This week in the kitchen

Monday/1-Feb-16: Nice dinner. Last night I put Hot, Salty, and Sweet Pork Chops (MJ@Home, p134) on to marinate, using all the spices for half the pork chops. Cooked them tonight, again making all the sauce, which then took a bit longer to boil down to syrupy. Very good. Served with plain basmati rice and a half dose of Carrots with Cilantro (MJ@Home, p149). Also very good, although her cooking time for the carrots was way off. Altogether a yummy dinner. With mini mags for dessert.

Yogurt on overnight.

Tuesday/2-Feb-16: Went to the ENT today, and stopped at Grand Frais for a spot of shopping. Chinese New Year is coming right up so all the grocery stores, including Grand Frais, are having Chinese-ish specials. I bought some shrimp-filled dumplings on impulse. We had half of those as a starter, with a made-up dipping sauce that turned out pretty good (some soy sauce, a bit more of rice vinegar, a splash of sesame oil, some finely chopped garlic, and some dried ginger—me being too lazy and too rushed to grate up some fresh ginger).

For a main we had P.F. Chang's Garlic Noodles (web). I made this a while ago and still had some of the stir-fry sauce in the freezer, so made it again, this time with fresh tagliatelle. Turned out pretty good. I'm full.

Wednesday/3-Feb-16: The internet guy came this morning. No problem in the house (surprise); he said he would trace the line out looking for problems. So far so good. But it's not really raining, so don't expect problems. Fingers crossed.

Shopping today.

Dinner started with the rest of the dumplings I bought yesterday, with their two sauces and the one I made, which remains the favorite. The main was Winter Squash-Bulgur Pilaf; this is a magazine clipping that looks like it came from Cooking Light, but I can't find it on their site, so it might be quite old. Anyhow, it was a side for four that we ate as a main for two, topped with the remains of the dumpling sauces (me) and with sriracha (Ed). Pretty good by itself, but after the really tasty stuff, a bit bland.

Thursday/4-Feb-16: Spent most of the day in the kitchen today. Made apple butter. Boiled up some potatoes for tonight's dinner. Went to package up some tortillas I just ordered for freezing and found one of the packages was moldy. Took a picture and mailed the company. They  apologized and will replace, but with a small package (15 vs 20), since that's all they have now. Made a half dose of Mango Chutney (TLCarib, p91); instructions were a bit goofy—you made up some tamarind juice and do nothing with it. And what kind of chile do they want? I used a smallish Mme Jeannette (haberno) from the freezer. Fish for dinner is sitting with its spices. Made the go-with sauce, but see I missed a step in prepping it. Oh well.

Ed got back late from the doctor, after going early to the walk-in hours. His latest blood tests showed low hemoglobin, and it was slightly low several years ago. So, more tests. And eat more ... boudin noir, beef, liver, etc. We rarely eat beef, but should eat in three times a week. Yuk.

Nice dinner. (No beef.) The main was Grilled Halibut with Indian Spices (web); this is apparently from a David Tanis book I don't have, but is on my Someday list, A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes. This dish made me think I might have to indulge fairly soon. Fish was good, the yogurt sauce was good. Served with Potatoes with Black Pepper (MJ1, p113) and Tomato, Onion, and Green Coriander Relish (MJ1, p172); have made both of these before and enjoyed them.

Yogurt on overnight.

Friday/5-Feb-16: Lovely morning. I sat outside in the sun to shell the favas. They were very generous.

Spent some time looking for recipes using boudin noir and beef, since Ed's supposed to eat iron-rich foods three times a week. Might be hard to reconcile this with the goal of eating vegetarian or fish three times a week.

Dinner was based on Marinated Rack of Lamb with Coriander and Honey (Otto, p104). I used lamb steaks rather than a rack, since that's what was in the freezer. It was good, but the marinade/sauce was way too sweet, and I didn't use all the honey because it was the end of the jar and I didn't want to open the next one. Lots left over, but didn't save it. Served with Clotilde Dusoulier's Perfect Roasted Potatoes (web), an old favorite, and a dish of sautéed radishes and favas, flavored with Pernod, loosely adapted from something I found on the web. Good dinner.

