Here's to swimmin' with bowlegged wimmen..........

There be seafood here..............!!!

Some of the nicest meals a person can prepare, are the simplest and quickest. An excellant example of this is seafood of almost all kinds. If you enjoy the flavor of fish, shrimp, scallops, lobster etc...., then you know that there really is very little you have to do to season or prepare it. Seafoods can, generally, be grilled, baked, poached, sauteed, fried, boiled...........you name it. It is almost impossible to fuck up seafood, unless of course you under or over cook it..........it is a pretty forgiving foodstuff for the beginning or inexperienced cook.

A few weeks ago, I spotted some 10-12 count shrimp (10 to 12 per pound......about the size of small lobsters!) and some 10-12 count scallops on sale for around $7.00 per pound at Krogers. If you are familiar with prices, then you'll know that these items, at this size normally sell for $10.00 to $12.00 per pound.

I snagged a couple of pounds of each. At home, I took them out of the store packaging, laid them out on wax paper on a cookie sheet, and stuck them in the freezer until they were just frozen. I was then able to bag them up loose in a half-gallon zip-lock bag............when I was ready to make a meal out of them I could take out the number I wanted to prepare without defrosting the whole mess just to get them apart. Works like a charm for a lot of foods sold in packages too big for a single person or a couple to consume at one sitting. Foods repackaged in this way will go 3 or 4 months or better in the freezer without any discernible loss in quality. This also allows the single person, couple or small family to take advantage of sales on large packages, or whole cuts of meat that often mean a savings of nearly half what you would spend on a smaller package. It also allows having a stock of a variety of meats, available in any quantity the occasion calls for, should you find yourself cooking for guests.

So tonight I'm going to fix myself a quick, easy, nice supper.............

I defrosted 6 each of the shrimp and scallops...........I took them out of the freezer and stuck them in the fridge two days ahead. Sticking them in a baggie and putting them in a bowl of water will defrost them in a few hours.

I decided to have frozen asparagus spears (little late in the season for the fresh stuff), simmered to a bright green "al dente" state in a skillet, over a medium heat, in a half stick of butter. For my starch, I decided on a steamed Yam (a sweet potato would have made for a nice color contrast, but the selection at the store was pretty poor).

I have this cheap enamel pot with a pasta insert and a steamer bowl. I can't remember when I bought it, but I'm reasonably certain it was over 25 years ago...........and I use the shit out of it. Put that on your list of really handy things to have in a kitchen...............




I put about two inches of water in it and put in on a back burner over a medium high heat.

I peeled and cubed the Yam, put the basket in the pot, and covered it..........the yam will be done in about 15 or 20 minutes.









In the meantime, I put a half stick of butter in one 10" sautee pan (for the asparagus) and a whole stick of butter in another 10' sautee pan (for the meat) and put them on a medium heat. You have to be careful here not to scorch the butter by heating it too fast.

I put a spoonful of minced garlic in the pan that the shrimp and scallops were going in to..............




The shrimp had been deveined already, so all I had to do was peel off the shell, toss them in the pan with the scallops and season them with salt and pepper and the juice of a whole lemon (well almost a whole lemon, I saved a couple of chunks to squeeze over the food at the table).

Just before I put the meat in the pan, I turned up the heat..........putting the food in when things began to sizzle a bit.........(again, not scorching the butter).
I didn't really sautee the seafood so much as I poached it.

At the same time, I put the asparagus in its pan.............



















While all this was going on, the yam cooked through. (I tested it by sticking a fork in it.) I turned the flame off under it..........the hot water kept it hot until I was ready to serve it.

I cooked the meat for about 7 or 8 minutes and turned each piece over to cook about the same amount of time on the other side. I shuffled the asparagus around from time to time to keep it from actually frying.........it was done a bit before the shrimp and scallops, so I simply turned the flame off and left it in the pan.

When the seafood was done, I transferred it to a plate. What was left in the pan was a buttery, garlicky, lemony liquid.........I splashed in a bit of the wine I was going to drink with my meal, and let it reduce while I finshed loading my plate.




Most of the cooks I've read or seen on television say to forget about so-called cooking wine. Use what you drink.............if it's not good enough to drink, then its not good enough to cook with.

I picked up a $6.00 bottle of Beringer White Merlot and chilled it...........I like merlot, but I'd never tried a white merlot. It turned out to be fruity and sweet. It had enough body to stand up to the butter and garlic, a bit of spice and a nice soft finish. A refreshing and cleansing beverage that didn't walk all over the meal the way a red might have, nor did it tuck its head between its legs and hide the way a chardonnay might have...........I was thinking a spicy gewurtztraminer might have been ok, but this was nice.

I spooned a bit of the sauce from the pan over the shrimp and scallops,and melted some butter over the yam and sprinkled on some brown sugar....




At last the taste test............




Good stuff Maynard.........


Cheers...!!!

All in all, this meal cost about 3 bucks more than a King-sized #8 combo with cheese.........and if put on a scale, probably amounted to about a half pound more food. I didn't count the calories up...........but I'll bet, butter and all, it consisted of considerably fewer than would have been in the nasty ol' booger 'n flies. In terms of time and convenience..............'bout the same. The dishes were minimal.........three pans, a plate, a glass and assorted utensils and tools.

Be kind to yourselves people...........all them sons of bitches that civility demands a show of niceness and consideration towards all day long most likely don't deserve it half as much as you do.

I'm going to a family get-together this weekend, and I'm taking a chunky turkey salad with some surprising ingredients.........and two monster apple pies.

Guess what we'll be cooking next time kiddies.........it's not as hard as you think.

Bon appetit............

Thus endeth the lesson...........