Gordon Ramsay's Menu - Indian Spice -- Shrimp Pilau -- Wilted Spinach with Mustard Seed -- Grilled Pineapple with Mint and Toasted Coconut

There are some foods that are not just a feast for your mouth, but also for your eyes, and nose. For example, I present this meal.

Shrimp, chicken stock, onion, basmati rice, curry powder, garlic, olive oil, cardamom pods, ground cumin, and ground coriander. Believe me, people. This recipe was a real treat for your sense of smell.

Diced garlic and onion.

Create the spice blend of fresh thyme, cumin, coriander, and cardamom seeds.

Start sweating the onions and garlic in a Dutch Oven.

Mix in the spice blend. At this point, your nose will be directly in your pan inhaling deeply. Please be careful. It is hot.

At the raw basmati rice and brown with the spiced onions.

At the stock and shrimp. (Yes, put the shrimp in raw - I forgot to take a picture of this step.) Cover the Dutch oven with a parchment tent and bake.

Try not to open the oven too much, but I understand it if you want to keep putting your nose in the pan.

Remove from the oven and try not to grab handfuls of this dish directly from the pan. I promise you will be tempted.

Meanwhile, while the shrimp is in the oven, make the wilted spinach.

Spinach, onion, garam masala, ginger, salt and pepper, canola oil, and mustard seed (whole or coarsley crushed).

Start by sauteing the sliced onion with the spices.

Until they're just about golden.

Add the spinach, in batches if necessary. It's amazing how quickly they reduce down when cooked.

It's that easy. Plate it up and dive in.

I will give you this warning. As great as the shrimp and rice tasted straight out of the oven - it didn't make great left-overs. Usually things taste even better the next day after all the flavors meld together -- this one didn't. The spices lost their impact and actually tasted bland. So be prepared to finish all the shrimp.

I wasn't too crazy about the spinach. Cooked spinach just isn't my thing. Don't get me wrong - I could see someone who likes spinach adoring this side dish, but not me. It was the perfect side for the shrimp, though. Ramsay certainly knows about pairing his food.

Something else he knows? Dessert.

Word to the wise: You might want to start this earlier in the afternoon, though.

A very ripe pineapple. My poor boys kept saying that we were going to eat Spongebob's house. Shredded coconut, mint, and sugar.

Cook the water and sugar to create a simple syrup infused with fresh mint leaves. Set aside to cool.

Toast the coconut. Set aside.

Cut your pineapple into about 16ths, and place on a well-greased grill.

Keep an eye on them and watch them take forever to brown.

Seriously - it took forever. I think Ramsay said it would take about 8 minutes -- I was outside for 25 minutes and I had the flame about medium-high.

But finally, they did brown and start oozing their juices.

Place in a bowl and mix with the mint syrup. Ramsay recommends, if you have time, to make this dessert up to and including this step the night before so that the pineapple can "marinate" overnight. That would have been a good idea. The syrup just didn't pack enough mint kick. But, I put it in the fridge for the rest of the afternoon (about 3 hours).

But that didn't stop us from creating a completely awesome dessert.

So, I added one extra ingredient to the pineapple -- coconut cream pie flavored ice cream. Oh My God. What else to say?

Yes, the cold grilled pineapple was wonderful, but it lost some of its grilled goodness when chilled. I think perhaps it would have been more satisfying (if we didn't add ice cream to it) if it were served fresh off the grill with the syrup dizzled over it, or even instead of a syrup, maybe make a minty sugar icing to dot the serving plate. -- By the way, we had some left over ice cream and pineapple, and it made an awesome milkshake.

How long? 2 HOURS! Entirely of preparation and cooking. This does not include the refrigeration time for the pineapple. That was very disappointing considering how wonderful the rest of the meal was (spinach excluded). I was exhausted on my feet by the time I served dinner. Then because so many pans, bowls, grills were used, there was about another 35 to 40 minutes of clean up.

So, dear readers - beware. This is NOT Fast Food.

"Shrimp Pilau with Wilted Spinach with Mustard Seed, and Grilled Pineapple with Mint and Toasted Coconut ... Done."

One of My Favorites -- Grilled Chicken Saltimbacca

This is one of my personal favorite recipes to make in the summer. I usually have fresh sage on hand and it is so easy to make. A real "Fast Food" type of meal. Little prep, little clean up, a lot of flavor.
Chicken breasts, prosciutto, lemon, sage and olive oil. (you can add salt and pepper, too, if you like)

Fresh sage. It's a unique taste and texture, but is absolutely wondrous when it's cooked. I've been wanting to try deep-fried sage leaves as a tasty garnish, but haven't had a chance yet.

Fresh proscuitto.

