Crab Stuffed Shrimp

No plans for New Years Eve? That's OK, stay in and make this for dinner and ring in the new year at home. Baked shrimp generously stuffed with a delicious blue crab filling all sitting pretty in a champagne cream sauce, every bite is decadent! Perfect for a big party or just dinner for two.

What I like about this recipe is that you can prepare all 3 components in advance. I cleaned and cut my shrimp the night before and placed them in a container in my fridge ready to be stuffed making sure my shrimp was free of all moisture by blotting them with a paper towel.

The filling was also made the night before and placed in a separate container as well as the cream sauce which heats up beautifully when ready to use, I call this stress free cooking!

By cutting the shrimp on the inner circle you'll create the perfect platform to place your mound of stuffing on top. I used about one tablespoon of filling for each shrimp.

You can serve this with a little pasta on the side, something small like orzo or even some rice, I promise you that is all you'll need because the shrimp and crab are really the stars here just remember to swipe each bite through the champagne sauce!

And be sure to have a glass of your favorite bubbly beside you. Cheers!

To Prepare the Shrimp:

Make sure your shrimp is completely dry with no moisture, padding it with paper towel. Remove shell but leave the tails on. Along the inside of the curve take a sharp knife and cut along the length being careful not to cut all the way through. Take out any vein you see and then open like a book and press lightly to flatten.

Crab Filling:

For 3 lbs. of large shrimp I used a little less than a pound of wild caught, fully cooked, blue fin crab, it comes in a can and it's pasteurized. Worth every penny!

For the filling my suggestion is to taste and add things as needed to your own personal liking, since the crab is already cooked you'll have no problem doing that. Here's what I added, you could use more or less.

2 cloves of smashed garlic

fresh parsley

1 teaspoon of Dijon

Tabasco sauce

celery finely diced, 2 small stalks

onion or scallions finely diced 1/2 of a medium onion or a few scallions

1 1/2 rolls of smashed crackers ( Ritz )

melted butter, 3 0r 4 tablespoons

lemon juice and lemon zest

salt and pepper

Saute the diced celery and onions in 1 tablespoon of butter, then add in everything else, the mixture will hold together nicely and you will be able to mound it on top of your shrimp easily.

Place stuffed shrimp on a parchment lined sheet pan and then spray or baste each one lightly with olive oil and a sprinkle of paprika. Bake at 375F for 15 or 20 minutes until pink and the stuffing is warmed through.

After they're baked set them in a shallow pool of champagne cream sauce and garnish with parsley and a lemon wedge.

Champagne Cream Sauce:

1 1/2 cups of white champagne

1 1/2 cups of cream

2 0r 3 shallots diced

Saute shallots in a dab of butter, pour in the champagne, let it reduce and then add cream and whisk until thickened.

From My Kitchen To Yours...

Ok just one more cookie! At the last minute I caved in and made some Cucidati, I wasn't going to make them at all this year but I was slightly coerced by my brother-in-law and husband who were giving me a guilt trip.


Cucidati are traditional Italian fig cookies very popular at Christmas time consisting of a tender dough that wraps around a thick and flavorful filling of figs, raisins, almonds, orange peel and a few other things that are laced with brandy and warm spices.


On a cold winter day my house quickly warmed up with the scent of cucidati baking in the oven. I don't know what I was thinking, it just wouldn't be the same without a few of these gracing our table!

In the end I made two people very very happy that day, and isn't that the
real reason why we cook anyway?

Here's my favorite recipe.

I want to take this time to wish each and everyone of you a most delicious holiday filled with lots of love and happiness!

From my kitchen to yours,

Marie

Tis The Season To Be Baking!

By now you're probably deep into baking all your favorite holiday treats, pulling out recipes you haven't made in a year or so. I started my baking last week, placed them in pretty tins ready to give away and share with family and friends. Here is a few of the things I baked so far.

Traditional ANISE BISCOTTI, it's a huge favorite of my husband and brother-in-law, they love that sweet licorice taste of the anise. These biscotti are perfect for dunking in your coffee or espresso and great to have on hand when someone stops by.

