Shrimp Alfredo Sauce

I have been boarding with a co-worker last year in New Jersey who is into pasta. So I went ahead and prepared this dish as requested by another co-worker. I thought it would be a good deal to have a small get together and this would be my contribution. I made 2 batches - one to share among friends and the other with my roommate.


1 lb shelled and deveined shrimps
3 - 4 tbsps. butter
1 pint heavy cream
1 stick butter
2 tbsps. cream cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 tsp. grated powder
1 box spaghetti or fettucini noodles

Cook raw shrimp in 3 - 4 tbsps. butter until pink. Set aside.
Combine cream cheese, heavy cream and butter. Simmer and mix well. Add parmesan cheese and garlic powder. Simmer for 15 - 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Mix the sauce with the cooked noodles and top with cooked shrimp.

To add color, i sprinkled it with chopped parlsey.

Pancit Molo Soup

My grandmother would make this dish on special occasions. My dad would brag that Lola Paz was the best cook ever. I remember as a child, she would constantly be in the kitchen whipping up something for lunch or dinner. Mom said that she was blessed to have learned her technique in making Pancit Molo Soup.

Pancit Molo Soup

The Ingredients:
1/2 kilo ground pork
1/3 cup onions, minced
1/3 cup waterchestnuts (or singkamas), minced
1/3 cup shrimps, shelled, deveined, minced
1/3 cup + 2 tablespoons spring onions, minced
1-1 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 egg
1 package molo wrapper (around 40 pcs.)
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium onions, chopped
1/4 kilo chicken breast, boiled, deboned, and shredded
4 cups chicken stock
salt
white pepper
water
cooking oil
extra garlic, chopped or minced,
toasted

Cooking Procedure:

Boil the chicken in 5 cups of water with a little salt. Cook the meat until it is tender. Reserve the chicken broth and remove the chicken meat. Once cool, shred the meat into strips. Set aside.

Mix the following ingredients together in a bowl: ground pork, minced onions, waterchestnuts, shrimps, 1/3 cup spring onions,soy sauce and an egg. Thoroughly mix the ingredients together. Take a teaspoonful and place on the center of a wanton wrapper. Take the four corners and pinch together, forming a pouch. Repeat this until all of the meat mixture have been wrapped in the wanton wrapper. If there are excess wrappers, tear into strips and set aside.

With a 3/4 tablespoon of cooking oil, saute the chopped garlic and chopped onions until the onion is translucent. Add the chicken strips and saute for a minute or two. Pour in the soup stock and season the liquid with salt and a little pepper. bring the liquid to a boil, then drop the molo dumplings one by one. Make sure that the water is roll-boiling. This will prevent the dumplings from sticking together. Add the remaining stipped molo wrapper. Lower the heat and let the soup simmer for 5-8 minutes. If the liquid is not enough, add more chicken stock or warm water. Season to taste. Simmer for another 5 minutes or until the molo dumplings are done. Turn off the heat. Transfer into a soup bowl or individual serving bowls. Top with minced green onions and toasted garlic.

Eating shrimp without getting your hands dirty

Growing up, my dad would teach us how to eat properly and one of this is how to peel shrimp without using your hands. Normally, as kids, we would just take off the head with our bare hands, peel off the shell and tail then pop it into our mouths after dipping it in some lemon butter or butter garlic sauce. (Yum.)

The kids would argue with him that there is no fun in eating shrimp with utensils. He would counter that it is best to learn how most specially when the time comes it may come in handy. So with displeasure we had to learn the art. Honestly, it was difficult at first and tiresome. We weren't able to eat as much as we wanted and the process took more time that we lost our appetite.

But that was many years ago. Now that we have mastered the art everything is just a cinch. Thank you dad for taking the patience in teaching us.



How to Peel Shrimps Using a Fork and Knife:

1) With a fork, pierce the part of the body near the head for a firm hold. The shrimp is now lying on it's side. Using your butter knife or dinner knife, decap the shrimp's head (the carapace).

2) Place the tip of the knife right on the legs and try to scrap off the legs (or the swimmerets). This will leave an opening and would make it easier to peel off.

3) Now pierce the fork where the swimmerets used to be.

4) Insert the tip of the knife in between the shrimps body and the shell. Push back the shell away from the body to a point that the shells would detach away from the body. Continue this until the shell have been taken out. The tail may be sliced off or peeled off.

I would say that practice makes perfect but nothing beats eating shrimp using your hands.

