Food Network Friday: Shrimp Scampi with Linguini

This Food Network Friday recipe is brought to you by Tyler Florence. I can't even poke fun at him or his shows because I really do enjoy them. He is one of the more credible stars on Food Network for me at least. I will say that this recipe is simple and yet I found it hard to veganize. It was the shrimp that were causing me the trouble. I never ate seafood except a few fish sticks when I was too little to know I was eating fish so I had no idea what I was trying to replace. Ryan used to be a shrimp eater so I asked him for some insight but he didn't really have much since he thought they didn't really taste like much. I bounced all around trying to figure a way to either mimic the dish or completely spin it on its head and ended on mimic. I decided on mushrooms to replace the shrimp and went for a pound just like he had for the shrimp. I went with plain old white button mushrooms but you really could go more adventurous and make it a mix of gourmet mushrooms too. We skipped the wine as well but did a sub of veggie broth with a little white wine vinegar added (thanks Tami for that sub) and put it all on a bed of whole wheat spaghetti. The only change to the cooking instructions I made was that I sauteed the mushrooms first in batches to get them browned then put them all back in the pan with the shallots and garlic just figuring the garlic and shallots would burn if I left them in there while trying to get the mushrooms to brown first.

The verdict...Ryan enjoyed this one (the man loves him some pasta) but for me it was less of a winner. I think I over did the lemon juice for my tastes and there was no taking it back unfortunately. Even mom enjoyed this one so maybe I'm just being picky!

Here's a picture of the finished product and you can see I served it up with some peas. They ended up getting tossed in with it after the picture was taken and they added a nice flavour and helped with the over lemoning for me too.

Don't forget to check out what everyone else did with this one (I know I'm curious) over at Tami's blog and think about cooking along with us for the next Food Network Friday!

Food Network Friday: Bayou Chicken Pasta by Emeril

This is one delicious Food Network Friday! This time we are making Emeril Lagasse's Bayou Chicken Pasta. It is a spicy one though (you've been warned) and I even cut the heat down considerably by cutting the habanero out completely! I like a little spice in my food but I will admit to being totally intimidated by habanero peppers. Between what I've heard about them being like the hottest peppers on Earth and a bag of Death Rain potato chips a few years back, I am straight up terrified of these seemingly harmless little guys. I did however really enjoy Emeril's Essence (still questioning the name of it though as it conjured up some less than PG jokes from Ryan and myself that night) and it really did give this recipe a hit of "BAM!" like he's always promising.

I didn't write down a recipe since I didn't really change much of what was actually written but I will go through my substitutions to show you how easy it is to take a dish that looks so unvegan and make it deliciously vegan! Emeril goes for chicken but I say "BAM!" and change it out for chickeny seitan cutlets. I used a tester recipe from Tamasin so I can't share it but you could use any seitan or sauteed mushrooms would be excellent or even pressed tofu like Liz did over at Cooking the Vegan Books. He also uses a bit of butter in the recipe, you could use EB or something like that but I just went with a little more olive oil. Next up was the heavy cream which led me to the cupboard for some cashews. Cashew cream is one of my favourite vegan tricks to make a dish really creamy and one of the many reasons I love my Vitamix. I used to let my old blender run for 10 minutes and still didn't get the creamy smoothness that the Vitamix does. I used 3/4 cup of cashews with 1/2 cup of soy milk and 1/4 cup of water to make my heavy cream so take that Emeril...BAM! Last substitution needed was the Parmesan which I quickly swapped out for some nutritional yeast and this time I really did say BAM! as I sprinkled it on top of the final dish. I had to say it once at least while making this or it would feel right!

Some other subs I made that were just for personal preference or lack of stock in the fridge (I'm talking to you green onions) were: took out the habanero completely (like I mentioned), didn't add the extra 1 1/2 tsp of salt (it was already salty enough for me), I used leftover spaghetti instead of linguine which made my cooking time a little less and used up my leftovers (I added 1/2 cup of veg broth to my diced tomatoes instead of just plain water and heated the pasta in the sauce as it simmered) and left out the green onions but think they would really work with it. I also added in some sundried tomatoes (six halves of the non-oil packed kind to be more specific) when I added the cream to up the tomato flavour and I think it really added a little something....maybe a little BAM! I also added some peas to it after I took the picture because there is something about peas and pasta with me. It would also taste excellent served with some steamed broccoli.

