Seafood Linguini with a Curried Cream Sauce

Oh my goodness! We found this recipe online at epicurious.com, and it is amazing. It always illicits a second helping. It would be a good dinner to roll out at a party and impress your friends. And it has the added bonus of being easy enough to fix on a work night. The flavours, however, are a little unusual and they may not suit everbody's pallette.

Curried Seafood Linguini
2 Tbs. evoo
1/2 cup shallots, small dice (about 4)
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
8 large shrimp, peeled and deveined (20 count)
6 oz crabmeat
1/3 cup dry white wine
1 3/4 cup chicken stock
2 tsp. cornstarch
1 Tbs. curry powder
a pinch of saffron threads
1/2 cup of cream
1 pound linguini or fettucini
salt for the pasta water

Prepare your shrimp and chop your shallots and garlic. Warm your chicken broth and pour 1/2 cup of it into a bowl that contains the 2 tsp cornstarch. Stir well to combine and set aside. Put the pot of water on to boil for the pasta. When it is ready add a generous amount of salt 2 - 3 Tbs. and the pasta. Heat the evoo in a medium to large skillet on medium heat. Begin by sauteeing your shallots and garlic stirring often until they soften. Add the shrimp and cook for a minute. Add the crabmeat and stir to combine then add the white wine. Allow the wine to simmer and boil off until only a few tablespoons of moisture are left in the pan. Add your warm chicken stock and your chicken stock with cornstarch and stir to combine. Bring the sauce to a boil and lower the temperature to a simmer letting the sauce cook for a minute until you notice the cornstarch thickening the sauce. Add the Tbs. of curry powder, the pinch of saffron threads, and the 1/2 cup cream and allow the mixture to warm up. Hopefully, your pasta is ready or almost ready at this point. Drain the cooked pasta in a colander and return it to the large pasta pot off the heat. Add the sauce on top and stir to coat the pasta in the tasty goodness. Voila!

Sea bass and Fennel Tagine

While Tyler and I are sometimes adventurous enough to "wing it" in the kitchen we often use recipes in cookbooks. This stew comes from Meditteranean by Joanna Farrow and Jacqueline Clarke.

stew

1 1/2 pounds sea bass or other whitefish

8 oz. shrimp

2 Tbs. olive oil

1 bulb fennel

1 onion

2 cups fish broth or weak chicken stock

8 oz. new or waxy potatoes cut into large pieces

chermoula

4 tsp. paprika

4 tsp. ground cumin

3 Tbs. white vinegar

1 Tbs. lemon juice

2 cloves of garlic crushed

2 Tbs. chopped fresh cilantro

2 Tbs. chopped fresh Italian parsley

Assemble the chermoula first. Shell, tail, and devein the shrimp. Cut the whitefish into large bitesize pieces. Place the seafood in separate shallow containers and coat each in half of the chermoula mixture. Cover fish and place in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours. In a large dutch oven heat the olive oil on medium. Add the onion sauteing for 2 minutes. To this add the fennel and cook until the vegetables begin to catch the bottom of the pot and brown. Add the stock and scrape up the yummy brown bits on the bottom of the pot. To this add the potatoes, cover and simmer until they are tender - about 15 minutes. Uncover pot, test the potatoes, if they are just about cooked, add the whitefish taking care to also add all the chermoula. Make sure the pot is at a low simmer so the fish doesn't fall apart too much. After about 4 minutes add the shrimp which will take an additional 2 minutes to cook. Serve with a crusty baguette, good quality olive oil (for drizzling) and kosher salt.