Name: Easy Coconut Shrimp
Prep time: 15 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 1 pound medium (26/30) shrimp, peeled and deveined; 1/2 cup all-purpose flour; 2 beaten eggs; 1/2 cup panko crumbs; 1/2 cup shredded coconut; salt and pepper; olive oil spray or cooking spray; 1/4 cup sour cream; 1/4 cup diced pineapple; 1 tablespoon granulated sugar; 1 tablespoon rum (I used coconut rum) or pineapple juice

Easy Coconut Shrimp in the Oven

July 5, 2016

Easy coconut shrimp only requires five ingredients with no frying! It’s quick, simple and incredibly crispy and delicious.

Have I ever mentioned how much my family loves Red Lobster? I have not eaten there in a while and I know it’s not really the cool-kid thing to do to love Red Lobster, but eating there is a total nostalgia thing for me. That was our “place” to go when my family wanted to go out to a sit-down restaurant for dinner. I remember scarfing down the teeny little fried popcorn shrimp I’d always order with a baked potato (butter and sour cream, please) on the side, applesauce instead of a salad (because kids don’t eat salad, right?). The best thing ever was when they started serving those Cheddar Bay biscuits, amiright? You are lying if you say you don’t love a good garlic-cheese biscuit.

Anyway, like I said, it’s been a good long while since I’ve eaten there. The last few times that I have, though, I’ve gotten coconut shrimp. Breaded in, well, coconut, they’re deep-fried (of course) and served with piña colada dipping sauce. I am really not one for frying, so naturally I had to devise my own oven-frying method to make this easy coconut shrimp recipe.

Coconut didn’t seem like quite an adequate breading for my easy coconut shrimp. It needed a little bit more, something a little more substantial and to lend crunch to the shrimp. Panko crumbs got the job done perfectly. A quick dip in flour, eggs, then the panko-coconut mixture, then a 15-minute bake on a greased baking sheet yields a perfectly crunchy coconut shrimp with a bit of a tropical flavor. The piña colada sauce, which comes together in just a few minutes, is the perfect foil for the crunchy shrimp, with its cool, sweet bite.

Try my easy coconut shrimp for a quick, perfect summer dinner!

For other great recipes, check out the Weekend Potluck link-up on The Country Cook!

Mary

Yield: 4 servings

Easy Coconut Shrimp

15 minPrep Time:

15 minTotal Time:

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Ingredients

1 pound medium (26/30) shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 beaten eggs
1/2 cup panko crumbs
1/2 cup shredded coconut
salt and pepper
olive oil spray or cooking spray

For the Piña Colada Sauce

1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup diced pineapple
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 tablespoon rum (I used coconut rum) or pineapple juice

Instructions

To make the piña colada sauce, stir the ingredients together in a small bowl. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
Place a rack in the center of the oven; place a baking sheet in the oven and preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Place a cooling rack on another baking sheet.
Set up a breading station: one bowl with flour, one with beaten eggs, and one with panko and coconut. Salt and pepper each bowl so that you get good seasoning for your shrimp.
Dip each shrimp into flour, then egg, then the coconut mixture. Place on the cooling rack.
When all of the shrimp have been breaded, spray the preheated baking sheet with olive oil spray or cooking spray. Place the shrimp on the baking sheet and spray the tops with olive oil spray or cooking spray. Bake for 8 minutes.
Flip the shrimp and spray the opposite side. Bake for an additional 7 minutes. Serve immediately with piña colada sauce.

https://chattavore.com/easy-coconut-shrimp/

Easy coconut shrimp only requires five ingredients with no frying! It's quick, simple and incredibly crispy and delicious. | recipe from Chattavore.com

Pasta Salad with Basil Aioli, Chicken, Peach, & Blueberry

June 27, 2016

This pasta salad with basil aioli is summery and fresh, with chicken, peaches, and blueberries and a tasty homemade aioli (shortcut included).

I feel like there is a box that Southern cooking is supposed to fit into. That has been frustrating me lately…Southern food is my niche and I’ve really been trying to focus on Southern food and studying well-known Southern food writers lately. As I’ve planned my posts recently I’ve found myself irritated at what I feel that Southern food is “supposed” to be – fried, cheesy, etc. Of course, I myself have complained about these stereotypes, so it’s really ridiculous for me to pigeonhole myself like that.