Buttered Garlic Shrimps

Everytime there is a special occasion at home, mom would prepare this simple, easy and yummy crustaceans (next to crabs of course). Each member of the family to grab their own share trying to look for the biggest and juiciest. Mom would pile them really high, placing the medium and small sized on top. When everyone have taken their first share of shrimps, Mom would then dig into the bottom center and grab the most biggest and juiciest prawn ever. A sure clever trick.

After peeling away each shrimp, we would dip it back to the butter garlic sauce that was cooked in. Dad prefers to dip his in vinegar will lots of crushed garlic and a pinch of salt. Anyway eaten, they taste really great and one would always go back for more.

The Ingredients:
1-2 lbs. (1 kilo) of fresh shrimps, whiskers trimmed
1 tbsp. rock salt
1 12oz Sprite or 7-up
1 1/2 heads of garlic, peeled and crushed
1/3 cup butter

Cooking Procedure:
Place the shrimp in a frying pan or wok and season with salt. Pour in the soda. Cover the pan and heat for 8 minutes or until the shrimps are bright in color. Do not over cook because the shrimps will become tough. Set aside.

Melt butter. Saute in the garlic until they become tender and light brown in color but not burnt. Toss in the cooked shrimp in the butter garlic mixture. Add a few tablespoons of the liquid used in boiling the shrimp. Simmer for a minute or two then transfer into a serving plate.

Requesting Shrimps

Mom was heading back from visiting my brother. A few days before her departure, I was able to talk with her and told her that I received a very good pumpkin from my aunt. It was sweet and starchy that had a creamy, sweet consistency when cooked. She requested if I could cook the pumpkin with shrimps and coconut milk.

We call it Ginataang Hipon at Kalabasa. There are many variations depending on the household with regards to how they prepare this dish.I have known others to mash the pumpkin to make the stew thicker while others just let the pumpkin break up on its own. I know some prefer theirs with a thin

This will be my first attempt to prepare the dish the way she does it. I hope I pass :)

Ginataang Hipon at Kalabasa

Salt
300-400 grams shrimps
1 tablespoon oil
1 thumb size ginger, peeled, sliced into disks
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
1 medium sized onion, sliced
4 cups pumpkin, peeled, seeded and sliced into ½ inch cubes
1 cup eggplant, sliced into ½ inch length, quartered
1 ½ cup coconut milk, 2nd extraction
1 cup coconut cream or milk, 1st extraction
1 tablespoon fish sauce
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
1-2 pieces finger chilies (siling pang sigang)
1 bunch swamp cabbage (kangkong) leaves, approximately 1 to 1 ½ cup

Remove the whiskers from the shrimps. Season it with salt. Do not season too much else it will end up too salty. Set aside.

Heat the oil in a casserole in medium heat and sauté ginger, garlic and onion. When the onions are almost translucent and the garlic is tender, add in the pumpkin then the eggplant. Saute the vegetables well. Pour in the 2nd extraction into the casserole and lower the heat. Season the pumpkin with ½ tablespoon fish sauce and ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper.

When the pumpkin and eggplant is half cooked add in the shrimp. Stir for a few seconds and cover. Simmer for 2-3 minutes. Add in the 1st extraction and simmer for 2 minutes. Drop in the finger chilies. Adjust the taste by adding remaining fish sauce and black pepper. Continue cooking until you get the desired consistency of the sauce. Add the swamp cabbage then stir once. Turn off heat. You don’t need to worry with the swamp cabbage because the remaining heat will continue to let it cook.

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I asked my mom when she had it for dinner yesterday. I passed with flying colors. :D

Keeping Shrimp Fresh

Everyone in the family loves shrimp. Even my brother who is allergic to it would fight for his fair share whenever mom would prepare shrimp dishes. When ever the "ber" months would start, there would be an abundance of shelled seafood in the markets. Mom would buy 4-6 lbs. of shrimp but will only use 1-2 lbs. in a dish and store the rest. How does she maintain the freshness of the shrimps?

The shrimp whiskers are trimmed off using a pair of scissors or by gently pulling them off, but not necessary. Arrange the shrimps in an air-tight freezer container. Fill the container with tap water. Do not fill the container up to the brim since water expands when frozen but make sure that the shrimps are covered in the water. Freeze the shrimps.

To thaw, we would either leave it under running water or place it in a basin of water which is replaced after 30 minutes until the shrimps are totally defrosted.

True enough, the shrimps retain the same firmness and freshness when we bought them. I am just not sure how long the maximum time they should be kept in the freezer. The maximum that I recall would be a month to two months. Hope this tip helps. I need to go and get more shrimps. :D