When I lived in California I used to grow yellow squash in our garden and it was awesome. I like medium size yellow squash because there aren't so many seeds. The key to perfect yellow squash is to par boil or steam, rinse in cold water and finish by sautéing with a little butter and garlic.

Ingredients:
2 - 3 medium yellow squash
1 garlic clove
1 tablespoon butter
Salt and pepper

Preparation:

Wash and cut the yellow squash into bite size pieces. Take a 10" sauté pan and add the yellow squash and 1/2 cup of water. Cover the sauté pan and steam the squash for about 3 minutes, by then most of the water should have evaporated.

 

You'll know the squash is ready when the inside turns a greenish color and the out side is still firm. Next, rinse the squash in cold water to stop the cooking process. Take the sauté pan and heat to medium high. Add 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 minced garlic clove. Cook the garlic for 30 seconds and add the squash. Bring the squash up to temp and you're done. Finish the dish with a grind of salt and pepper.

Tortilla Soup

I love to order a cup of chicken tortilla soup when out to lunch, it's generally healthy and can be made so many different interesting ways. My favorite though is blended chicken tortilla soup with shredded chicken breast and topped with sour cream, avocado, cilantro and some crispy tortilla strips.

 Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

1 medium yellow onion

3garlic cloves

1/2 green bell pepper

5 - 6" corn tortillas

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon salt

pinch cayenne pepper

1 - 32 ounce low sodium chicken stock

1-2 tablespoons Wondra flour

1 cup milk

1 cooked and shredded chicken breast

avocado

cilantro

sour cream

Preparation:

Add the oil and butter to an 10" sauté pan. Add the diced onion, green bell pepper and garlic. Cook on medium low for 10 minutes until the onion and bell pepper are soft and translucent.

Next, add the chili powder, cumin and diced corn tortillas and simmer for another 5 minutes and you're done. Take the contents of the sauté pan and add to a blender along with the chicken stock and blend until a smooth even consistency. Once creamy smooth, pour the soup into a 3 quart sauce pan. Bring the soup up to a boil and then turn off the heat, cover and let rest until you're ready to serve.

For a thicker soup I'll mix 1 tablespoon Wondra flour with 1 cup milk and whisk into the soup.

To serve, add a couple of ladles of soup into a serving bowl. Place some shredded chicken in the middle and garnish with avocado, sour cream, cilantro and crispy tortilla strips.

Salad Serving Suggestion:
Avocado Garlic Caesar Salad

 

Red Beans and Rice with Cajun Andouille Sausage and Garlic Toast

 

I love red beans and rice with spicy hot Andouille sausage and garlic toast. I have a favorite lunch spot in Monterey California called Ferddies and I would order this dish everytime. I've made this dish a couple of dozen times over the years and I think I've got it to a perfect match to Ferddies.

The key ingredient is that it's got to be Bush's red beans. You can substitute other brands or even red kidney beans, but it won't be the same. Second is the pork fat, you've got to have some pork fat to make the dish work.

Historically red beans would be cooked for a long period of time with ham hocks for the pork fat. I've found that real bacon bits will get the job done with no additional cooking time. Lastly, the tobasco is what brings the whole dish together and you can add more or less depending on how hot you like it.

Ingredients:

2 cans Bush's red beans

2 tablespoons crumbled bacon

1 tablespoon tobasco

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 Aidells andouille sausages

1 cup white basmati rice

garlic toast - sour baggette, garlic, butter

Preparation: Rice

Start the rice off in a rice cooker first and it will be done just as everything else is coming together. 1 cup of white basmanti rice to 2 cups of water and teaspoon salt.

Preparation: Red Beans

Drain and rinse the beans and add to a sauce pan. Add 1 cup of water, bacon bits, tobasco and bring to a boil. Once heated take a large fork or potato masher and mash 1/2 of the beans. Mix in the olive oil and turn off the heat while preparing the rest of the dish.

Preparation: Garlic Toast

Cut a french baggette into slices and put on a baking sheet. Add butter and 3 cloves crushed garlic to a small microwavable bowl and cook in the micro for 30 - 40 seconds. Brush the garlic butter onto the sliced bread and bake in a 350 degree oven until golden brown.

Preparation: Sausages

The Aidel's suasages are already cooked so all you want is to heat in a suate pan until golden brown but not burnt.

To serve; take the red beans and spread out on the plate. Use a small bowl as a mold to put the rice on the plate. Add the sausage, garlic toast and you're done.

Ken's Signature Avocado Garlic Caesar Salad Dressing

 

Here's a salad dressing that I made for a Caesar salad one day and it turned out amazing and everyone raves about it. The base to the recipe is Gerard's light caesar salad dressing which is my favorite. The avocado adds a wonderful creamyness and the garlic give a great punch. Give this one a try!

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons Gerard's light caesar dressing
Cesar croutons

1 medium large avocado

4 garlic gloves

4 tablespoons milk

Preparation:

This recipe is for 6 servings. Combine the Gerard's light caesar dressing, avocado and garlic into the mini food processor and blend until smooth. The dressing will be quite thick at this point and need to be thinned out. Add 1 tablespoon of milk at a time to achieve the proper salad dressing consistency.

Salad preparation:

Prepare romaine lettuce for six and mix in the avocado garlic caesar dressing. Add 1 cup small size croutons and 1/4 cup shaved or grated parmesan mix well and plate.
 

Oven Roasted Chicken Thighs with "Show Me" Smokey Barbecue Sauce

Sometimes you just need to make it easy on yourself when it comes to cooking. Here I put some chicken thighs on a baking pan and coated with my favorite smokey barbeque sauce, Show Me. You can only get this stuff on Amazon.com. It's amazing! Easy barbequed chicken! 

Ingredients:
Chicken thighs
Barbeque sauce


Preparation:

 Rinse and dry the chicken thighs and place on a baking pan covered in aluminum foil. Use the foil so the clean up is a breeze. Brush on a liberal amount of barbeque sauce. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. After 15 minutes brush on a little more barbeque sauce.

Sautéed Asparagus with Parmesan Cheese

This is a very simple approach to asparagus.I always take a vegetable peeler and peel off the skin on the thick end. I think it looks and tastes better this way. I simply steam the asparagus in a 12" sauté pan to al dente, lightly toss in olive oil and served with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds asparagus
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Parmesan cheese

Preparation:

Preheat a 12" sauté pan to medium high. Place the asparagus in the pan and add 1/4 cup water. As the asparagus streams the water will evaporate. When the water has completely evaporated the asparagus should be perfect al dente. Add a a little olive oil to the pan and coat the asparagus. 

 

Place the cooked asparagus on a serving dish. Finish the dish with a grind of salt, pepper and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. 

Garlic Marinated Chicken with Munster Cheese and Prosciutto

This chicken dish really is amazing. The combination of the marinated garlic grilled chicken, Munster cheese and salty prosciutto works really well.

Ingredients:

Chicken breast

Munster cheese

Prosciutto

4 Garlic cloves
Olive oil

 

Preparation:

Slice the chicken breast in half in order to make a thinner cut of meat, which is also called butterfly. Marinate the chicken in a splash of olive oil and crushed garlic in a zip lock bag for 1 to 2 hours. Grill the chicken over hot grill.

Because the chicken is sliced thin it will cook fast, maybe 3 minutes per side. In the last minute of cooking place a slice of Munster cheese and prosciutto on the chicken breast.

Garnish with chopped Italian parsley.