Pesto Pasta Recipes - About Pesto

The pesto is a typically spice originally from Liguria. Its main ingredient is basil. The original recipe has Genovese basil, a plant that has its origins in the tropical Asia.

The first pesto recipe is from the years 1800. The pesto recipe was inspired by ancient recipe of smashed sauces like “l’agliata” (ligurian version for classic sauce agliata) which was propagated in Liguria since the Renaissance age. Beside basil, the sauce has small quantities of crunched garlic, pine nuts, nuts, of course parmesan (or pecorino (hard ship cheese) as the local tradition says) and extra virgin olive oil.


Pesto pasta recipe

When you prepare pesto pasta is better to know that you can use all kind of pasta, either penne, linguini, fusili, tagliatelle or farfale and spaghetti.

The following ingredients are for four persons:

30 fresh basil blades
1 tablespoon of grated parmesan
½ tablespoon of pine nuts
1 tablespoon of grated pecorino
sea salt
2 garlic cloves
10 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

In a mortar stamped the sea salt, the garlic and the basil leaves which were before cleaned with a wet sponge. After that, add the oil step by step. Pour also the parmesan and pecorino.
Meanwhile, boil the pasta in salted water. After it is boiled take out the pasta, sloop it very well. The pasta is spiced with the pesto sauce and has to be served warm.
The pesto sauce could be also prepared in a blender where you mix all the ingredients, but taking care after the preparation to put it into the freezer for two hours. This way the basil doesn’t go black and keeps its green shiny color.

Tips:

You could prepare a bigger quantity of basil sauce and keep it in the fridge up to one week or in the freezer for a longer period of time.



To learn cooking with pesto and the Italian cuisine, you may visit http://www.pestorecipe.org/.

A Fat Red Shrimp or Whats the Matter with Lobsters?

A Fat Red Shrimp or Whats the Matter with Lobsters?
I’ve attended a number of special events where they served lobster dishes. I think people consider lobster as a highly expensive dish that’s why they are only being served during special occasions. But since I have my own grocery, I usually get a lot of lobster for free. This is because we try to avoid having any spoilage in our business so I end up cooking the perishable items and serving them to the family. It’s like an additional bonus for us, being the owners of the grocery. So on a weekly basis, I get to serve different lobster recipes to my family.

Some of the lobster recipes that I serve at home include lobster bisque soup, lobster thermidor, lobster chili, and baked lobster. My family loves these dishes so much that they even recommend me to cook for several events that their friends are hosting. So aside from the grocery business, I get extra money in preparing lobster dishes for special events. I love to cook and this is where I get to show off my talent in making delicious dishes.

One of the biggest concerns that people have raised upon me is how to kill a lobster. Here are my tips.

Before starting, you have to place rubber bands around the claws of the lobster (they will be good when grilled!). Make sure that this stays on throughout the duration of the whole process, unless of course you wish to do a wrestling game with the lobster.

The first thing you need to do is to cut it half down its center. You can use a 10 inch chef’s knife to do this.

While the lobster is sitting on the board, make sure its tail curls toward the table. Flatten out the tail and grasp the area of the tail that joints the body with just one hand. Your other hand should be holding the chef’s knife correctly on top of the lobster, on an area between 1-1½ inch away from the eyes. Make sure that the knife blade is not facing your other hand!

Press the tip of the knife onto the head of the lobster until such time that the tip hits the cutting board and through the lobster’s head. Then bring the blade down between the lobster’s eyes to finish cutting the head.

Another method is to put the live lobster inside a pot of boiling water. But this is considered torturing the lobster. Instead, opt for the tip I gave you. By using my tip, you are able to kill the lobster painlessly and quickly as possible.

Want to be a pro in Lobster cooking? Visit http://www.cookinglobstertails.net, I learned a lot there...

