Fresh Catch Scallops with Simple Balsamic Reduction Dipping Sauce

Good morning foodies. I hope everyone had a nice restful and fun weekend. I know I enjoyed my weekend. Sunday, I was out on a poker-bus run with the Motorcycle Club my Pappa belongs to.

City Heat Chicago
Nothing more fun than starting the party off at 10:30 in the morning, and ending it around 6:30. 5 Stops, four bars, two school buses full of bikers partying it up.
I'm sure we were at least an amusing site.
And it was an absolute blast from start to finish. I can't wait for the next poker run.
Because I had this insanity going on this weekend, I decided to throw down my recipe for last week in the Lobster Gram test kitchen on Friday.
I have no problem walking away from my hectic stressful days to go downstairs and cook some food. It's relaxing, it's enjoyable, it's a mini vacation at work that I don't have to clock out for, and there are no happier people than Lobster Gram employees enjoying our products for lunch. We spent years carefully choosing products and vendors, so we are all big fans of the food we carry.
People love it when we cook. Free gourmet lunch in the office. Who does not love that perk?
...People who complain when you start reducing Balsamic Vinegar on the stove. That's who.
People start to get cranky when there are strong smells about.
My bad people...I would have made something that didn't require fumigating the office, but my options were slim.
It was like an episode of Chopped down there.
"ok, you have 1 bottle of balsamic vinegar, 2 lbs of sea scallops, 1 container of clarified butter, 2 bananas and a pot of fresh strong coffee".
Um....maybe I'll just hide the coffee and bananas so I can act like we didn't have them.
Yeah, that sums up my test kitchen Friday. Bananas.
So Scallops with a balsamic reduction it was, and I tried to tune out the noise.
So here are the pictures from that adventure, and this weekend I think I will just cook at home.
That's right office folks...no strong smells this week!
...but you won't be fed either. Fair trade?

Sea Scallops with Balsamic Reduction Dipping Sauce

Ingredients
2 lbs fresh sea scallops
1 cup balsamic vinegar
3 tbs clarified butter
Salt, Pepper & Garlic Powder to taste

Directions
Pat dry sea scallops and season with salt, pepper and garlic powder.
Put vinegar in a small sauce pan and heat on medium for 15-20 minutes or until reduced by half.
When it is reduced, add in 2 tbs of butter and blend well. Set aside until scallops are cooked.
While vinegar is reducing, put a few tablespoons of butter in a large pan and heat until melted.
Add scallops and heat 3-4 minutes per side until cooked through and no longer translucent.
Remove scallops from pan and serve immediately with ramekin of dipping sauce.

Hand Made Ravioli & Diamond Dessert Pictures

Colossal Shrimp From Lobster Gram

Sheets of Hand Made Pasta ready for filling

Ingredients for Ravioli Filling

Ravioli Filling

Ravioli with Filling Ready for Second Sheet

Ravioli Ready for the Boiling Pot

White Lemon Cream Sauce

White Sauce Ravioli Ready for the Oven

Red Ravioli Out of the Oven

Red Ravioli Out of the Oven

Both Ravioli Pans are Done

Close Up on White Ravioli

Strawberry Diamond from our dessert vendor.
I'm so glad they are local!
Top: White Chocolate Flake
Vanilla Cream Puff
Strawberry Puree
Strawberry Mousse
Plain NY Cheesecake
Shortbread Crumb Crust

Black Diamond Dessert
Top: White Chocolate
Chocolate Frosting puff
Chocolate Chips
Chocolate Ganche
Chocolate Mousse
Chocolate Cheesecake
Oreo Crumble Crust

Three Aewsome Recipes, One Fantastic Day of Food

It's Monday.
Usually I don't look forward to Mondays, but it's easier to make it through when you have AWESOME left overs for lunch.
Yesterday I tried my hand at Home Made Shrimp Ravioli with Lemon Cream Sauce.
Omg...
I knew it was going to be a process, and it was. However...so worth it.
Worth every moment I spent in Trader Joe's looking for the best shaved Parmesano reggiano, the perfectly ripened lemons and the freshest mozzarella I could find.
It was worth every moment to make hand made pasta (which is actually a great way to relieve stress) and measure out all the various ingredients for the stuffing and sauces.
It was worth it because the outcome (both of them actually) was incredible.
One type of fantastic hand made ravioli, two types of incredible sauce and *PLENTY* of leftovers.
Good thing too, I was so stoked about this recipe last week that if I didn't bring leftovers, some of my coworkers would have revolted.
So here are the recipes that were used yesterday. If you ever give this a shot yourself, make sure to invite lots of hungry people.