Saturday/6-Feb-16: Tonight's dinner was Poulet Sauté Boivin—Sautéed Chicken with Artichoke Hearts, Onions and Potatoes (TLClassic, p52). (I'd meant to do a soup, too, but found it too much.) I made a half recipe using four good-sized thighs instead of a whole, cut-up chicken. And I had to buy a bouquet of four artichauts violets, and used all of them; no idea how them compare to "young artichokes" in size. Used fond brun de veau made from a powder and skipped the glace de viande. And, no, I didn't shape my potatoes into balls. In spite of all those things, it was good and we were full.

I think I prefer the six-week periods we're doing with the Time-Life books now, without the overlap. Even though it's slower, we'll finish this year, if I manage to keep it up. Have gotten the next book out now, and there's still a week to go with this one.

Sunday/7-Feb-16: Finished off first big pass through desserts today. Next time I'll make a pass through tossing ones I think I'll never make. Good progress.

There was a Dutch stamppot for dinner tonight, smashed potatoes, sauerkraut, and smoked sausages (Montbilliers). Good, but we both thought the sauerkraut was a bit tasteless.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: yes; #2 VEG/FISH: 3
This month: #3 PASTA: no; #4 BREAD: no; #5 FotW: yes for Jan/Feb

This week in the kitchen

Monday/23-Nov-15: Dinner was a half recipe of Butternut Squash & Coconut Curry (web) served over rice. It wasn't butternut, of course, but one of the squash from our potager. (We think there are eight around the housem, sigh.) The recipe also used a long pepper, which is what was used for pepper by the Romans. Some hazelnut cake from the boulanger for dessert.

Tuesday/24-Nov-15: Dinner was a small version of Roast Chicken with Sumac, Za'atar and Lemon (Otto, p122, using three thighs instead of a whole chicken. Very tasty it was. Served with Crushed Spiced Carrot Salad (Morocco, p78), very yummy. Need to remember to make more of this since we like it so much. And then some brown basmati rice.

Miserable weather today, cold, windy, and wet. Made a run to the butcher and to Intermarché. Unfortunately, I think I should have gotten one more sweet potato. I wonder if Ed might go get one tomorrow?

Staying up late making cornbread for the stuffing I'll make tomorrow

Wednesday/25-Nov-15: Was busy all day with Thanksgiving, so dinner was simple: pork paprikash from the freezer over a full dose Spaetzle (MW@Home, p203, too much perhaps, with some steamed broccoli.

Ed went to the store, to get the last bits of things we needed. Then he did his best to help. Not. I assembled the bits of turkey breast for the roulade. there was a join about in the middle of the roll. Trying to help, very unhelpfully, he sharply picked up the roll, right in the middle, so that it almost broke in two. I tied it up as well as I could. Hope it stays together. And then there was the filling and topping for the roulade. I spread about 2/3 of it on the turkey, then set the bowl aside to put the rest on top of the roll. Later when I went to put it in the fridge, it wasn't to be found. Ed had tossed it. This is not the first time he's tossed an essential bit of a meal. Somehow it never occurs to him to ask. More work for tomorrow.

Thursday/26-Nov-15: Yup, we had Thanksgiving. Maybe not the best ever, perhaps, but still nice. Good company. I was pooped at the end of the day.

Friday/27-Nov-15: Leftovers tonight. Stuffing and sweet potato-carrot puff.

Saturday/28-Nov-15: Shopped today. No guard when I went into the store, but Ed said there was one when he went in.

Dinner was Cilantro and Lime Salmon (web); very good. Served with orzo. Followed by a salad. Then the rest of the pumpkin flan.

Sunday/29-Nov-15: More leftovers for an early meal, the rest of the turkey, some dressing and some sweet potato-carrot puff. We went to a movie in the early evening, so nothing further happened in the kitchen.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 UNUSED: no; #3 GRAINS: yes; #4 VEG/FISH: 2
This month: #5 PASTA: no; #6 BREAD: yes; #7 FotW: no for November

This week in the kitchen

Monday/7-Sep-15: Deseeded a whole mess of tomatoes today. Put some back outside because there were too many for the pot.

There are 3-1/2 winter squash in-house (with at least two more on the vine). The biggest is pushing 4#, the smallest 2#. Tonight we've eaten three times off the partial squash, with about a quarter to go.

Tonight was Butternut Squash Pizza (web). Never one to follow a recipe too closely, I spread some pyramid goat cheese on the crust before topping with the roasted veggies. And added arugula/rocket/rucola instead of spinach, which wasn't to be found in the shops. Pretty good. Had the last two of the chocolate puddings I bought last week for dessert.