To get that true anise flavor I always use anise oil instead of the extract and along with that I also mix in some anise seed, the oil is really strong so you don't need very much but the flavor and smell lingers forever (or as long as your biscotti last,) in fact there's still a lingering aroma of anise inside my house and I finished baking them a week ago!

The dough comes together very quickly it's the baking that will take you the longest since you have to twice bake them. After first baking your logs you want to make sure they cool down before you cut into them for that second baking otherwise you'll have a pile of crumbs. I use a heavy serrated knife to cut through mine, but I just recently got a great tip from my sister-in-laws from Florida, they cut their biscotti with an electric knife! Isn't that a great idea? I'll be on the lookout for electric knife for next year.

The great thing about biscotti is that they last weeks after you bake them and they taste just as good as the first day, if properly stored. I like to put mine in tin cans layered between wax paper, they stay all nice and crunchy that way!

ANISE BISCOTTI

Ingredients

5 cups unbleached flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup of softened butter (2 sticks)
4 eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon of anise oil, or 2 tablespoons of anise extract

2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon of anise seed

Nuts are optional, I would use 1 cup of sliced almonds for this recipe

Directions

Sift dry ingredients together, including the anise seed. Set aside. In a large bowl with a mixer beat butter, sugar, until fluffy, add eggs one at a time along with the anise oil or extract. Add flour mixture and beat on low until blended. Divide mixture into 4 parts. Each part becomes a log measuring around 2 1/2 inches by 9 or 10 inches long. Place logs on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven 25 minutes or until golden brown on the bottom. Remove from the oven and let them cool down on a rack. Carefully cut them 1/2 inch thick, turn each piece on their side and bake on each side for 12 minutes or until lightly golden.

Makes around 75 biscotti depending on size.

If you were to ask me what my personal favorite biscotti was I would have to say it would be this FIG and PISTACHIO version. Dried fig with just a hint of orange and anise flavors the crunchy biscotti that is studded with pistachio's. You can't beat this with a warm cup of espresso on the side, every bite is so full of flavor! If you like figs you will love these!

I've shared them on my blog before, so if you're craving these crunchy goodies you can check out the recipe here.

Next up is PUFF COOKIES, I make them every year and I always will, they remind me of my mom and aunt. You're probably familiar with these almost every nationality has their own version of them, also known as Mexican Wedding cookies, but to me and my family they'll always be Puff Cookies!

Like puffs of snow these rich and buttery cookies just melt in your mouth, great as a gift in a pretty tin or just placed on a platter for any special occasion, either way they will be most appreciated. I also shared these on my blog way back when I first started blogging, you can find the recipe here.

And finally, I always like to put a new cookie into the mix, well new for me anyway. I've tasted RICOTTA COOKIES before but I haven't ever made them myself until I saw Claudia's version over at Journey of an Italian Cook. Poor thing she lives in Minnesota and just got hit by that big blizzard recently, stuck in the house she's been cooking and baking up a storm! (no pun intended). I'm sure her family has been very grateful for the snowfall!

These cookies are truly addictive, the taste and the texture is perfect, not to sweet, just right!

Please, go out and get some ricotta, you still have time to make these and add them to your cookie tray, I promise you won't regret it!

I'm sending you over to Claudia's blog to get the recipe, the only thing I changed up was that I doubled the lemon zest in the batter, and then for the glaze, instead of 1 teaspoon of vanilla I did 1 teaspoon of lemon extract and more fresh lemon zest. I had a lemon theme going on and it went wonderful with the ricotta flavor, I will make these over and over again and so will you!

Happy Baking, and Buon Appetito!

Cappelletti in Broth

As I said in my previous post I had the privilege of learning how to make cappelletti from my daughter-in-law's nana who was in for a visit from out of town. This women is in her 80's and is a spitfire in the kitchen! Not a strip of dough was wasted that day, she took over the kitchen like it was a military procedure, every scrap of dough left over was made into something edible, she put all of us "younger" ones to shame as she kept saying, " Come on girls we still have more dough here!" She has the best personality, I want to be like her when I grow up!