Lemon juice. The ultimate summer taste and smell. As I was rolling this lemon on my cutting board to release the juices, the oil came spraying out of the peel. I just massaged it into my hands and kept going, taking time to sniff the fragrance every so often.

So, mix the fresh lemon juice and olive oil together. Add salt and pepper here if you like.

Coat the chicken breasts in it. (If the breasts are on the thick side, you might want to pound them a little thinner. I should have done that with these in order to reduce and even out the cooking time.)

Place about three large sage leaves or 4 smaller leaves on each breast.

Then wrap each breast in a slice of proscuitto. If the breasts are large enough and you have enough proscuitto, you could use two slices for each breast.

Heat up the grill (I covered mine in foil, but you could grill them directly on the rack if you oil it well enough. You definitely don't want the proscuitto sticking to it and pulling off of the chicken.

Grill until the chicken is cooked all the way through (These took about 15 minutes, turning once.)

They turned out just perfect.

Trying to cut down on time and expense, I just served this with store-bought mustard potato salad. Salads go really well with this too.

So there you have it. My favorite summer-time grilled entree. It's really great for entertaining, just fancy up the sides a bit. A nice tomato and cucumber salad. A frozen berry dessert. It's quick, easy and so little clean up.

Everyone should have time to cook this -- About 35 minutes in all.

Gordon Ramsay's Pasta with Pancetta, Mushrooms and Leeks

Let me start by saying, I loved making this recipe. It was the perfect weeknight dinner.



medium pasta shells, pancetta, crimini mushrooms, leeks, olive oil, salt, pepper, creme fraiche, and parsley.

Rinse and slice the leeks.

Clean and slice the mushrooms.

Chop the pancetta. (This pancetta was thinner than I wanted. The evil Giant Eagle only sold it prepackaged and nearly shaved.) This would have been better if I had a slab of pancetta to chop.

Cook and drain the pasta shells.

Saute the pancetta in the olive oil just until it starts to turn a golden brown around the edges, but do not let it get crispy like bacon.

Add the leeks and the mushrooms.

Saute until the leeks soften up and the mushrooms start to shrink. Season with salt and pepper.

Toss the leek mixture with the pasta and add a generous dollop of creme fraiche.

Serve sprinkled with chopped parsley.

Carlo and I loved this dish. The kids even liked it since the pasta shells were kid-friendly. The creme fraiche was the perfect finishing touch. It added just enough accentuation without masking any of the subtler flavors.

We were discussing what we liked about the dish and what, if anything, we would change about it. Here's what we thought would be good. This dish would dress up really nice with some fettuccini instead of the shells. Also, we thought that instead of using the baby bellas, we could by full sized portabella caps, grill them and add them to the dish. We even thought about using a grilled cap to hold a nest of fettuccini on top, or even to cap off the pasta with the grilled mushroom. And then we decided that a sprinkle of freshly grated Parmesan would have been a nice addition, too.

35 Minutes. That's all it took. This was a definite winner and has earned its way into my permanent recipe collection.

"Pasta with Pancetta, Mushrooms and Leeks" ... Done.

Gordon Ramsay's Menu - Mexican Flavors -- Beef Fajitas with Sour Cream & Guacamole -- Melon with Tequila & Lime

So, the next recipe from Mr. Ramsay is for Beef Fajitas. Sounds easy enough. Everyone knows what goes into them. How to assemble them. Sounds easy enough, right? Now, remember, he claims that nothing should take more than 45 minutes, start to finish. But I think he realized that he really pushed the time limits with this recipe ...

Well, sure. All recipes can be made quickly when several people help. But this cookbook was about preparing food quickly for your family so they could eat healthily. You all know I have twin nearly-four year old boys. Someone has to watch them while I'm cooking. So my husband is watching them and trying to keep them out of the kitchen while I'm cooking. For this recipe, he took them to the store. So, just two hands preparing this food. Even if they were there to help, I would only have my husband, because I'm not having A & J chop any peppers anytime soon.

For the fajitas - Skirt steak (I should have used a more tender cut of beef, Ramsay's recipe calls for tenderloin), red pepper, yellow pepper, olive oil, chili powder, paprika, cumin, salt and pepper. (I also added an onion that I happened to have on hand.)

For the guacamole - two avocados, lime juice, garlic, chile (he says to use a red chili, I used canned chopped mild green chiles), shallot, plum tomatoes and cilantro.

For the melon - one honeydew melon, tequila, lime, honey and mint.

Slice the steak into strips. It was a beautiful piece of meat, but more tough than I prefer.

Mix together the salt, pepper, chili powder, paprika and cumin. Toss half with the beef strips and let sit while preparing the rest of the ingredients.

