Sunflowers And Szechuan Shrimp.

Let's start off with my sunflowers, shall we?

I love the pattern of the seeds.

More sunflowers.

OK, enough of sunflowers.
Let's get to the food.

Remember my wontons from the other day?
I had some leftover along with the shrimp/pork cabbage stuffing, so I decided to finish that up.

And I decided to make a twist on the crab rangoon.
Since I had no crab, I'll be making no-crab-rangoons.
I stuffed my wontons with cream cheese, a little slice of provolone, a bit of snow pea, and a walnut.

Here are the stuffed egg rolls and the wontons, with, apparently, an extra bit of protein.
There appears to be a bug on the plate at top right.

Heat up your oil.
When bubbles come out of the end of a wooden spoon, your oil is ready.

Fry until golden brown.

Drain on paper towels.

My no-crab-rangoon was quite good.
Now this was just an appetizer.

On to the entree:
Szechuan Shrimp.

Try saying that 3 times fast.

Here are my ingredients:

sesame oil
cashews
orange juice
soy sauce
Ponzu sauce
garlic
onion
roasted red peppers
rice wine vinegar
chili garlic sauce
green onions

Oops. Forgot to include the crushed red pepper.
Here, I've sliced my onions, red pepper, and green onions and minced the garlic.

I juiced my orange and toasted my sesame seeds.

Peeled and deveined shrimp.

First, the shrimp go into a pan coated with the sesame oil.

Saute for about 3 minutes, remove shrimp from pan, and set aside.

Add cashews to pan and saute for about a minute.

Add orange juice. You know I had to get the picture of the steam.

Add about 1/4 cup of soy sauce.

Add 1/2 cup Ponzu sauce.
And what is Ponzu sauce you're asking.
Well, I'll tell you.
It's a citrus-seasoned soy sauce.
I found Kikkoman's Ponzu at my grocery store, but you can make your own, which I will do some day.

Here's the recipe:
(Which I got from one of our cooking classes at the NC Aquarium.)

2 cups soy sauce
1 cup orange juice
1 TB garlic
1/4 honey of sugar
1 raw chicken breast

Boil all ingredients until reduced and skim thick foam off top.
Sauce is done when no more foam is present.
Discard chicken breast (It will be very salty and dark and not a good texture for eating.).

Add in the onion and garlic.

Add in the roasted peppers.

Add 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar and cook for about 5 minutes.

Add 3 TB chili garlic sauce.

Add in crushed red peppers.

Add the shrimpies back in and heat up.

Serve on a bed of rice with green onions and toasted sesame seeds on top.

I enjoyed this dish.
Nice and spicy.
Nice textures.
Wonderful flavors.
I will be making this again.

Why do my son's friends crawl out of the woodwork when dinner is served?
Needless to say, there were no leftovers.

Happy July 1.

Here are some pretty sky pictures I took the other night from my deck.

OK, enough of sky.

Let's eat.

First, I want to explain where I'm going with tonight's meal so it won't seem like I'm all over the board with this post.
Tonight's main ingredient is ...
SCALLOPS.
I'm preparing them two different ways, with two sauces.
I also have a side dish - garden squash and onions.
And LEFTOVERS from last night.
Please enjoy.

I started off with some lovely parmesan crisps.

I like Il Villagio Parmesan from Harris Teeter.
Parmesan is like olive oil. You need to comparison-taste different types to find out what you really like.
I had been eating Sargento from Food Lion for years, until I decided to do something really rash and daring and try a different brand. Let me just say I've never eaten Sargento again.
It is crap.

Anyways, back to the crisps.
You grate the parmesan then press it into a biscuit cutter to make little rounds.
I do them on parchment paper for easier removal.
Bake in a pre-heated 425 degree oven for about 7 minutes.
Watch closely so they don't burn.
When nicely browned, immediately remove them from the pan.
I just set mine flat on the plate.

At this point, since they're very pliable, you could drape them over the back of a muffin tin to make a bowl-shaped crisp,
then perhaps fill it with a salad, say baby spinach, red grapes, orange slices, and toasted almonds and drizzle with a nice vinaigrette.