Tuesday/8-Sep-15: Yogurt on overday. Off to my ENT this a.m. to get a grommet in my left ear. Hope it stays put.

Dinner was Sautéed Chicken with Green Olives & White Wine (web), which is from a Bittman book, but not one I have. Easy, and I thought it was really good. Ed liked it not so much, but didn't say why. Served with Radish and Broad Bean Salad (p16, Otto), which we liked. This recipe was supposed to serve 4, so I though half would do. That would have been 250g of shelled favas (found some frozen at Leclerc last week). I stopped at 100g, which looked more than enough, and jiggled rest of measurements. Forgot to add the cumin; might have been nice. The Green Tahini Sauce (p272, Otto) used as a dressing was good, although I scaled it back so much, it's hard to know how close to the intention I was.

Wednesday/9-Sep-15: We were out all day for a wine-tasting trip that included lunch. Nothing happened in the kitchen.

Thursday/10-Sep-15: Dinner was two Lamb Steaks with Garlic, Cumin and Black Pepper (p33, Screamingly), which were quite yummy. And really easy: moosh up the garlic, cumin, and black pepper with some olive oil and spread it on the steaks. As a side there was Lemon Roasted Sweet Potatoes (p140, Screamingly), which turned out to be a really good way to do sweet potatoes, roasted with some lemon slices and rosemary, topped with a bit of Parmesan when they're done. For dessert with had vanilla ice cream with Shirley and Terry's strawberries.

Friday/11-Sep-15: Shopping today.

Dinner was Catfish Corn with Corn Hash (web) and its go-with Tomato and Zucchini Salad (web). Used eglefin/haddock for the fish, which fell apart as these things do. The fish dish was okay, but nothing fantastic. We used a home-grown tomato for the salad (Beefsteak, I think, although they're not separated). We liked the salad, but I didn't add the sugar to the dressing. Why? Mini magnums for dessert. Then we walked down with Pogo to pick tomatoes and (only) one squash. Pogo wasn't to be found when we went back. He showed up at the front door a while later, just as we were going out to search.

Saturday/12-Sep-15: Starting to work on the birthday tortilla bonanza. Made some Chile Puree (p50, TexMex). Discovered I was completely out of anchos, so made it up with a mulato and pasillas for those (plus guajillos). Wasn't as bitter as it has been, so only a dab of sugar needed. Froze up two long 1-cup jars and saved another for good old cheese enchiladas in a few days.

Tonight's dinner was Chipotle Chicken Tacos with Radish Salad (EAT-L; web), served with some smashed avocado with lime juice and a bit of cilantro. Pretty good altogether. The chicken sat around for a while in some chopped up chipotles in adobo, then got grilled. A pretty good, quick way to do kip filets. The radish salad was nothing special.

Sunday/13-Sep-15: Seeded and cooked up another batch of tomatoes on today. Used some of the purée for dinner. Will freeze the rest tomorrow.

In the spring we had bees in the chimney. Now we've got hornets. Sigh. Started a fire, but now the room is swarming. At the end of the day, they seem to be gone. Fingers crossed for tomorrow.

Used up my stash of big pasta shells to make Ricotta Stuffed Shells (web) for dinner. Froze half for another dinner. Stuffing of ricotta, mozzarella, egg, and chives. For the sauce, I used the tomato purée left from the sack that got smashed by the freezer light last week, plus a bit of extra from today's batch. Quite tasty. Then a simple salad.

Made a Pomegranate Molasses Butter Cake for dessert (web). Mixed all in the food processor. Used only 1/2cup sugar (sucre de canne) in the cake, rather than 3/4cup. For the icing, used only 1/2cup powdered sugar, rather than 1cup, with less cream. Didn't bother with the nuts, although they would have been nice. Also tasty.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: yes; #2 UNUSED: yes; #3 GRAINS: no; #4 VEG/FISH: 3
This month: #5 PASTA: no; #6 BREAD: no; #7 FotW: holiday for August; no for September

IHCC: Oh Ottolenghi!

My attention has been elsewhere and the time with Ottolenghi has flown by, especially the last couple of months, so I wanted to do a nice meal for our going away party. I choose Harissa-Marinated Chicken with Red Grapefruit Salad from Ottolenghi (p119). And a good choice it was!