Slice the peppers (and onion) and toss with the remaining spice blend.

Saute the veggies until just softening.

Add the beef and sautee until the beef is cooked through.

Meanwhile...

Cut up and mash the avocado.

Mix together with the tomatoes, shallot, chiles, garlic and lime juice. Set in fridge until ready to serve.

To assemble, warm some flour tortillas, heap the meat and veggies on the torilla, top with the guacamole and the sour cream. I had some shredded cheese on hand, too, and also used that.

Roll up and eat. Frankly, I've had better. The chili powder marinade was actually bland. There was some heat to it, but not a heck of a lot of flavor. The guacamole was good, but the recipe made way to much, and as you know, it quickly discolors so storing didn't work for very long. The meat was tough and chewy. I know that's my fault, but the skirt steak I bought was earmarked for "fajitas," but I suppose it needed a real marinade, not just powders. It might has been better tasting it I cooked it before slicing it, but I'm not sure if that would have made a big difference. It was really lack luster in taste.

Dessert was my saving grace.

I used a melon baller to scoop out the flesh.

Place in a bowl and add the tequila, lime juice, honey and chopped mint.

It was perfect. The tequila added just the right zip without overpowering the melon. I also made a non-alcholic version for the twins (just omitted the tequila and added an extra squirt of lime juice and honey). They gobbled it up.

How long? One Hour And Forty-Five Minutes!! An entire hour of prep time with all the chopping and slicing and melon-balling. I guess if I had one person chopping the veggies and another slicing the steak, another using the melon baller, I could have probably finished it in under 45 minutes. I guess I should just grow two more sets of hands.

"Beef Fajitas with Sour Cream & Guacamole, and Melon with Tequila & Lime ... Done"

The Doldrums

I'm stuck in neutral. I want to get things done. I want to get posts written. I want to clean my house. I want to play soccer with the boys. I want to do a lot of things. I want to stop wanting. I have posts waiting for me to finish. They won't write themselves, will they? Suddenly my month's reserve of posts are used up.

I've been so preoccupied of late. With what? I'm not really sure. There has been a lot of thinking going on. Which is fine, but without action, I have nothing to show for it. I have a great idea for a historical novel, based on an ancestor's life, but all I do is carry my notebook around, hold the pencil, and watch the blank page gather dust. I've been thinking of ways to get this blog up and running at full momentum. I've been thinking of ways to declutter my life. We're planning a garage sale for next month. I've been thinking about tagging everything. But does anything actually have a price tag on it yet?

I've gotten onto Facebook. Big mistake. I'm spending so much time reconnecting with old friends, I'm not taking care of things for today. Don't get me wrong, I adore Facebook now. (I could do without all those little polls and games they have on there, though.) But, I've been dreaming so much about the past. I've been remembering things of late that I thought I had forgotten some 25 years ago. Like what brand of chocolate milk a friend's mom used to buy and serve on our sleepovers. Why would I remember that? Why should I? There's a lot a regret there, too. I see all the people I wish I would have stayed in touch with over the years, and didn't, and I see all the missed opportunities.

I've got to get my ass in gear. Stop thinking. Get moving. I've got to break out of these doldrums; create my own momentum - no one else is going to do it for me, that's for sure.

Tuna Pasta Salad

So, I thought I would through in one of my own recipes to show Ramsey what "Fast Food" is really about for the working woman/mom.

This is a pasta salad my mother used to make when I was a kid. I've started making it for my family. It's cheap, easy and very versatile.

Can of tuna, peas, celery, onion, bite-sized pasta of your choice. I usually use elbow macaroni, but anything else (except noodles) works just as well. My mother used to use canned peas, but I prefer freshly steamed fresh or frozen peas (a lot less salty and mushy).

Dice the celery and onion. The quantity really is dictated by your own taste.

Steam (or drain) the peas. I plunged mine in ice water so they wouldn't go mushy on me.

Cook your pasta to al dente or to taste.

Drain your tuna, break up the larger pieces with a fork. Combine it all in a large bowl and then

add your mayonnaise or Miracle Whip (whatever). Serve.

It's really great chilled. I recommend mixing in the mayo on a "per bowl" basis. If you put it in before you refrigerate it, then it dries out and you need to add more anyway. Also, some people in your family might like it drier or wetter than you do. This a great summertime dish because you can make it ahead, go to the beach, come back and serve yourself a bowl (when you're too hot to cook). It also makes a great "base" for other dishes. You could chop up some fresh tomatoes and put them in with a handful of fresh herbs, or some fresh green beans. It really begs to be "dressed" up and played with. Overall, it takes about 30 minutes to prepare. Boiling the water and cooking the pasta is by far the most time-consuming part of the entire recipe. Enjoy.