The truth is that Southern food is whatever people from the South want it to be. Sure, we have our standard bearers. Fried chicken, White Lily biscuits, decidedly unsweetened cornbread, and banana pudding will always be symbols of Southern cooking. Every Southern cook worth his or her salt has a version of these foods. However, Southern food from where I sit is simply the food that I want to eat. To me, it’s from scratch (most of the time, anyway), simple, fresh food. Seasonal if possible, though we all know that when winter hits you’ve just gotta do what you’ve gotta do.

Summer around here brings peaches and blueberries. I have two blueberry bushes in my front yard, which yield handfuls of nearly black, round berries every night (though this year the birds seem to be feasting on them before I can get to them more than in the past). They go straight into my freezer to be used year-round. I have a peach tree too, but even though we’ve had it for five years (maybe more, I don’t really remember), it’s still producing duds, pits with fuzzy peach skin. For now, I’ll have to continue to buy my peaches at the produce stand down the street. I’m okay with that, though. It’s a small family business and I’m happy to give them my business (even though I always feel old because the son who works most of the time when I visit – and who is in his mid to late twenties – was in my class when I taught at a child care center during the summers in college).

I mentioned last week that I have become obsessed with dry-brining chicken, and I’ll put it into anything that I think it will work in. When I considered how I could combine perfectly brown, juicy chicken with peaches, blueberries, and mozzarella, I first thought of a hot pasta dish. Then, realizing that it’s nearly July and so hot here, plus the fruit would stand up in cold pasta better, a pasta salad with basil aioli kept popping into my head.

My basil aioli is so simple; I mix it with my immersion blender and it takes all of 30 seconds to mix. However, if you aren’t feeling brave enough, you can just blend mayonnaise with basil and get a similar flavor. I created a free-form salad with the aioli mixed into the pasta and the other components on top, but you can mix everything together if you’d prefer. That would probably be the best way to take this pasta salad with basil aioli to a picnic or cookout.

However you decide to serve it, this pasta salad with basil aioli, chicken, peaches, and blueberries is sure to be a crowdpleaser. And I’m claiming it as Southern food.

Mary

Yield: 4 servings

Pasta Salad with Basil Aioli, Chicken, Peach, & Blueberry

20 minPrep Time:

25 minCook Time:

45 minTotal Time:

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Ingredients

1 recipe dry-brined chicken thighs , cut into 1-inch pieces
8 ounces small pasta shapes, like shells, elbow macaroni, or rotini, cooked according to package directions and drained
2 medium peaches, peeled if desired, sliced
1/2 cup blueberries
4 ounces (1 cup) mozzarella pearls or diced mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup julienned basil
1/4 cup roasted, salted pepitas

For the Basil Aioli

1 large egg
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
zest of 1 lime
juice of 1/2 lime
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup torn basil
1 cup extra-virgin or regular olive oil
OR
1 cup high-quality mayonnaise
1/2 cup torn basil
zest of 1 lime
juice of 1/2 lime

Instructions

Make the basil aioli: place the egg in a cup or small bowl wide enough for immersion blender. Add the mustard, zest, lime juice, salt, and basil, then pour the olive oil over the top. Place an immersion blender into the container and turn it to the lowest speed. Slowly increase the speed while moving the blender around to fully blend the aioli. Alternately, you can blend the ingredients in a regular blender or a food processor, or use an immersion blender, blender, or food processor to blend mayonnaise, lime zest, and lime juice. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
Combine enough aioli with the pasta to coat according to your preferences. Combine with remaining ingredients or divide among bowls and top with the remaining ingredients. Serve cold or at room temperature. Refrigerate any remaining basil aioli.

https://chattavore.com/pasta-salad-with-basil-aioli/

This pasta salad with basil aioli is summery and fresh, with chicken, peaches, and blueberries and a tasty homemade aioli (shortcut included). | recipe from Chattavore.com

Dry Brined Chicken Thighs

June 24, 2016

Even the most well seasoned and cooked chicken can be bland and dry, but these dry brined chicken thighs are juicy and flavorful every time.

