Pil Pil, Baking and Peppers

Since coming back from a quick Christmas and New Year rendezvous with truenorthgal, I was too tired to start cooking again. I am glad that my mom and dad gave me a couple of weeks worth of food so I don't have to worry about what to do for dinner as I was adjusting to my regular work schedule again. Anyway, I wanted to eat something just cooked so I got a couple of things from my local supermarket and started cooking away. Here are a couple of things I've been doing for the past two weeks.


Spicy Dinner

Gambas Pil Pil

I found this recipe from one of the Spanish cookbooks truenorthgal and I found a couple of months back. I bought a package of deveined shrimp in early December but never had a chance to take them out of the freezer. Considering that the basic ingredients are shrimp, garlic and olive oil, this is definitely easy and yummy!

1 lb peeled, uncooked shrimp (keep the head on but remove the antennas)
a good measure of olive oil
3 cloves of garlic (or as much as you want), chopped
1 or 2 chopped dried chilies
salt

1. Place a skillet over medium heat. Add the olive oil.
2. Line a pan with aluminum foil. Place the pan in the oven for two to three minutes at 350 deg F.
3. After the olive oil is hot enough, add the garlic and crumbled dried chilies. Add the shrimp and once they turn pink, pour the entire contents of the skillet onto the pan.
4. Sprinkle the salt on the shrimp and serve immediately! Use crusty bread to mop up the spiked olive oil while eating. Try not to burn your fingers or your tongue.


Baking Frenzy

Whenever I have breakfast, I am on the lookout for scones. There is something about this nice bread which may or may not contain fruits, nuts, chocolate or spices. I like them with butter and jam, peanut butter, and cream cheese. Hey if they are not plain, I have them as is. So while trying to remove any unused items in our pantry, I found some flour and a brownie mix. I thought since I liked scones I might as well try my hand making some. I have to say that I had mix results with making bread before (translation: hard disks or tough loaves) so I was hesitant to try it out. Since I had an excess amount of flour, I said I had nothing to lose anyway. So here is the recipe I used for these scones.

Cream Scones
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup sugar plus some more for sprinkling
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups heavy cream

1. Sift all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Preheat the oven to 450 deg F.
2. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the heavy cream. Using a large spatula, mix the ingredients with as few strokes as possible. When I tried this, it took me about 8 to 10 strokes. It may look lumpy but that's ok as you can see below.


After Mixing Ingredients

3. On a lightly floured board, pat the dough into a 8 inch round and about 3/4 inch thick. The trick here is to handle the dough as lightly as possible. You can run your hands through cold water to minimize transferring heat to the dough. Cut the dough into 8 wedges or small rounds.
4. Place the dough onto a ungreased pan. Brush the the wedges or rounds with egg whites and sprinkle with the remaining sugar.


Prepared Cream Scones

5. Place pan into the oven and bake until golden brown. It will take about 15 minutes. Serve warm with butter, jam or clotted cream!


Creamed Scones after 15 minutes

Oh as for that brownie mix, I just added one egg and 1 cup of vegetable oil. Then just for a chunkier consistency, I added some slivered almonds and roughly chopped unsweetened chocolate. This is one wicked brownie.


Mmmm Chunky Brownie


Lacking Veggies

After a couple of days, I noticed that I wasn't getting enough veggies in my meals. I resolved to look for some vegetable recipes. It still took til this past Friday (past 2130) before I got to cook the stuffed peppers though but it was worth it!

Stuffed Bell Peppers
4 bell peppers
salt
5 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
five cloves of garlic, chopped
1 lb ground beef
1 1/2 cup cooked rice
1 cup chopped tomatoes
1 tsp dried oregano
fresh ground pepper
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 tsp worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup water
dash of habanero, tabasco or whatever hot sauce you like

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the bell peppers whose tops and seeds have been removed. Make sure the peppers are submerged for about three minutes. Remove the peppers from the water and let cool.
2. Preheat the oven to 400 deg F. In a skillet, heat the 4 tbsp olive oil. Add the onions and garlic and cook them until they are soft and translucent. Add the meat, rice, tomatoes, and oregano. Season with salt and pepper. Cook the stuffing until the beef is pinkish as seen below.


Half Cooked Stuffing

3. Using the remaining olive oil, spread them on the inside of the peppers. Put the peppers in a baking dish with 1/4 cup water. Place the stuffing in the peppers. Mix the hot sauce, 1/4 cup water and ketchup in a bowl. Spread the mixture on top of the stuffing. Place the baking dish in the oven for about 45 minutes.


Cooked Stuffed Peppers


A Close Up of a Pepper


Stuffed Peppers with their Caps


Dinner!