Pasta Recipe
Ingredients
3 cups flour
3 eggs
Lemon Pepper

Directions
Combine 1 cup of flour to 1 egg until all three are combined, throw in 2 tbs lemon pepper and combine until you have a huge ball of dough.
Cut dough into smaller pieces and roll out into sheets until it has reached the thickness you prefer.
Leave sheets on table, and prepare shrimp stuffing.

Ravioli Stuffing
1 lb Colossal Shrimp, minced
15 oz Ricotta Cheese
16 oz Mozzarella Cheese
1/2 Cup Parmesano Reggiano
1 minced shallot
2 large eggs beaten and seasoned with salt and pepper
1 cup Italian herb bread crumbs

Directions
In a large bowl, combine shrimp, ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesano, shallot and egg mixture.
Combine with hands until mixed well.

Assembling Ravioli
Lay out a sheet of dough on the table. Using a cookie scoop, place balls of shrimp/cheese mixture on the dough about 1 inch apart. When the layer has all the stuffing it can hold, lay another sheet of dough over the stuffing, and cut the ravioli out using a butter knife.
Use a small amount of water on your fingers to press the ravioli closed at the seams.
Be sure that you have sealed all the ravioli as well as you can. If they go into boiling water and are not sealed, you will have a mess on your hands.
Once all ravioli are assembled, you can throw them in a pot of boiling water for about 10 minutes.
Once pasta is cooked, remove it from the water and set aside.

White Sauce Ingredients
1/3 cup butter
2 tbs flour
1/3 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbs white wine
2 tbs lemon juice
1 tsp lemon zest
1 large egg yolk
1 minced shallot
1/3 cup shaved parmesano reggiano

Directions
Melt butter and add flour. Stirring constantly, add all ingredients and heat on medium for about 5 minutes. Add the cheese last and this will thicken the sauce.

Red Sauce Ingredients
28 oz. can diced tomatoes w/juice
28 oz. can tomato puree
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped

In a large bowl, mix the diced tomatoes with juice and tomato puree . Stir until blended.

For either White or Red Sauce- Baking the Ravioli
In a 13” x 9” pan, coat the bottom with a thin layer of sauce.
Add ravioli to pan arrange in a single layer. Pour sauce over the ravioli and sprinkle the remaining mozzarella and Parmesano cheese over the sauce.
Cover with foil, tenting the foil so as not to stick to cheese. Bake for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake 20-25 minutes longer or until cheese is golden brown. Garnish with parsley and serve.

I'll be back a little later with some fantastic pictures of this adventure.
Until then, I'll be enjoying my lunch :)
Happy eating foodies!

Sickness, Bad Movies and Big Dinner Dreams

It's Thursday.
Normally I would be all ecstatic, but this week I was feeling under the weather.
Went home a bit early Monday, couldn't get out of bed at all yesterday...Tuesday was a blur of just trying to make it.
While I was down for the count, I rented Julie and Julia because I decided that despite my raging dislike of Amy Adams, I love Julia Child (and that other thing...oh yeah, FOOD)
and that might make this movie worth it.
Long story short...not enough Julia, WAY TOO MUCH JULIE.

Julia= large, entertaining, loud, hungry for life.
Julie= small, whiny, annoying, hungry for attention.

The best part of that movie for me, was the part where Julie finds out that Julia hates her.
That moment alone salvaged the movie for me.
Ahh...the things you can waste time with when you are sick in bed.
But crappy movies aside, I'm back up and running. And as always, making grandiose cooking plans for this weekend. Home Made Lemon Pepper Shrimp Ravioli.
Just typing that gives me goose bumps.
Say it with me now folks... "Home made Lemon Pepper Shrimp Ravioli". See...now you are all goosebumpy too :)
So, the plan is to use the Lemon Pepper Fettuccine recipe that was in this month's issue of Food Network Magazine for the sauce base, make some home made noodles with lemon juice and herbs in the dough, and then use the Lobster Gram tried and tested Stuffed Shells Recipe for the stuffing mixture.
Hopefully, the outcome will be delicious lemon herb kissed pasta with a decadent creamy shrimp stuffing and a light creamy cheese sauce. Absolutely heavenly.
My toes are curling up with every mental image. It makes me want to go straight home tonight and make this recipe. If only there were more hours in the day.
So, no more lamenting over wasted sick time or bad rental movies, from here on out, the goal is to move towards Friday with single minded determination...

