Shrimp with Lemon Ginger Rice Pilaf

This weeks cooking class at culinaerie was focused on grains.  It was mostly review, but we learned more about how various types of semi-processed grains are made.  My partner and I also decided to experiment a little with the flavors of a traditional pilaf.  We added lemon, ginger, and garlic to the usual shallots and butter.  The result was outstanding!  I made some sauted shrimp with lemon pepper seasoning to round it out into a meal.

Rice Pilaf

Rice pilaf is one of the easiest ways to make really flavorful rice.  The typical pattern is to sweat onions in butter, then add rice and aromatics, toss to coat in the butter, then add the liquid and bring to a boil.  Finish in a 400-degree oven for 17 minutes.

Here is how we tweaked this traditional procedure to make our ginger lemon rice pilaf:

Ingredients:

- Butter

- 1c basmatti (or other long-grain) rice

- ~2c chicken stock

- 1 shallot, finely diced

- 1 lemon (zest and juice)

- 2 cloves garlic

- 1T grated ginger

- Salt & Pepper

Melt the butter over medium heat.  Add diced shallot and sweat until shallot is translucent.  Add the ginger, lemon zest, and garlic and stir to incorporate.  Add the rice and stir so that the butter coats the grains.  This helps supress the starches on the outside of the rice grains, so that the rice does not get sticky. 

Add the juice from the lemon plus enough chicken stock so that the total liquid is 2 cups.  Bring to a boil.  Cover and put in a 400-degree oven for 17 minutes.

For the shrimp, I simply seasoned it with lemon pepper seasoning and sauted it in equal parts butter and oil until it was nice and pink. 

Garnish with parsley.

Left-Overs - Part 2: Chicken Curry Salad

With the other half of my left-overs from the weekend (balsamic-marniated chicken breast) and various vegetables and other items I had in the pantry, I made a very quick chicken curry salad:

Ingredients:

- Cooked chicken breast, cut into 1cm cubes
- 1/2 cucumber, brunoised
- 1 large carrot, brunoised
- Handful green beans, cut on the diagonal into small pieces
- 1/4c slivered almonds
- Packet of pre-cooked barley and spices (similar to this)
- 2oz part-skim low-fat mozzarella cheese
- 1/4c plain yogurt
- 1T curry powder
- 1T lime juice
- 1t honey
- Salt and pepper to taste

Toss the first 7 ingredients together in a bowl.  Mix the yogurt, curry powder, lime juice, honey, and slat and pepper together in a small bowl and then dress the chicken salad. 

By using the leftovers and the pre-cooked barley/whole grain rice mix, you can really put this lunch together in a matter of minutes in the morning!
-

Left-Overs - Part 1: Pasta with Chicken and Balsamic Mustard Sauce

Over the weekend I made chicken paninis for Cillian and his running buddy, Tom.  I had bought four chicken breasts, and threw them all in the marinade of balsamic vinegar, water, chicken spice seasoning, and mustard seeds.  I cooked three of the four breasts for our sandwiches, and left one lonely breast in the marinade.  I also had some left-over cooked spagheti (dressed only with a little butter and parmesan), so here is what I made for lunch:

Ingredients:
- 1 chicken breast, marinated in balsamic, water, chicken spice seasoning, and mustard seeds
- Canola oil
- 2T shallots, finely minced
- 1/2c wine
- 1/2 - 1c chicken stock
- 1T mustard
- 1t mustard seeds
- Salt and pepper as needed
- Cooked noodles

Heat your oil in your pan.  Add the chicken breast and saute until cooked.  (You could cut your breast into bite-sized pieces before cooking, but I wanted to let it cook longer and really have the balsamic marinade get carmelized and dark, dark brown, so I left the breast whole and cut it up after it was cooked.)

Remove the cooked chicken, deglaze with wine, add shallots and cook until almost all of the liquid has evaporated.  Add the chicken stock and mustard seeds and reduce until sauce consistency.  Add mustard, salt, and pepper.

Toss noodles, chicken, and sauce.  Voila, lunch in 20 minutes (also great reheated)!