Making cappelletti is a labor of love, I didn't realize it until I made them myself, you're working with small disc's of dough each one stuffed individually and then shaped into a little hat, it's very time consuming but so much fun when you're doing it with a bunch of people, there were 5 of us actively making them.

It didn't take me too long to catch on I think after about 15 tries I became an honorary cappelletti maker.

The dough was cut from a handmade disc the size being around 2 inches, then a savory filling of meat and cheese was piped right into the center. Next the dough was folded in half to make a half moon keeping the rounded edge facing down, after that you take the two top end corners and stretch them around the back until they meet, then just flip the bottom edge up a teeny bit to make a tiny brim.
.

After you sit doing them for a while you start to pick up speed and by the time we were finished we ended up with 800!
They were then placed in the freezer single layer on baking sheets until frozen, then into freezer bags.

We each went home with our own goodie bags, I couldn't wait to make these, but such a labor of love requires homemade broth to place them in so that is what I did. The day before we ate them I made a rich chicken stock with leeks, onions, carrots and herbs, when it was finished simmering I strained it twice so it was nice and clear because after all the cappelletti is really the star here.

The next day I warmed up the broth and gently placed the frozen cappelletti in avoiding a rolling boil, you don't want them to break open! Less than 5 minutes later they were finished cooking.

Scooped out with a slotted spoon and gently placed in a bowl, now it's time to ladle your broth over them.

I added freshly grated parmesan cheese on top and savored every bite!

Scrumptiously good to the last drop! Thank you Lena!

Buon Appetito

Butternut Squash Ravioli and Scenes from our Annual Ravioli Making Day

Each year we get together as a family and spend one whole day making homemade ravioli, I've written about it before and shared pictures of past years on my blog.

Before our day gets off and running we assemble all our tools. This year along with our ravioli we were also going to making cappelletti as well.
What are cappelletti? They look like little baby tortellini, tiny "little hats" of pasta each one stuffed with a savory filling, something I haven't ever made myself but had the privilege to learn this year by way of a master, my daughter-in-law's nana who was in for a visit.

I'm devoting my next post to our cappelletti making so for now, back to the ravioli!

The first thing we always do is to make all the dough at once before we get to rolling it out, it's always done in a food processor, fast and easy! Then we wrap each ball up and let them all rest for awhile before we begin.

We always make meat filled ravioli and the meat filling is always prepared in advance, this is Nana Lena's special recipe and all I can say is that it's fantastic!! It's a mixture of 3 different meats, cheese's, spices and herbs all of which have been passed through a meat grinder.

Along with the meat ravioli we also make cheese filled and I'm in charge of the filling for that. This year I got adventurous and also made a butternut squash filling for us to try.

Even the kids get involved, my two gorgeous granddaughters are here helping out.

Everyone usually settles into their own specific jobs and the ones that they're most comfortable doing.

We ended up making around 400 ravioli
that day along with 800 cappelletti, yes you heard me right, 800! Of course with all that hard work going on all day we had to nourish ourselves, so pizza's and salads were ordered for lunch along with some decadent cupcakes for dessert!

Here's the filling I made for the butternut squash ravioli, a mixture of roasted squash, buttery sauteed shallots, a touch of cream and lots of grated parmesan cheese all blended until smooth in a food processor which I did the day before and then placed in a piping bags. Piping the fillings out result in a very efficient, neat and all in all a much faster way of getting it all done.

When completed all the ravioli are placed single layer on sheet pans and then placed in the freezer until frozen, then eventually they go into freezer bags.

I recently took out a bag of the butternut squash ravioli to have for our dinner, I couldn't wait to see how they turned out!

They held together perfectly as they were boiling in the water, I love when they don't break open and not one of them did!

While they were boiling I made a quick brown butter and sage sauce, I just love the smell it brings into the kitchen.

I drizzled the sauce all over my cooked ravioli and then added more parmesan cheese.

It's hard to describe just how good this was but I'll try, cheesy, buttery, slightly sweet and creamy texture of the filling, nutty, earthy, decadent flavor of the sauce, and the fresh pasta? well what can I say, there's nothing like fresh pasta!

If you haven't ever tackled making fresh pasta why not give it a try, it's so perfect for the holidays!

Buon Appetito!