Back in the seventies and eighties, a funny thing happened to the American food landscape. Fat – saturated fat, to be more specific – got vilified. This turned us from a nation full of red meat, baked potato dripping with butter-eating, ice cream cone licking food lovers to a nation of people who were scared of anything that had more than a couple of grams of fat in it. We started dressing our baked potatoes with margarine (which, because of its trans fats, we now know is much worse for us than butter ever was). We decided to forego the juicy ribeyes for boneless, skinless chicken breasts; we followed up our meals with low-fat frozen yogurt, which, I don’t care how much you like frozen yogurt, is not a substitute for ice cream. For the record, though, I don’t even like frozen yogurt a little bit, unless it’s the white chocolate mousse from TCBY, which disappeared from the Chattanooga area when I was in college.

Even before the renaissance of saturated fat in the last ten years or so, when some health experts have started to say that it may not be as bad as once believed and coconut oil, avocados, butter, and whole milk have all made a comeback, I was suspicious of boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Unless they were fried into a nugget or a strip, they were generally too dry or bland for me. I never understood my friends who scoffed at red meat (give me a steak over a piece of chicken any day, thank you) or chicken served on the bone, which is infinitely juicier and more flavorful than its boneless counterparts.

Sometimes, though, you just don’t want to deal with bones in your chicken. It takes much longer to cook, for one thing, and it’s definitely more difficult to eat. A few years back, I discovered that chicken thighs were far superior to chicken breasts. I’ve been using them in just about every application that calls for boneless, skinless chicken breasts ever since.

Still, I found that my chicken was missing something. Even though the higher fat content made the chicken thighs tastier than breasts, I was never completely satisfied. I started experimenting with making my chicken perfect – perfectly juicy, perfectly flavorful, perfectly tender, perfectly browned. Traditional brining (allowing the chicken to sit in salt water for a few hours) prevented the delicious brown crust that I wanted. Then I discovered dry brining, which is the practice of sprinkling salt on the chicken and letting it rest. The salt permeates the chicken and helps it to retain some of its moisture while also flavoring it.

Dry brined chicken thighs are pretty much a revelation. I’ve made them three times in the last two weeks, and plan to make them at least twice next week. They’re the perfect basis for any recipe that contains chicken. I promise you that if a recipe calls for boneless, skinless chicken breasts, you will never regret using dry brined chicken thighs in their place.

They’re also infinitely dippable, which makes me very happy because I am a dipping sauce fanatic. So far I’ve dipped them in Japanese white sauce, Alabama white barbecue sauce (pictured here), and a basil aioli that I will be featuring in a recipe next week. I am quite certain they would be delicious with a barbecue sauce, Chick-Fil-A style sauce, or honey mustard. The technique for these dry brined chicken thighs was inspired by America’s Test Kitchen. However, I did not follow their directions; this is my own recipe. For other great recipes, check out the Weekend Potluck link-up on Served Up With Love!

If you are tired of dry chicken breasts, try my dry brined chicken thighs instead.

Have you ever checked out FaveSouthernRecipes.com? They’ve been a huge supporter of Chattavore, featuring many of my recipes over the years. I just wanted to give them a shout-out and encourage you to sign up for their newsletter, Everyday Southern Comfort.

Mary

Yield: 4 servings

Dry Brined Chicken Thighs

PTH40MPrep Time:

PTH20MCook Time:

1 hrTotal Time:

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Ingredients

1 pound chicken thighs, trimmed of excess fat
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt (or 1 teaspoon table salt)
2 tablespoons olive oil
freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Poke the chicken several times with a fork on each side. Sprinkle both sides evenly with the salt. Place on a plate, cover, and refrigerate for at least half an hour and up to two hours.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. In a 10-inch oven safe skillet (I use cast iron), preheat the olive oil over medium-high heat until shimmering.
Season both sides of the chicken with black pepper. Place in the oil and cook for about 3 minutes on each side to brown. Place the pan in the oven and roast for about 15 minutes.
If desired, shred or slice the chicken. Serve immediately or refrigerate for later use.

