Pasta with Seafood

Reserve this deluxe seafood and pasta entree for special dinner parties. Your guests will be ecstatic over the seafood trio in this sensational dish. With scallops, shrimp, and clams served atop spaghetti and complemented by a sauce of sweet peppers, onions, garlic, tomatoes, and a selection of Italian herbs, this recipe is a seafood lover's dream. Serve this dish with a generous sprinkling of grated Parmesan cheese.

ingredients

•    6 ounces fresh or frozen scallops
•    1/2 pound fresh or frozen peeled and deveined shrimp
•    12 small clams
•    6 ounces dried spinach spaghetti
•    1 yellow sweet pepper, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
•    1/2 cup chopped onion
•    2 cloves garlic, minced
•    1/2 teaspoon instant chicken bouillon granules
•    1 teaspoon dried basil, crushed
•    1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
•    1/4 teaspoon pepper
•    2 tablespoons cornstarch
•    2 medium tomatoes, seeded and chopped
•    2 tablespoons snipped fresh parsley
•    1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
•    1 cup water
•    2 tablespoons cold water

directions

1.    Thaw shrimp and scallops, if frozen. Halve any large scallops. Scrub clams under cold running water. Cover clams with salted water, using 3 tablespoons salt to 8 cups cold water. Soak for 15 minutes; drain and rinse. Discard water. Repeat twice. Set aside.
2.    Cook spaghetti according to package directions; drain and keep warm. In a large skillet cook clams, yellow sweet pepper, onion, garlic, bouillon granules, basil, oregano, and pepper in the 1 cup water about 5 minutes or until vegetables are nearly tender and clams have opened. Remove clams; discard any unopened shells.
3.    Stir together cornstarch and the 2 tablespoons cold water; stir into vegetable mixture. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Stir in scallops and shrimp. Cook 3 to 4 minutes more or until scallops are opaque and shrimp turn pink. Stir in tomatoes and clams; heat through. Stir in parsley. Serve over spaghetti. Serve with Parmesan cheese. Makes 6 servings.

Recipe Source: Yahoo Shine

Valentine's Day Recipes

Pamper your sweetheart with your own hand-baked Valentine cookie pops or make him/ her some delicate Valentine muffins or may be a sweet Sweetheart Cake can do the magic. You can cook up little surprises for the young ones too. Get them some yummy heart-shaped cookies or a couple of Rosey Posey cupcakes and you're all set to wallow in their unadulterated excitement. You can prepare sweet candy hugs for mom and dad, or you can make some chocolatey kisses for your gramps.

The idea behind Valentine's Day recipes and these delicacies is to sweeten up the senses of all those you hold close to your heart and make them feel on top of the world. And if you sit and think, you'll actually be surprised to see as to how much you can do to the Valentine's Day menu or how many recipe ideas strike you for the day. So prepare or get the best for your loved ones this Valentine's Day and tickle their sweet tooth with the top-notch Valentine's Day recipes that are rich in the X's and O's ! Listed below is a list of not-so-common, yet-so-yummy Valentine's Day recipes for you to romance up the day !




Valentine Raspberry Chocolate Fudge Red Velvet Cake

Ingredients

1 (18 1.4 ounce) box red velvet cake mix
1 (3.9 ounce) box instant chocolate fudge pudding and pie filling mix
1 1/4 cup water
1/2 cup cr me de cocoa or raspberry liqueur or brandy
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 jumbo or extra-large eggs (at room temperature)
1 (12 ounce) jar seedless raspberry jam
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting, Old-fashioned 7-Minute
 Icing or Chocolate Fudge Frosting

Procedure 

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine cake mix, pudding mix, water, cr me de cocoa or raspberry liqueur or brandy and oil; add eggs and beat at medium speed of an electric mixer for 4 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl as necessary. Fold in pecans. Spoon into two wax paper-lined greased 9-inch wide heart-shaped layer pans or one greased and floured 10-inch Bundt or tube pan. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes (heart-shape layer pans) or 45 minutes (tube or Bundt pan) or until a cake tester inserted into the cake layers or cake comes out clean.

Let cake or cake layers cool for 10 minutes in pan(s), top side up for tube cake and upside down for Bundt cake. Turn out onto wire rack(s) to finish cooling.

For heart-shaped cake, arrange one layer on a cake serving plate. Evenly spread raspberry jam over cake layer. Top with second layer. Evenly spread top and sides with frosting of choice. For tube or Bundt, spread frosting of choice over top and sides of cake. Sprinkle decorative confectioners' red sugar over cake as desired. 