HOME MADE LEMON PEPPER SHRIMP RAVIOLI

Orange Scallops On Rosemary Vapor Rice Pictures

Better late than never right?
It's Valentine's Day week and things here in the office are bonkers! Everyone seems to want Lobster for Sunday, and that is just fine by us.
We have done some really cool things this week at Lobster Gram. Among them is our Chicago Warehouse Sale we have going on now. New things are always exciting :)
Well, there is still a lot to get done around here, so I will make this short and sweet
(like me haha) and just leave you with the images from last weekend's recipe.
Hope everyone out there has the kind of weekend they were hoping for.
Happy Valentine's Day my foodie loves!

Kicking the Winter Blues with Bright Food- Orange Scallops on Rosemary Vapor Rice

When you live in Chicago, is there really a need to have a chubby brown ground rat to tell us that we are going to have another six weeks of winter?
I don't think so.
And so winter drags on through and is currently dumping several inches of snow on us at the moment. We may be getting up to 20 inches by the time this storm has pushed through. Bah.
When winter seems never ending, the easiest way for me to get out of the funk is to cook. Cook something fresh, something flavorful and something that reminds me of sunnier days.
Last weekend, that recipe was Orange Scallops on Rosemary Vapor Rice.
I had first seen a version of this recipe on Oprah's web site, but didn't really want the Scallops to lose their delicate flavor to the overpowering Orange and Rosemary Flavors. I also removed the butter from the recipe, as the Extra Virgin Olive oil used created the perfect orange glaze on the scallops upon standing.
So thanks Oprah for the fantastic recipe idea. I will use this one again the next time I have a taste for Chinese take-out.
With that, here are the recipes for the Orange Scallops and Rosemary Rice, and the video to show you how it's done! Enjoy and Happy Eating foodies!


Orange Scallops

Ingredients
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 finely chopped shallots
1 lb Dry Sea Scallops, thawed
Flour , for dredging
sea salt
freshly ground pepper
Cayenne Pepper to taste
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 Tbsp. fresh squeezed lemon juice
more lemon juice to taste
1/2 cup fresh-squeezed orange juice

Directions:
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large skillet. Saute shallots over medium heat until soft and browned. About 5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and reserve for sauce later.
Sift together the salt, pepper and cayenne pepper in a bowl.
Pat scallops dry with paper towels. Dredge very lightly with flour mixture.
Increase heat under pan to high; sear half of scallops for 1 minute. Turn and cook other side for 2 minutes; set aside. Add rest of oil to pan, add shallots back to the pan and add the wine, lemon juice and orange juice to the pan and reduce by half.
Taste for sweetness; add more lemon juice, salt, and pepper if necessary.
Add the scallops back to the pan, cover with sauce and warm through, serve immediately with Rosemary Vapor Rice.

Rosemary Vapor Rice

Ingredients
1 large sprig fresh rosemary
4 cups Thai Jasmine Long Grain Rice

Directions
Cook rice according to instructions. Add an entire large sprig of fresh rosemary to the boiling water. Before the rice is served, remove rosemary and discard. Pairs well with many dishes.

Crab Stuffed Lobster Tails- New for Valentine's Day 2010!

There are few things in this world as good as a Crab Stuffed Lobster Tail.
I'm not talking about a tail that has had the meat removed, chopped, mixed into a stuffing and crammed back into the shell for presentation; I'm talking about a WHOLE Maine Lobster Tail, with additional crab stuffing on top waiting to be baked into golden deliciousness.
We finally started carrying just that, and more...Lobster Stuffed Lobster Tails.
Now, you already know how I feel about Lobster Stuffed Lobster...so needless to say, I'm really excited about this newest offering.
So excited in fact, I decided to get a four pack of crab stuffed lobster tails myself and prepared two of them over the weekend.
They were absolutely fantastic (as expected!).
I will be reordering these in the Lusting for Lobster Package for Valentine's Day.
Nothing says romance like Stuffed Lobster tails, Lobster Bisque and Creme Brulee Raspberry Cheesecake.
Especially if you can get it delivered in time for Valentine's Day for under $90.
And with that, I'll share the quick photos I snapped of these divine lobster tails.
Happy eating foodies!