This dish starts with marinating chicken thighs in a yogurt-harissa mixture. Ottolenghi has you made the harissa paste from scratch. One day I will make some harissa from scratch, maybe using this recipe, just to see how it is, but this isn't the time right now. Instead I took the lazy way and used the store-bought kind. Morocco, having been a French colony, left its influence in the grocery store where tubes and jars of harissa and other interesting spices are easily available. So the marinade was especially simple, a big spoonful of harissa mixed with a smaller spoonful of yogurt. Plop this mixture into a ziploc with the chicken bits, squish around till everything is well-coated, then set it in the fridge overnight. Easy with very good results. The chicken is baked, then finished under the grill, and would probably be quite good on the barbecue.

The arugula (aka rocket or rucola) salad with red grapefruit was a delicious surprise. It's very simple, red grapefruit sections tossed with rocket, a dab of olive oil, coarse sea salt, and freshly ground black pepper.

The sauce for the bird bits was equal amounts of grapefruit juice and maple syrup, with slightly less lemon juice, a bit of salt, a pinch of cinnamon, and star anise. This all boiled for 20 minutes till it reduced quite a bit. The sweet-sour taste was a nice combination and complemented the spicy harissa left on the chicken.

Here are our plates waiting to go to the dining room:

This post is shared with this week's I Heart Cooking Clubs and this month's Cook Your Books.

IHCC: Fruitfull!

It's fruit for Ottolenghi this week. And, of course, there are lots of fruity things to be made. But I finally settled on some White Chocolate and Cranberry Biscuits—that's Cookies to us Amurricans—from Ottolenghi (p225). Ed says he doesn't like white chocolate, but he liked these cookies. The dried cranberries were sold by a Canadian choir touring the area a while ago.

These are fairly easy to make as cookies go and were the sort of crispy, chewy combination that we both like.

Stir together four, salt, baking powder, and baking soda, and set aside with some along with some rolled oats. Measure some white chocolate (chips if you have them) and some dried cranberries into another bowl

Cream some butter, vanilla, white sugar, and brown sugar in largish bowl (the biggest of the regular 3-bowl Pyrex set is big enough). Stir in the flour mixture and oatmeal. Then stir in the chocolate and cranberries. Don't overmix.

Chilling the batter for a bit helps with the shaping. Set balls between the size of an olive and a walnut on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper and pop them in the oven for 10 minutes. Ten minutes was just perfect for the top shelf but a bit short for the bottom shelf.

Result? About three and a half dozen of some really more-ish cookies. Very bad for the diet for those of us with little self-control.

Visit this week's I Heart Cooking Clubs to see what fruity things people have been serving up!

IHCC: Paint the town red!

This week is the turn for red food, which brings to mind all kinds of possibilities. After making a short list, I settled on Chilled Red Pepper Soup with Soured Cream from Ottolenghi (p94) and came up a winner.

Start by sautéing a coarsely chopped onion along with some minced sage. While the onion softens, chop some red bell peppers (two for the half recipe I made). A small part is chopped in 1.5cm dice and set aside to be added at the end. (I thought this was too large and chopped this bit quite fine; somewhere in between would be best, I think.) The rest of the bell peppers get chopped coarsely and added to the onions, along with some salt, bay leaves, ground cumin, sugar, and red pepper flakes. (A pinch of red pepper flakes was good for my half recipe; two pinches would be nice for a whole recipe.) After this softens a bit, chicken or vegetable stock is added, the mixture brought to a simmer, then covered and cooked on low for about 15 minutes, until the veggies are soft.

Remove the bay leaf and purée the veggies with a staff mixer in the pot or transfer to a regular blender. Let the mixture cool a bit, stir in some diced celery, the reserved bell pepper, lemon zest, and minced garlic. Let the mixture cool to room temp, then refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.

Take the soup from the fridge half an hour before you're ready to serve. Stir, adjust the seasoning, divide among serving bowls, sprinkle with chopped parsley and basil, and top with a collop of sour cream. Ottolenghi suggest finishing with a drizzle of olive oil, but I skipped this.

The stick of celery I bought to make this dish disappeared into another meal earlier in the week, so I used some dried celery leaves instead of the celery. With bigger chunks of bell pepper and celery bits of the same size, this would be quite a crunchy soup. That might be nice, but I can also see that having a completely smooth soup might also be nice.

