CITRUS RISOTTO WITH CELERY AND ARUGULA PESTO TOPPED WITH SAUTEED SHRIMPS AND CRAB

Another farmers' market visit this weekend led me to come up with a Citrus Risotto with Celery and Arugula Pesto Topped with Sautéed Shrimps and Crab.

I love the farmers' markets.  Every week I purchase beautiful produce that I use for a typical dish or try something new.  This time of year, the heirloom tomatoes are the best with a drizzle of olive oil and Himalayan pink salt.  http://www.cece-corner.blogspot.com/2012/08/heirloom-tomatoes-two-ways.html

And one weekend, the white eggplant turned into Purple and White Eggplant Parmigiana.  http://www.cece-corner.blogspot.com/2012/04/purple-and-white-eggplant-parmigiana.html

Then there were the beautiful leeks that became an atypical "warm" vichyssoise.

http://www.cece-corner.blogspot.com/2012/05/classic-vichyssoise-not-really.html

Purple string beans were part of a side of tri-colored string beans a few weeks ago.

 

 

And a variety of colored peppers were made into a dish of rainbow roasted peppers.

 

 

I know; too much enthusiasm about produce.  I should be looking at the Net sites of O-Stock or that Dazzle shoe site.  No. 

This weekend it was the Celery.  Yes, celery.  I've never seen such beautiful celery.  As I said before, I don't have my own garden.  I am a true urbanite, so I'm used to purchasing celery at the produce market or at the grocery store where it is sold in plastic sleeves and the prices change every other day, like a politician's comments during an election year. 

Whenever I would see the plastic-sleeved celery heads which sometimes have a few stalks with leaves embedded in the middle of the package, one particular dish that I've been making for many years immediately comes to mind:  Lemon Risotto. 

And, since the farmers' market celery was dark green and had leaves the size of those found on trees at a local park, Lemon Risotto became one dish on the menu -- with a twist, of course. Since I needed only about 1/2-cup of leaves for the dish, which I turned into one cup, I also had about 10 more cups of celery leaves left over.  I could not let them go to waste.  

 

Although some  leaves would be used as a bed for an heirloom tomato salad, I wanted to do something else with the rest.  A pesto.  When I came across a recipe for Celery and Arugula Pesto, I was ecstatic because I had arugula and parsley in the fridge.  I know, it's the "little" things that count. The Celery and Arugula Pesto recipe is adapted from Mary Ann Esposito's Ciao Italia which, I learned a few months ago, is the longest-running current cooking show on TV.

http://www.ciaoitalia.com/seasons/season-2200/episode-2212/celery-parsley-arugola-pesto

And since my initial thought for using the celery was to make Lemon Risotto, I redid the lemon risotto recipe and turned it into a Citrus Risotto where I cut the lemon juice in half and added fresh key lime juice and fresh lime juice to the mixture.  I omitted the mascarpone cheese, which was in the original recipe, and used 1/2 cup of freshly-grated parmesan cheese (since we were going to top it off with some shrimps later). 

 

Finally, I then swirled in about two tablespoons of the Celery and Arugula Pesto. And, as I said, this was topped with sautéed shrimps and a cooked miniature (cute) crab as a garnish.  Such fun.    

CELERY AND ARUGULA PESTO
1 cup celery stalks, chopped
2 cups celery leaves
1 cup arugula leaves
1 cup parsley leaves
4 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds
1/2- 3/4 cups olive oil
Pink Salt and freshly ground Black Pepper
1/2 to 3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese*

Place the celery, celery leaves, arugula, parsley, and garlic cloves in a food processor and pulse until coarse. Add toasted almonds and pulse. Drizzle in the olive oil continuing to pulse until a loose sauce begins to form. Add pink salt and pepper to taste.

*Stir in some cheese on an "individually served" basis.  I don't "add" the cheese to the entire recipe, so I could freeze the leftover pesto, which could be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator with a light cover of olive oil for up to 5 days, or frozen for up to two months.

CITRUS RISOTTO

6 cups of vegetable broth (preferably homemade)
2 Tablespoons of unsalted butter
1 medium red onion, finely chopped (about ½ cup) or chopped shallots
1/2 cup celery, finely chopped
1 green chili pepper, minced
1 cup celery leaves, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 ½ cups arborio rice
½ cup white vermouth
½ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 Tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/2  teaspoon fresh key lime juice
2 Tablespoons of Celery Arugula Pesto
Pink Salt
Freshly-ground black pepper
1/2 pound of U 12-15 shrimps, cooked in olive oil and garlic
1 purchased and cooked crab from the local fish monger.

Heat the broth to a boil in a medium saucepan.  Cover and keep warm. 

Separately, melt the butter in a large saucepan.  Add onion, or shallot, chopped celery, and minced chili. Cook over low heat, stirring until softened, about five minutes.  Add the celery leaves and garlic and cook for one minute.  Add the rice and cook, stirring until glossy, about 1 minute.

 
Add vermouth to the rice and simmer over moderate heat until almost absorbed, about three minutes.  Add the warm broth, one cup at a time, and cook, stirring constantly between additions, until most of the broth has been absorbed before adding more.  The rice is done when it is tender and most of the liquid is absorbed, about 20-25 minutes. Stir in the parmesan cheese and lemon and lime juices.  Add the pesto and pink salt and pepper.  Place Risotto in a large serving dish. Add sauteed shrimps and garnish with a cooked baby crab, for fun!