Passionate Pasta

Ingredients

6 oz fettuccini pasta

1 pound fresh shrimp, peeled and de-veined

1 tbsp chopped shallots

3 cups fresh mushrooms (chopped and sliced)

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp Cajun seasoning

1 tbsp butter

3 cup chicken broth

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tbsp cornstarch

7 oz red bell peppers (roasted)

1 tbsp drained capers

Procedure

Marinate the shrimp with olive oil and Cajun seasoning and set aside for fifteen minutes. Boil the pasta in salt water. Then drain and keep aside. Next, in a separate pot, sauté the mushrooms and shallots in butter until tender. Remove. Now add the shrimps in the remaining butter and cook for a few minutes till the shrimps turn pink. Remove from the pan and add 2/3 cup of chicken broth into the pan. Wait till the broth reduces to about 1/4 cup. In a separate bowl, mix the sour cream and corn starch before adding it to the boiling broth. Cook for about a minute till the sauce gets thick. Now add the shrimps, mushroom mixture, roasted red peppers, and the capers. Heat thoroughly and season to taste. Pour it over the pasta. That's it ! Now savor the flavor of this Passionate Pasta in all the Valentine's Day hoopla

Oyster Delight

Ingredients

2 cups of fresh and large oysters

2 tbsp chopped parsley

10 slices of bacon

A pinch of paprika

Salt and pepper to taste

Procedure

Sprinkle the seasoning and parsley on the fresh oysters. Wrap the oysters in the bacon and button up with toothpicks. Place them in a shallow baking dish and bake in 450 degrees F for about ten-fifteen minutes till the bacon is crisp. This is one great Valentine's Day recipe idea that would neither take you long to make, nor would it take your guests to polish off. 

Brownie Love

 
Ingredients

4 bars of unsweetened chocolate

8 oz whipped cream

3/ 4 cup margarine

3 eggs

1 cup flour

2 cups sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup chopped, assorted nuts

3 cups strawberries

Procedure

Melt the chocolate and margarine together. Keep stirring till the chocolate melts completely. Add the sugar and mix well. Now add the flour, eggs and nuts and mix till it forms a smooth paste. Bake it in a pre-heated oven of 350 degrees F for 35 minutes. After it cools, refrigerate for 30 minutes. Take out and cut into heart shapes with the help of a cookie-cutter. Spread the brownies on a plate, place the strawberries on them and top with the whipped cream to make the dish look as yummy as any other of the day. Have a bellyful fun on Valentine's Day with all.

So try these Valentine's Day recipes this February 14 along with your heart-shaped cakes. you'll have the perfect fill if you go for the oysters on Valentine's Day along with the Passionate Pasta ! Try the absolutely delicious brownies for dessert and wrap up a wonderful Valentine's Day dinner. But you can always keep adding to your menu and come up with more innovative Valentine's Day recipes. The day is all yours to enjoy with love, luck and laughter.

Article Source: Ezine Article

The Best Recipes To Cook With Pasta

If you're looking for some great recipes which are quick and easy to make to expand your home based cookery skills then you can't go far wrong with pasta recipes. There are a great variety of dish recipes including low calorie and low in fat recipes to make at home.

A great recipe with pasta to get started with is tagliarini (This is egg noodles cut in to long slender pieces) with courgettes, prawns, mint and chilli. Tagliarini is slightly narrower than tagliatelli and a great pasta.
Heat some olive oil in a large frying pan and add some prawns frying until they have browned. Next mix in some celery, onion, garlic and mint and continue frying until the prawns have gone a slightly darker brown colour. Cook for a further three minutes after adding some cherry tomatoes.

•    Mix in a dash of lemon juice and add some chopped courgettes cooking for another five   minutes.
•    Pour over half a cup of white wine and bring to the boil heating for a further 2 or 3 minutes.
•    Cook your tagliarini according to the instructions on the packet. It should be 'al dente' (firm but not hard) and this takes around 2 minutes in boiling water depending whether you use fresh pasta dried pasta.
•    Add the pasta to your prawn mixture and then mix in some vegetable stock and butter followed by a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.
•    Blend well together over a gentle heat until ready to eat and well mixed.
•    Season with salt and pepper (freshly ground is best) and serve!

Recipes with pasta are also great for the fridge and you can easily re heat pasta the next day. Pasta dishes can be speeded up if you are in a rush by using salted water to boil your pasta with and steaming your vegetables over the boiling pasta pan - if you have a steamer!

Source: Ezine Articles