Crunchy or not, the result was quite tasty. It would be a good company dish since it could easily be made the day before and finishing takes a very short time. I can easily imagine sipping this soup while food on the grill gets ready to eat.

In general, I've not been very pleased with Ottolenghi's recipe writing style. Simple steps are often over-explained while more difficult things are skipped over. Sometimes prep steps are not given in the most efficient order. (In addition, I find font used in this book particularly difficult to read. I'm trying to avoid developing an antipathy to the book because I have made some good things from it.) This particular recipe, though, is quite well explained. The steps are in the proper order so that you can work from it sequentially without having to plan ahead yourself for the following steps.

Visit this week's I Heart Cooking Clubs to see what yummy, red things other IHCCers have cooked up this week.

IHCC: Something Sweet

So sweet it is. Pear and Amaretto Crumble Cake from Ottolenghi (p218, and on the web) caught my eye since I've got a bottle of amaretto needing to be used up. It turned out to a tasty cake, but can't say it's one I'd ever make again. DH, the head dishwasher, asked if there were any bowls that I didn't use to make the cake. There's a bowl for tossing together the apple, pear, walnuts, lemon zest, and amaretto, plus the one I used for measuring the weight of the fruit and nuts. Then there's a bowl for the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, and ground almonds. And a couple more for the separated eggs, plus the small one to crack each egg into. (If you've ever opened a bad egg into a cake batter, you learn to open your eggs into a separate dish before adding them to anything.) And a big bowl for mixing the batter. And a little one for mixing the crumble. (I made a fifth recipe of the crumble recipe to top the loaves.) That's a lot of bowls for what's essentially a tarted up quick bread.

It tastes yummy, I must say, and the balance of cinnamon to cloves is just right. Very moist and full of chunky fruit.

Visit I Heart Cooking Clubs to see what sweet treats people are cooking up this week.

IHCC: Get back to your roots!

Roots roots roots. These being things we like, I had options for a couple of different rooty salads this week. But there never seemed to be a time when such a salad was needed or there wasn't enough time to get it made. For tonight's dinner, it seemed like a dessert might be in order and there were lots of carrots to use, so the rooty solution was Carrot and Walnut Cake from Ottolenghi (p200).

When I made my first trip through this book, I was actually a little put off by this recipe and it didn't get a sticky. Somehow a carrot cake where you separate the eggs and fold in the beaten egg whites seems a bit much. It didn't look like the kind of fine-structured cake that you usually get when you fold in egg white. My old standard carrot cake doesn't need that and is still really good. But, thinking of something for a sweet treat this evening, I thought I'd give it a try anyhow.

The recipe asks for a 20cm springform pan. For some reason I seem to have accumulated three 24cm springform pans and no other sizes. (One of these was a gift from a cheesecake-making friend, another I picked up at a charity second-hand shop to leave at this house before we moved here, but where did the third one come from? I really ought to remedy this situation before long.) But an 8in cake pan, more or less the same diameter, works just as well, if not better. To be honest, I'm not really sure why this cake needs a springform pan at all.

For the making, this is a fairly ordinary, if fussy, cake recipe. Stir together (sift only if you really feel the need) the dry ingredients—flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and cloves. Whisk a whole egg and an egg yolk. Beat together some vegetable oil and sugar*, then add the whisked egg-and-a-half. Finally, stir in some chopped walnuts, coconut, grated carrots, and then the dry ingredients.

* Since we tend to like our sweets not so sweet, I used only 200g sucre de canne (a natural brown sugar with a bit of flavor oomph), where 270g sugar was asked. Ed thought this was fine, I thought it was a trifle short, and might use 210g or 220g if I make this again.

Then beat two egg whites (yay, one from the freezer!) with a pinch of salt until they make firm peaks, and fold them into the batter. Pour the batter into your cake pan (lined, like my mother taught me, with a circle of "waxed" paper) and put it in the oven at 170C for about an hour, maybe a smidge longer.

The icing is cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and honey. I stirred the toasted, chopped walnuts into the icing rather than sprinkling them on top. My standard cream cheese icing uses equal portions of cream cheese and butter; the ratio for this icing is 2.5:1, making it a bit lighter perhaps. The honey was an interesting addition.

We liked this variation on a carrot cake, although I can't say it was all that much better than my old standard recipe. But it is nice that it's just a single layer, which makes it easier for two people to finish off before it starts getting stale.