Shrimp Recipe - Terrific Shrimp Paella

Paella is officially a Valencian rice dish in Spain. There are mainly three types of paella Valencian paella, seafood paella and mixed paella. Valenican paella consists of white rice, beans, green vegetables, beans, snails and meat. Seafood paella incorporates sea food, white rice and seasoning and mixed paella is the mixture of Valencian and seafood paella. The key ingredients used in making in paella sometimes include saffron and olive oil. Seafood paella recipe is usually used by people living in the Mediterranean coast.

Try this exotic dish of Shrimp paella and enjoy!
Ingredients:

1 cup uncooked white rice
2 cups water
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1.5 pound fresh shrimp, shelled and deveined without tails
1.5 (15 ounce) can chicken broth
1.5 (15 ounce) can peeled and diced tomatoes with juice
5 saffron threads


Directions:

This is a great dish and takes very little preparation time.
Take garlic and mince it. Take shrimp and devein it leaving the shells on. Take 15 ounces of tomatoes and peel them. Chop up the tomatoes.

Take a pan and put water in it. Let the water boil on high flame. Throw in rice to the water. Once the rice and reduce down the heat. Cook the rice for 20 minutes or so. Take a large skillet and place it over medium heat. Put in olive oil and let it get warm. Make sure that the oil is hot but not smoking hot. Throw in the garlic and shrimp and cook until the shrimp are cooked to perfection or until the shrimp turn pink. Next pour the broth in the skillet along with tomatoes and saffron. Mix all this nicely. Bring everything to a boil stirring from time to time. Add in 1 cup of rice to the skillet containing shrimp and lower down the flame to low. Cook for not more than 10 minutes.Take out the paella shrimp rice on to a service plate. Dish it up with chopped parsley and serve right away.

Tips:
You can add in beans, snails and vegetables as well to give more taste to the dish. Dish up this dish with lime wedges. Sprinkle some lemon juice on the top for a citrusy flavor.


To learn more about Shrimp Paella and get more exotic Shrimp recipes you may visit http://www.paellarecipe.org were I got my inspiration.

Shrimp with Miso glaze recipe

Shrimp are considered a healthy food source for the circulatory system as they have a lower level of saturated fat in them. They can be combined with various other ingredients and enjoyed. There are many recipes that you can try involving shrimp.Shrimp recipes are a part of many cultures including scampi, poon choi etc. Shrimp when cooked with miso glaze with is a Japanese dressing tastes exotic and wonderful. Try this shrimp with Miso glaze recipe today.

Ingredients:

1/2 yellow onion, sliced
vegetable oil for sautéing
½ tablespoon miso paste
1/4 tablespoon sambal chili paste
1/2 tablespoon oyster sauce
2 to 3 drops sesame oil
12 to 18 shrimp peeled, tails on


Directions:

• Take the shrimp and peel it off while keeping the tails on.
• Take ½ yellow onions and slice it. Miso paste to be used is easily available at Asian markets.
• Take a sauce pan and add some vegetable oil into it. Heat the oil onto medium flame. Once the oil is hot but not smoking hot, add in the sliced onions and sauté until the onions turn nice dark brown.
• Take out the sautéed onions from the sauce pan and place in a blender.
• Next put the miso paste, chili paste, and oyster sauce and sesame oil into the blender and blend until the puree is formed.
• Heat your oven to 370 degrees.
• Take a skillet and place it over medium high heat. Add oil in it. Heat the oil over medium high flame making sure becomes hot but not smoking hot.
• Add in the shrimp and sear lightly.
• Take an oven tray and place the lightly seared shrimp onto the tray. Next glaze the upper side of the shrimp with the puree.
• Place the tray into the oven and bake for over 3 to 5 minute or until nicely done.
• Take out the shrimps glazed with miso glaze and place them on a serving dish.
• Garnish with chili flakes and onion

Tips:

You can serve this dish as an appetizer at a party. You can also serve it as a main course with steamed rice or pasta. You can us crayfish or lobster tails instead of shrimp or could create a platter of the three and serve.


To know how to make and prepare shrimp sauce that will add smacking taste to your favorite just browse the collection of shrimp recipes at grilledshrimp.org.

