The Culinary Coward Does Diavolo
For this month’s Coastal Dish I am so excited to share with you all one of my favorite food bloggers, Andrea Goto, The Culinary Coward from PaulaDeen.com! Andrea lives and writes in Savannah, Georgia—just up the road from SeaPak’s coastal headquarters! She likes to say that her “kitchen experiments (known as ‘cooking’ in more conventional homes) most often end with a mushroom cloud of smoke or a call to Poison Control.” In spite of this, she has the gift of making everyday duties entertaining, accessible, and fun! Check out her guest blog and see how she fared making SeaPak’s Shrimp Diavolo.
-Jenna
I wasn’t having a stellar weekend.
On Friday night my 4-year-old daughter woke with a fever. I gave her some Tylenol and tucked her back in. An hour later she called out for water.
“Fresh-new-water-that’s-not-too-cold-in-a-cup-that-doesn’t-leak!” It’s the same request every night. I can recite it with her.
Ten minutes later she summons me again, just to hand me the cup. Then my husband, who believes he has the plague, begins the coughing fit that has inconvenienced him—and consequently me—for five nights. Repeat this cycle a dozen times over, sprinkle it with some vomiting, and you have my weekend.
By Sunday evening my daughter is crashed out on the sofa, still feverish. But at least in her sleep she doesn’t complain when I move more than three inches away from her. My husband is about to ask what I have in mind for dinner, to which I will respond, “Whatever you can find.” Momma ain’t cooking. Momma is tired.
But his question is preempted by another coughing jag. He braces himself on the kitchen counter and blows the gale-force winds in my direction at which point I make a mental note to buy Lysol.
“Maybe a hot shower would help,” I suggest.
He nods in agreement (or maybe that’s his head recoiling from the coughing) and works his way to the bathroom as if he’s reinacting Hamlet’s death scene. Once I hear the shower running, I realize that I’m left with the beautiful promise of 20 minutes—all to myself.
I decide to use this time to make myself dinner. Just one thing stands in my way: I can’t actually cook.
Some people can create a restaurant-quality dish in their own kitchen. I can’t. I once tried to recreate “Thanksgiving Dinner” by pouring a jar of brown gravy over deli meat.
I also find it hard to handle uncooked meat because it’s too easy to imagine it with fur, hooves, a tail, friends, cousins—well, you get the point. And deveining shrimp—or pulling the life force from the little suckers—is a real appetite killer. I’m not vegan; I’m just very comfortable eating food from a box.
SeaPak Shrimp Scampi to the rescue.
It looked and smelled like 5-star restaurant cuisine and tasted even better. Plus, I didn’t have to actually see or touch the shrimp prior to eating. They were hidden inside a thick buttery coating, looking more corn dog than once-living creature.
After hearing me sing my SeaPak praise, a friend suggested that I try one of their recipes. I thought the set of directions on the back of the box was the recipe, but she explained that I could use the scampi to make a bunch of other easy dishes. “Even you can make them,” she added. (This may sound hurtful, but she was actually being quite generous.)
So tonight I decide to make Shrimp Diavolo. I don’t know what “diavolo” means but the recipe allows me to bail from my no-refined carbs kick and it calls for white wine. As if I need another excuse.
The timing is the trickiest part of the recipe and since I lack any natural cooking instincts, I rely heavily on the timer. I set and reset it so often that the beeping sounds like an electrocardiogram.
There’s no room in my omelet pan to toss in the noodles, so I haul out a plastic, red mixing bowl that looks like the bucket I took to the beach when I was kid—the one that my sister would use to wash the sand from her shockingly large toes (an untimely memory). It’s not the prettiest presentation, but who’s going to complain?
I plate the Diavowhatever, sprinkle some Parmesan and pour a (big) glass of wine.
If I weren’t sitting in the kitchen, hunched over my plate and listening to Dr. Phil over the sounds of my child moaning and my husband hacking, I can almost believe that I am dining alone in an elegant Italian restaurant. On days like these, “almost” is “good enough.”
(Need more Andrea? Follow her at http://www.andreagoto.com.)
Shrimp Diavolo
Prep Time: 8 minutes Cook Time: 25 minutes Makes: 2-3 servings
- 1 (16 oz) package SeaPak® Shrimp Scampi – Tails On, frozen
- 1/2 lb linguine, uncooked
- 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
- 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 1 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasonings
- 1 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper (add more or less to taste)
- 1/3 cup shredded Parmesan cheese (if desired)
COOK linguini according to package directions until it is al dente.
SAUTÉ shrimp in a large non-stick skillet on medium for 6 minutes.
SCOOP shrimp out of pan with a slotted spoon and set aside. Return pan with scampi sauce to stove and turn heat up to medium high. Add onions and sauté for 5 minutes until onions are translucent.
ADD diced tomatoes (including juice), wine, Italian seasoning, and red pepper to onions. Bring mixture to a low rolling boil. Boil mixture for seven minutes stirring occasionally.
ADD shrimp to pan with tomato sauce and continue sautéing for three minutes. Add cooked linguini and toss to coat and serve with shredded Parmesan, if desired.
POSTED BY Jenna Reed AT 7:00 am Wednesday April 21st 2010 0 COMMENTS
It’s that time of year again! If you live in the south, like me, the pollen is stirring, the weather is warming and children are out for SPRING BREAK! Now in many years past, spring break often meant a family vacation out of town, but with the economy being what it is many of us are opting for more of a “stay-cation” this year … as in staying at home. Not to worry, you can still add some fun vacation-like elements to the week to keep it special and fun.