 

 

 

 

CRAB AND SHRIMP STUFFED FLOUNDER

One Saturday afternoon, I saw Chef John Besh prepare this dish on his cooking show, Chef John Besh's New Orleans, which is an accompaniment to his first cookbook of the same name, so I opted to try it myself and adapted the recipe accordingly.  In the late 1970's, I used to make Stuffed Fillet of Flounder for dinner parties, but it was nothing like this one.  Back then, we would place the crab and saltine crackers stuffing on a fillet of flounder, roll it up, and then bake the fillets seam side down in the oven.   Not this one.  In this recipe, Chef John shows the technique to debone an entire flounder while keeping it intact.  We then stuff it with the shrimps and crabmeat mixture.  The "most" challenging part is removing the bones of the fish while keeping it whole.  Actually, it wasn't that difficult.   Of course, the alternative would be to purchase flounder fillets and use the same process of a stuff and roll from the old days, but then there would be nothing to brag about to your friends how you could debone a fish while keeping it whole!  One large flounder serves two people.

1 large flounder

3 Tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1/2 cup fennel, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup shellfish stock, preferably home made
1/2 # crabmeat, picked over
1/2 # shrimps (U21-U25), peeled and chopped
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
1/2 cup panko

Put fish on cutting board, dark side facing up.  Head should be positioned away from facing you.  Using a sharp, flexible boning knife, make an incision, to the backbone down the center of flounder from head to tail.  Then make 2 cuts perpendicular to the long cut, one behind the head, the second in front of the tail. 

Cut back the flesh until bones are exposed.  The flesh should be attached to the fish along the belly part.  Do the same process and make a flap that's attached on top of fish.  Leave head and tail on.  Slide knife between exposed bones and the flesh underneath.  Remove backbone.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

Heat 2 Tablespoons of oil in skillet over moderate heat.  Add onions, fennel, celery, and garlic and cook, until vegetables are softened.  About 5-7 minutes.  Add pepper flakes, shellfish stock, crabmeat, shrimps and thyme and cook, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper, and then add panko.

Spoon stuffing into the pocket of the flounder and fold the flaps of fish over the stuffing.  Season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil.

Coat a baking sheet with olive oil and place stuffed flounder on it, stuffed side up.  Cover fish with foil and bake for 20 minutes.  Uncover pan and return flounder to oven to bake for about 5 more minutes.  Remove from oven and let fish rest for about 5 minutes.  Remove fish from pan.  Place on a serving platter and serve flounder with fresh lemon wedges, and a tartar sauce or a Dijon mustard sauce, or a cocktail sauce, or no sauce -- whatever you like.

Two Seafood Pasta Dishes

I love seafood..so here are two seafood/pasta recipes that I came up with. They are fun to make and flavorful. Great for a crowd gathering or a Sunday.

Lobster and Crab Ravioli in Marinara Sauce

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp of sweet butter
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
5-6 minced garlic cloves3-4 anchovy fillets
2 28-oz cans whole tomatoes, preferably San Marzano, drained
1 28-oz can of tomato puree1 cup of full-bodied red wine, such as cabernet sauvignon
1 cup of water
2 Tablespoons fresh oregano
1/2 c. cut fresh parsley
12 lobster ravioli
12 crab ravioli
½ cup shredded basil
½ pound medium shrimp
2-4 Alaskan king crab legs – steamed and cooked

Preparation:
Make Sauce: Combine butter and oil, add garlic until fragrant, then anchovies and allow them to dissolve. Add tomatoes, puree, wine, water, oregano, and parsley. Mix together and cook until boiling, then simmer for about ½ hour. Add shrimp and cook until done, Add crab legs and cook until heated through. Toss in shredded basil.

Separately, boil both the lobster and crab raviolis. Drain raviolis and combine on plate; top with sauce & shrimp and crab legs. Left over sauce can be frozen.

Serves 4-6


Pink and Black Pasta Di Mara
We're using a combination of two flavored fettuccines--one is black (squid) and one is pink (salmon). The sauce is a spicy pink vodka sauce, topped with lobster claws, lobster tails, shrimps and Alaskan king crab legs and some peas for garnish.
Servings: This could serve 4-6 people.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
4-5 minced garlic cloves1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes1 28-oz can crushed Italian plum tomatoes
1 28-oz can tomato puree1/2 c. vodka3/4 c. light cream 1/2 c. cut fresh parsley1 lb. jumbo shrimp2 1- 1 1/2-lb. lobsters 2-4 crab legs – steamed and cookedl lb. black fettuccini or linguini1 lb. salmon fettuccini or linguini (home-made or store bough or use plain)
1 cup cooked peas (from frozen or fresh)

Preparation:

Make Sauce: Combine oil, garlic, crushed red pepper and cook until garlic is golden. Add tomatoes and puree. Mix together and cook for about ½ hour. Then add vodka and cream and heat. Add lobster first then shrimp and cook until done (about 4 & 3 minutes).
Make Pastas. Cook both pastas in separate pots, until al dente'. Also, cook crab legs separately in boiling water until heated through. Drain pastas and combine on plate; top with sauce & lobster & shrimp and crab legs. Garnish with parsley and peas.As a variation, could also add scallops / clams.If salmon fettuccini cannot be found, then plain fettuccini could work here, but it is important to keep the black fettuccini as the base.