Honey Balsamic Steak Sauce

Whenever we have steak night I always stress about what kind of sauce to pair it with. I can’t bring myself to buy A1 steak sauce. Sometimes simply putting a dollop of horseradish seems sufficient to me. Other times, I just feel like there needs to be a sauce! 

My go-to is usually a red wine reduction but tonight I decided to try something new and wow! It was awesome! Awesome sauce, if you will. So here is how to make a sweet, buttery, yummy/nummy, sauce that is perfectly savory and beautiful to boot! 

Ingredients: 

• 1.5 cups of balsamic vinegar 
• 1 tablespoon of honey 
• 1 tablespoon of butter 
• Drippings from steak pan

Pour 1.5 cups of balsamic into a sauce pan. Simmer on low heat for 10-15 minutes until the liquid is reduced to the point where it can coat the back of a spoon. Once reduced, turn off the stove and add the honey and butter. Mix gently! Pour whatever drippings you have in the steak pan into your sauce and mix gently. 

Drip onto pieces of sliced steak while playing. Don’t drench the meat. The sauce is very rich! I put the sauce on the side tonight since it was an experiment but next time I will put directly onto the steak! Note: if the steak is not sliced ahead of time, the sauce will get absorbed into the charred edges. Use side dish for people to pour as needed during the meal, in this scenario. 
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Summer Scampi

The magic of cooking is that you can make your food your own. If you love butter, add extra butter. If you prefer your pasta al dente, stop cooking it a little sooner. If you love bacon, well, almost every recipe can benefit from a side of the good stuff. Take my recipes with a  grain of salt and  feel free to add your own twist!

Summer scampi is a shrimp scampi that is just light enough in its flavor to be enjoyed on a warm summer evening. The heirloom tomatoes are perfectly in season and the lemon juice gives the dish a brightness and lightness! The Italian parsley adds a fresh bite to the dish. This dish pairs well with Chardonnay.

Shrimp are inexpensive at the grocery store. I recommend getting them from the deli/seafood section and not buying them pre-packaged. I usually opt for pre-cleaned, de-veined, and de-shelled shrimp. You don’t need the shells for the sauce and this saves you a lot of time. I like to add other seafood options to my dish as well. For this, I opt for a bag of frozen mixed seafood which is cost efficient but still gives me a variety of proteins to add to the dish.

Ingredients – comfortably serves two with a serving+ of leftovers 

• Fresh linguini (refrigerator section of most grocery stores)
• 8 Shrimp
• 1 cup of defrosted seafood mix (muscles, calamari, octopus, etc.)
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup of white wine
• Juice from 1/2 lemon
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 2 heirloom tomatoes (about a cup of large dice)
• Italian parsley
• Garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, salt, pepper

Instructions:

Prep: Cut garlic cloves into a fine dice. Clean, de-shell, and de-vein the shrimp. Season the shrimp with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and oregano. Chop tomatoes into a large dice, set aside. Chop about 1/4 cup of parsley, set aside.  Defrost the frozen seafood in warm water (see my post on how to best defrost!).

Cook:

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil on a back burner.  Fresh pasta only takes 3-4 minutes to cook so save this part for last. In the meantime…
2. In a 10in-12in pan heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add the finely diced garlic to the pan and cook for 2 minutes. Add 1 tablespoon of butter. Add the 8 seasoned shrimp to the pan. Let cook for 1 minute on high heat. Flip the shrimp then add the juice of half of a lemon. Now add 1 cup of the seafood mix to the pan. Season with salt, pepper, onion powder, and oregano. Add 1 cup of white wine, bring to a boil, then set on low heat. Allow the contents in your pan to simmer for 7 minutes.
3. Cook your pasta! Follow the instructions on packaging as cook time may differ by brand.
4. Once pasta is strained, add 1 tablespoon of butter and salt and pepper to pasta pot. Mix.
5. Use tongs to add the seasoned/buttered pasta to the pan of seafood/sauce. Mix gently but throughly. If your pasta seems dry, taste it then add more butter or more lemon juice, whichever flavors seems lacking.
6. Add chopped tomatoes to your pan, mix then serve! Sprinkle freshly chopped parsley on top of the pasta while you serve.

Enjoy!

Italian Inspired Paella

Ingredients:

• 1 can (15oz) crushed tomatoes
• 1.5 cups Arborio rice
• Frozen muscles, octopus, calamari
• 6 shrimp
• Portuguese sausage (chorizo or kielbasa also work)
• Chicken (I used leftover rotisserie chicken)
• 1 Onion
• Parsley (Fresh) (Italian parsley works well too!)
• 3 Cloves of garlic
• Olive oil
• Spices: Paprika (smoked), garlic power, onion powder
• Lemon wedges

STEP ONE: The Sofrito Heat olive oil in a pan then add chopped/diced onion and chopped garlic. Season with paprika, salt and pepper, then cook for 3-4 minutes, until translucent. Add a handful chopped parsley (about a cup). Cook for 2 minutes. Add can of crushed tomatoes and simmer for about 5 minutes.

STEP TWO: The Rice Add 1.5 cups of arborio rice to the pan, stir, then pour in 1 cup of water and stir until well mixed.  Add a teaspoon of paprika, onion powder, and garlic powder to the pan, stir. Put the lid on the pan and turn the heat down low.

STEP THREE: The Meat: Slice the sausage into thin pieces, about 1/2 an inch thick. Heat a separate pan and add the sausage slices. Cook until browned. Set sausage aside.  Chop and shred rotisserie chicken then squeeze the juice of half of a lemon over the cooked chicken and set aside.

Using the same pan that you used to cook the sausage (DO NOT WASH), add 1/4 tablespoon of butter. Once butter is melted, add 6 shrimp to the pan and squeeze the juice of half a lemon into the pan and season with paprika, salt, pepper. Cook for 1-2 minutes on each side until the shrimp become pink and opaque. Set the shrimp aside.

Check on your rice, if it looks dry, add more water about 1/4 cup at a time.

STEP FOUR: Putting it all together: Take the lid off of the pan with your rice in it. Add chicken, sausage, and about 20 stems of saffron. Stiff very lightly (try not to disturb the bottom layer). Wait ten minutes. Check on rice. If it seems close to done (al dente, firm, most water is gone) add the muscles and calamari to the pan by burying each piece of seafood into the rice. DO NOT STIR. Cover with lid and leave for 8 minutes.

If you use frozen muscles/calamari make sure to defrost BEFORE adding to your paella. If you add the frozen seafood straight from the freezer the defrosting process will add a lot of extra water to your dish, diluting the deep flavors you have been building the last 45 minutes!

TO DEFROST: put frozen seafood into a plastic bowl and add warm water from the sink. Let sit for 5 minutes, drain, repeat. Do this while you prep the rest of your ingredients and by the time you are ready to add the seafood they will be gently defrosted!

STEP FIVE: Serve! Use a spatula to take a heaping portion of paella out of the an. FLIP the paella when you place it on the plate so the crispy side is facing up (treat the paella on your spatula lie a pancake and flip it!). Push the rice to the sides of the plate leaving a shallow valley in the center of your plate. Add three shrimp, a lemon wedge, and a little fresh parsley.

Pairs best with: white wine (Pinot Grigio > Sauvignon Blanc >  Chardonnay) or you can be ultra fancy and make yourself some sangria!