This post is shared with this week's I Heart Cooking Clubs.

IHCC: Loving the Leaf!

Leafy food, that's a nice idea. Strangely, though, French grocery stores and markets, at least in this area, don't regularly carry lots of leafy greens. Spinach or chard or spinach or bok choy, on occasion, but not dependably and not always looking their freshest. It's odd, because I know the French eat these things. I see recipes in magazines for one thing. Out walking, it's not uncommon for us to meet neighbors with sacksful of dandelion greens (for salads or, coarsely chopped, added to bean soups). Lettuce, is in the shops, of course, and sacks of mixed greens, but I didn't remember noticing a recipe.

There was broccoli in the fridge wanting to be used. So I could wait to go to the grocery store hoping to find an interesting green (one that wasn't cabbage, please, since I'm still finishing off the chinese cabbage I bought last week) or I could use up my broc with a recipe I already had my eye on. I decided on the broccoli and was glad I did because I found no interesting leafy green things when I went to the store the next day.

Broccoli is our favorite veg so I always have my eye out for different ways to use it. To that end I marked Chargrilled Broccoli with Chili and Garlic in Ottolenghi (p41)—sorry, make that Chilli, this is a UK book—when I read through the book.

This recipe is fairly easy to make, although nothing compared to my sort of standard steamed broccoli dressed with a bit of garlic and red pepper flakes that have been warmed in olive oil. Actually it's rather similar to that, but different, if you know what I mean,

Broccoli florets are partly cooked in boiling water, then drained, shocked in ice water to stop the cooking, and drained again. The very dry broccoli is tossed with olive oil and lots of coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. They they're grilled on a very hot ridged grill pan, in batches if necessary, till they are nicely grill-marked. While you're grilling, warm some olive oil in a small skillet with lots of thinly sliced garlic and some thinly sliced, mild red chilies. Take this off the heat when the garlic begins to turn golden. When all the broccoli is grilled, toss it with the garlic-chili oil. Serve warm or at room temperature.

There's nothing really fancy about the recipe, but the grilling adds a nice flavor to the dish. I wouldn't make this if I were making something else fussy that wanted lots of attention, but it is nice if you're mildly occupied in the area of the stove and are available to pay a bit of attention. It is nice that, once assembled, the dish can wait till the rest of the meal is ready to eat.

This post is shared with this week's I Heart Cooking Clubs.

IHCC: Shalom Yotam Ottolenghi!!

This week, we have our first I Heart Cooking Clubs outing with Yotam Ottlenghi. Each week we'll be cooking an Ottlenghi dish with a suggested theme. Come along and join in the fun!

Santa brought me Ottolenghi: The Cookbook after I asked at cookbooker which of his three books I should get—this was was the unanimous choice. I've made a dash through the book now, marking very many pages with stickies. For this week's welcome, I chose Buttered Prawns with Tomato, Olives, and Arak (p150). This is recommended as a starter for four, but I served it as the main dish for two along with some polenta. The dish is quite simple to make, just a bit of preparation and about 5 minutes of cooking.

To prepare:

• Four plum tomatoes should be peeled, cut into wedges, and set aside with some chili flakes and kalamata olives. Plum tomatoes are not in season yet so I used some vine tomatoes that have been in the shops and pretty good in the last weeks. 
• Measure out 20 milliliters (a short tablespoon and a half) of Arak. Okay, no Arak around here, but there is some pastis (Ricard, not Pernod) in the fridge wanting to be used up.
• Three very thinly sliced cloves of garlic get set aside with some chopped flat parsley, a pinch of salt, and 30g (about 2 tablespoons) of butter. (I didn't use the full amount of this butter, since the dish seemed plenty rich already.)

To cook, heat a frying pan, then add 20g (a short tablespoon and a half) of butter. When this melts, add the shrimp and sauté briskly for about 2 minutes. Then add the tomatoes, chili flakes, and olives; continue cooking for another 2 minutes. Carefully add the liquor and stir till it evaporates. Stir in the garlic, parsley, salt, and extra butter. When the butter has melted, you're ready to serve and eat!

And yummy it was. The kalamatas were a nice touch and the anise flavor of the Arak/pastis adds a unexpectedly nice flavor. (Neither of us a big anise fans, but sometimes it works.) Next time I might try this with olive oil in place of the butter to make it a bit less rich.

This post is shared with this week's I Heart Cooking Clubs.