Buffalo cooking - a great style gone famous

One of the dishes that my friends love to eat that I cook for them is buffalo cooking like chicken wings. But aside from this name, the dish can also be called as buffalo wing, a hot wing, or even chicken tenders. I have made the dish numerous times before and have been told that I make such a great dish. Honestly, I only made the recipe on my own based on my observation of the dishes that I have tasted before.

For those who don’t know what buffalo wing is, it is a chicken wing section which is either flat or a drumette. Traditionally, the chicken is fried without any breading and is then coated in delicious sauce. The classic buffalo style chicken wing sauce is made up of butter and a vinegar based cayenne pepper hot sauce. Since this dish is spicy, it is traditionally served with a siding of celery sticks and some blue cheese dressing.

The history of buffalo cooking came from its origin which is Buffalo, New York. Actually, the local residents of this place call these dishes as wings or chicken wings. It is in the other parts of the planet that the dish is called Buffalo wings.

If you want to make buffalo wings, you have to be careful when preparing it. This is because if you are not careful, you might end up making a very spicy dish that your guests will not be able to enjoy. And this is not good especially if you have kids around to taste the dish.

When preparing chicken wings, you have to pay special attention to the sauce. This is because you can easily fry the chicken even if you don’t have any experience doing it. But the sauce will need special care as the flavor of the dish really comes from it.

The basic ingredients of the sauce are cayenne pepper hot sauce and either melted butter or margarine. The sauce is usually given a name which people will be able to associate whether or not these dishes are either spicy or really, really hot.

Although the traditional method for cooking the dish is deep frying, buffalo wings can also be baked or grilled. After which, they are drained and placed on a bowl and covered with sauce. The dish is then covered and shaken until each piece has been coated evenly.

The level of spiciness of the sauce can be measured in order to suit anyone’s preference. This is done by lowering the amount of spice and heat.

A great collection of recipes I've seen recently was www.buffalochicken.net.
The calzone and tender recipes were especially interesting.

Japanese Recipes, Sushi and what's the heck is Miso?

I am a huge Japanese cuisine fan and have always been fascinated at their skill and discipline on how they make their dishes. One thing that amazes me a lot is their Miso soup. If you don’t know what this is, it is the typical free soup that is being served when you order a Japanese meal. I was really fascinated by it and wanted to learn more about it so I asked my Japanese friend for its history.

The Japanese has long been making and using miso for their dishes. In fact, they have been using it for more than a thousand years already. This is because the Japanese believes that miso has gastronomic and therapeutic values.

In some cases, miso is even being called as the “wine of the Orient.” This is due to the fact that there is a much needed care and patience when making miso as compared to the finest beers and wines throughout the world. Miso is a fermented liquid which contains an art and science that only a few are capable of mastering.

Since I mentioned that miso is a fermented liquid, it is actually a slow fermented soybean paste which is an indispensable ingredient in most foods found in Japanese cuisine. The exotic taste of Japanese dishes is because of their usage of miso as important ingredient to many of their recipes. As a result, a combination of flavors like malty, rich, savory, and salty tastes.

A typical day in Japan is one where people start off eating miso. This is because the soup contains alkaloids that are able to attract heavy metals and remove them from the body. Miso has also been learned to neutralize the effects of environmental pollutants and even smoking. As scientists have discovered, the soup also has the capability to lower cholesterol, aid digestion, and prevent heart disease. This is most truthful when miso is unpasteurized.

The Nara era of Japan was when miso was most controversial. This was because the soup was reserved for the court and the aristocrats. During those days, wealth bought health. And this is why miso was only available to those who can afford it.

It was the 1500s when miso was served to the public and was even recognized as an ideal military palate. Miso was then thought of as a significant survival food. Aside from the fact that it is highly nutritious, miso is also easy to prepare and transport. This is why it was recommended for the military. In addition, miso contains salt, which is important for survival during hot climes. Personally I like the seafood variation with mussels best.