Ryan really enjoyed this one (read went back for seconds and had it for lunch the next day) as did I. My mom gave it a try (sans chickeny seitan) and while it was a bit hot for her tastes she did eat it all. We will definitely be having it again maybe even more toned down. It would be good even without the chicken as well. Another idea popped into my head while I was cooking this as well...."Damn, this would have been a great pizza!" so I'm sure that will happen sometime soon too! Everything tastes better on pizza crust, doesn't it?

Don't forget to check out what everyone else did for this Food Network Friday recipe over on Tami's blog! And why not cook-a-long with us for the next one?

My First Original Recipe

I've been so excited for this to all start! I have planned out my posts, prewritten a bit on the advice of more experienced bloggers and now it's here! I'm so excited about sharing the next month of posts with you as I blog about some of my Firsts!

Up first....My First Original Recipe that I would like to share with the world. This is a recipe that I veganized for my mom. She really used to love the Chicken Amatriciana at East Side Marios. Like honestly every time we went there that's what she would order. I never really tried it since it really didn't sound like my kind of thing but she described it to me as a rose sauce with sauteed bell peppers, mushrooms and unfortunately chicken and bacon. When I went to veganize it I decided the chicken and bacon weren't something I was going to add. My mom isn't a huge fan of tofu and refuses seitan so that would make it tricky. I decided instead to go for a bold, creamy sauce with lots of veggies and hope it would hit the spot and it did...she really loves this one! And so does everyone else who's tried it. I have never written a recipe before so hopefully it's all clear and here it is! I will say I would have trouble saying how many servings this makes since my husband eats gigantic portions of pasta but I would guess it would be 6 servings since we usually feed us grown ups for supper and get two lunches out of it too (and it's always tastier the second day since all the flavours meld together overnight).

Pasta Amatriciana

Roasted Tomato Sauce

18 plum tomatoes, halved

2 small white cooking onions, quartered

5 large cloves of garlic, peeled

Salt and Pepper

2-3 tbsp olive oil

Cream Sauce

3/4 cup raw cashews (soak them if you are using a food processor or regular blender)

1 1/2 cups non-dairy milk (I used soy)

1 tbsp dijon mustard

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

2 tbsp light miso (white or yellow)

1/8 tsp fresh ground pepper

1 tsp Italian seasoning blend

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

2 tbsp olive oil, divided

8oz cremini mushrooms (or white button, your preference), cut into 1/4' dice

2 shallots, cut into 1/4" dice

1 green bell pepper, cut into 1/4" dice

Preheat the oven to 400F. On a large sheet pan, place all the tomato halves, onion and garlic and add the olive oil, salt and pepper. Use your hands to make sure all the pieces are well coated with the oil. Let roast for 45-60 minutes until the veggies are browned a bit since this is where all the yummy flavour is.

While they are roasting, combine cream sauce ingredients from cashews through to, and including pepper in a blender or food processor. Combine on the highest speed until it is smooth and creamy. If you have a Vitamix there is no need to soak the cashews ahead of time but you will find it helpful otherwise, even if it's just an hour. Once it's smooth, set aside in a medium bowl and rinse the blender jar/food processor bowl. You should get 1 3/4 cups of the cream sauce.

Once the tomatoes, onions and garlic are browned and ready to go, add them without the oil/liquid in the pan to your blender jar/food processor and blend on high. I leave some texture to it but it's up to your personal preference. Pour the roasted tomato sauce into a medium sized sauce pan and add the Italian seasoning, garlic powder and onion powder. Stir to combine and put over med-low heat so it just simmers.

In a non-stick frying pan over high heat, add 1 tbsp olive oil then the diced mushrooms and shallots. Stir and saute until they are evenly browned. Add these to the simmering tomato sauce and add another tablespoon of olive oil to the pan. Add the bell pepper and saute until softened and starting to brown and then add those to the tomato sauce as well.

Now add the reserved cream sauce to the tomato sauce in 1/2 cup increments until you find the perfect cream balance. I usually end up adding 1 - 1 1/2 cups of the cream sauce but it can vary based on the tomatoes and your taste. Serve on top of your favourite pasta, we usually do whole wheat spaghetti but this sauce would be great on anything, even filled pastas like ravioli. Also it goes great with greens so add some cooked peas or broccoli on top as well!

Roasted Tomatoes, Onions and Garlic when it's done!