Notes

Prep time includes 30 minutes of inactive prep to allow the chicken to rest in the refrigerator.

https://chattavore.com/dry-brined-chicken-thighs/

Even the most well seasoned and cooked chicken can be bland and dry, but these dry brined chicken thighs are juicy and flavorful every time. | recipe from Chattavore.com

Zucchini and Yellow Squash Tacos with Mushrooms

June 20, 2016

Zucchini and yellow squash tacos with mushrooms not only give you an easy and delicious way to use up your bounty of squash, they’re quick and filling!

When did we become adults? I blinked and missed it (note: that blink happened a long time ago…I’ve been an adult for a lot longer than I’d like to admit). While Philip and I were having dinner at Two Ten Jack with our friend Brian, with whom we’ve been friends since we were teenagers (over twenty years, in fact), I realized how much our conversations have changed. Of course, my earliest conversations with Brian were mostly work-related (we were all Chuck E. Cheese’s co-workers back in the mid-nineties) but then after Philip and I started dating when I was in my early twenties and we would hang out with Brian our conversations were generally about music: what shows we’d been to, what CDs we’d bought, etc.

Our conversations that night were about a variety of things: politics, work, craft beer (a love Philip and Brian share), and food issues. Brian chooses to eat a mostly vegetarian diet, and as we were discussing the many reasons that he does so I laughed in my head thinking about how we were the old people I would have made fun of twenty years ago. Why so serious? It’s just food.

There’s no such thing as “just food” any more. Food = life for me in so many ways. I have been pretty open here about the fact that I have gained a few pounds over the last few years, due to a variety of factors. Blogging is, I’m certain, one of them. Moving into a more sedentary job is another, and, as much as I’d like to deny it, my doctor says that age is a factor as well. Age must be the reason that appearance is no longer the sole reason that I’m concerned about my weight (though I would be lying if I said that it wasn’t a concern). Health is my major concern, and I’ve been trying to weight my food choices more toward health than decadence (because food doesn’t have to be decadent to taste good). Sorry if my blog doesn’t always reflect that, though I promise I’m trying.

Recipe development in the summer definitely lends itself to promoting healthy cooking. I don’t take the omission approach to healthy cooking. I believe that you should eat the things that you want to eat in moderation and concentrate on making it mostly about the healthiest foods that you love. Luckily, I love fruits and vegetables, so June, July, and August are more or less an eater’s paradise for me.

A trip to the produce stand last week resulted in an excess of zucchini and yellow squash, so in my haste to find a way to use them all up I decided to cook up some squash tacos. Onions and mushrooms seem at home in squash tacos, don’t they? In my house, onions and mushrooms are at home in pretty much anything, but that’s just us. Soft corn tortillas, onions cooked till they’re on the verge of caramelization, zucchini, yellow squash, smoked cheddar cheese (or whatever you’ve got, but smoked cheddar works so well here), and a drizzle of sour cream and Sriracha. That’s what I call squash taco perfection.

If you have some extra zucchini and yellow squash to use up, why not make these zucchini and yellow squash tacos?

Mary

Yield: 8 tacos

Zucchini and Yellow Squash Tacos with Mushrooms

PTH10MPrep Time:

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25 minTotal Time:

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Ingredients

1 medium yellow squash, cleaned and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 medium zucchini, cleaned and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided (if using table salt, use half the amount indicated here)
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1/2 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
4 ounces cremini or button mushrooms, cleaned and thinly sliced (about 1 cup)
salt and pepper, to taste
8-16 corn tortillas (we like to double up and use two tortillas per taco)
for serving: cheese (smoked cheddar is great here, but Monterey jack, queso fresco, or regular Cheddar are fine too), sour cream, Sriracha, avocado, lime wedges, cilantro

Instructions

Place the cut zucchini and yellow squash on a plate lined with several layers of paper towels. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of the salt and let stand while you prepare the onions and mushrooms.
In a medium pan, heat one tablespoon of the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Cook until translucent and beginning to caramelize. Add the mushrooms and cook until tender.
Press the top of the squash with more paper towels to remove excess liquid. Add the squash to the pan with the onions and mushrooms and cook until tender and beginning to brown, 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat and salt and pepper to taste.
Heat the tortillas according to package directions. Fill with the vegetables and top as desired. Serve immediately.

https://chattavore.com/zucchini-yellow-squash-tacos-mushrooms/

By the way, the taco holders featured in the pictures are seriously life-changing and very inexpensive. I have included an affiliate link for them below. This means that if you click the link and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission. This does not affect the cost to you. For more information, please see my disclosures. Thank you for supporting my blog!