Oooh. That does sound good.
Maybe I'll make that sometime and blog the results for you.

OK, back to the meal.

Next up, a squash and onion dish.
I just picked the squash and dill from my garden.

I sliced the onions and squash and sauteed them in Bertolli Extra Light olive oil and Land o' Lakes Unsalted Butter.
Salt and pepper.

I always like to add a bit of sugar to my veggies.

Then I decided to chop up a green pepper from the garden and add in some snow peas, courtesy of Food Lion.

And here's the finished dish.
Snow peas are still crisp.

Next, my first sauce.

I used a can of mandarin oranges, with juice, sesame oil, fresh ginger, honey,
and a cornstarch slurry

Pour the honey in with the oranges.

Add a teeny bit of sesame oil.

Then, I used a garlic press to juice the ginger.

Bring to a boil and whisk in slurry to thicken.
Add salt and pepper to taste.

Now, my second sauce.

Brandy Cream Sauce:
4 oz. brandy
6 oz. heavy cream
salt and pepper

First, heat brandy in small saucepan.

I just happen to really like this picture.

Now, on to the main event.

Flame the brandy.

Being the pyromaniac that I am,
I relished the flames.

Oooh.
Pretty.

Just let the brandy reduce until the flames expire.

Not ready yet.

Oh my, but this was fun.

Still going.

I like this picture too.
You know me and my action shots.

Ooh, oooh.
Me likey.

It's finally dying down.
The flames lasted a fairly long time -
maybe 4-5 minutes.

Another action shot.
Oh my, I really liked this one.

After the flames are done, add in the cream.
Salt and pepper.

Next, I'm getting my coating for my almond scallops ready.
Almonds in the back, parsley, fresh ginger root, and salt and pepper.

Mix all together.

Rinse off the scallops.

Pat dry.

As I said before, I'm doing two different types of scallops.
At the top is my almond/parsley/ginger coating for my almond scallops
with Mandarin sesame glaze.
At bottom is freshly ground sea salt and pepper for my
scallops au poivre with brandy cream sauce.

On the left are my scallops rolled in freshly ground pepper.
On the right are my scallops encrusted with almonds.

I heated up my pan, added olive oil and butter, then seared the scallops on both sides.
Maybe two-three minutes each side.

Then I baked in a 350 degree pre-heated oven for about 5-7 minutes, until cooked.
Do NOT overcook.

Here's dinner.
Bottom left, squash, onion, green pepper, snow pea saute.
Bottom right, almond encrusted scallops and pepper scallops.
Top left, my Mandarin orange sauce.
Top right, my Brandy/cream sauce.

Now, on to the plating and my LEFTOVERS.
Remember I said we were having leftovers?

On the bottom is the Jambalaya rice from the other night.
On top is my rutabaga/carrot mash from the other night.

I like the way this meal is turning out.

Here's Mr. H.'s plate.
In the middle is the leftover rice and rutabaga/carrot with a parmesan crisp on top.
On the right is the squash/onion saute.
On the left are the almond encrusted scallops with the orange sauce.
At the top are my scallops au poivre with Brandy Cream sauce.

And here's my plate.
The goodie bits on top of the parmesan crisp are
almonds and parsley scraped up from the pan.

I have to say I impressed myself with this.

The scallops were delicious.
Perfectly cooked.
Both sauces complemented their respective scallops and the melding of flavors was a lovely gastronomic experience.

The squash/onion/dill was very fresh tasting.
Well, I guess so, since I just picked everything.

The parmesan crisp was a parmesan crisp and everything that means and more.

Plus, I got rid of LEFTOVERS!

This was an excellent meal.
I enjoyed every flavor in my dish,
and there were so many.

SODAlicious.


Now here's a tease picture.
What's this?

My front yard.
With newly-laid sod and fresh mulch.

My mimosa tree.
With more sod and mulch.

This is a work in progress.
I will blog the whole thing when everything is done.
Just let me say, it involves an irrigation system.
I'm so 'cited!