Zucchini and yellow squash tacos with mushrooms not only give you an easy and delicious way to use up your bounty of squash, they're quick and filling! | recipe from Chattavore.com

Summer Vegetable Soup with DREAM Ultimate Almond

June 13, 2016

This summer vegetable soup is light but filling, full of fresh vegetables, and just a little creamy, thanks to the addition of DREAM Ultimate Almond!

This post was sponsored by DREAM via Honest Cooking. As always, all opinions are my own.

Regular Chattavore readers know that I will eat soup year-round. I don’t think that it’s ever “too hot” for soup. I mean, a burger off the grill is hot, too, but people eat those all summer like they’re going out of style! For me, soup is the ultimate in simplicity and comfort. Plus, I cannot think of many things that cannot be “soupified” with delicious results.

Another thing…it really doesn’t bother me to eat “heavy” food year round. I’m happy eating fettuccine Alfredo 365 days a year, so rich, creamy soups do not bother me one bit. I know that a lot of people don’t see eye to eye with me on that one, though. A lot of people want to lighten up their food choices a little bit in the summer. Light salads, lots of fruit – hey, I can get down with it. I mean, when summer crops are in season, I like to take advantage too. And it’s not like I eat heavy cream every day. We all have to draw the line somewhere.

When I think of ways that I can cram all the vegetables into a dish, pastas and soups seem like the most obvious choices. Zucchini, crookneck squash, red peppers, jalapeño, mushrooms, onions, celery…what else could I fit into this summer vegetable soup? I did a quick sauté in butter to start softening everything up then I added some vegetable broth and let it simmer. DREAM Ultimate Almond Unsweetened Almond Beverage added just a hint of creaminess and a very mild nutty flavor. A dream indeed. Just my opinion, I think it made the soup a little more filling than similar soups I’ve made with whole milk or cream.

DREAM Ultimate Almond is available at Whole Foods Market and will soon be available at Sprouts. Since it’s lactose, dairy, and gluten-free, it’s great for people who are avoiding those things. It’s made with four times as many nuts as other almond beverages, giving it a richer, “homemade” taste and boosting the protein quotient to 5 grams per serving. It’s available in unsweetened, original, and vanilla. Plus, it’s delicious…so how could you go wrong? You can find a coupon at DreamPlantBased.com.

My summer vegetable soup with DREAM Ultimate Almond is a winner!

For other great recipes, check out the Weekend Potluck link-up on The Country Cook!

Mary

Yield: 4 servings

Summer Vegetable Soup with Ultimate Almond

This simple soup comes together in about half an hour. It's light but filling. Use coconut instead of butter to make a vegan soup.

10 minPrep Time:

20 minCook Time:

30 minTotal Time:

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Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter or coconut oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 red pepper, seeded and diced
8 ounces mushrooms, wiped clean and sliced or quartered
2 small zucchini, coarsely chopped
2 medium yellow squashes, coarsely chopped
2 cups vegetable broth
2 cups DREAM Ultimate Almond, Unsweetened
salt and pepper, to taste
Parmesan cheese, for serving (optional)

Instructions

Preheat the butter or coconut oil in a 6 quart Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onions and celery and sauté until beginning to soften, 3-4 minutes.
Add the pepper and cook for another 2-3 minutes, until beginning to soften. Add the mushrooms and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
Add the zucchini and yellow squash and stir to combine. Pour in the vegetable broth and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer until all of the vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes.
Stir in the DREAM Ultimate Almond. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately, topped with grated Parmesan cheese if desired.

https://chattavore.com/summer-vegetable-soup-dream-ultimate-almond/

This summer vegetable soup is light but filling, full of fresh vegetables, and just a little creamy, thanks to the addition of DREAM Ultimate Almond! | recipe from Chattavore.com

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