garlic

with 0 Comments Tags , , , ,

How to Make Baked Shrimp in a Lemon Garlic Sauce

Lemon and garlic tend to be the easiest flavors to match with shrimp to end up with a delicious end product. This recipe can be prepared in about thirty minutes, but much of that time is preheat time.

This recipe for a baked shrimp in a lemon and garlic sauce is essentially a slight modification of our pan-fried garlic butter shrimp recipe.

Baked shrimp served over rice

Serve with rice. Or don’t.

Ingredients for Baked Lemon Garlic Shrimp

This recipe is based on two pounds of shrimp, which should be more than enough for a family or one or two very hungry people.

You will need:

  • Two pounds of raw (shelled and deveined) shrimp
  • A cup of butter
  • Two to three tablespoons of fresh lemon juice
  • A tablespoon of parsley
  • A tablespoon of chopped, fresh garlic
  • Optional: one to three tablespoons of Dijon mustard, for an added zip

How to Bake Shrimp (in a Lemon Garlic Sauce)

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit or 230 degrees Celsius.

While your preheating your oven, place a cup of butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add your lemon juice, parsley and garlic to the butter and stir it around until the butter is completely melted. If you choose to use Dijon mustard, you would add it now as well.

Arrange your shrimp in a baking dish. Any dish will do. Even a cookie sheet covered in foil if you’re really desperate. Pour your melted lemon garlic butter mixture overtop of the shrimp. Try to get it on every piece. Full coverage is kind of important.

Bake the whole thing in the oven for about twelve to fifteen minutes.

Tips for Baking Shrimp

  • You can tell the shrimp is about done when it turns pink and opaque.
  • Always buy shelled and deveined shrimp. It’s just terrible doing that part. Trust me.
  • Substitute the lemon juice out in place of lime juice for a softer citrus flavor. You can follow our guide on how to get more juice from a lime and actually only use a lime or two for the whole recipe.
  • A good casserole dish would be the best thing to use for baking the shrimp in this recipe.
Sweet and sour chicken
with 1 Comment Tags , , , , , , , ,

Easy Sweet and Sour Chicken Recipe

This simple recipe for sweet and sour chicken doesn’t use any crazy Chinese ingredients. It’s basically the american-ized version of the dish. It’s also very delicious.

This recipe is intended to be served with rice, but there is no rice in the recipe. Serve it with rice anyways.

Sweet and sour chicken

This sweet and sour chicken recipe uses this simple sweet and sour sauce recipe. An abridged version will be included below to keep everything on one page, but the sauce can be used for many other dishes as well.

Ingredients for Sweet and Sour Chicken

For this recipe, you will need:

  • Four boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • One red pepper
  • One green pepper
  • Some finely chopped ginger
  • Five to seven garlic cloves, depending on how much you love garlic
  • A couple of onions
  • Some pepper
  • Vegetable oil
  • Sweet and sour sauce
  • Optional: some sliced pineapple (usually from a can)

How to Make Easy Sweet and Sour Chicken

Bring a frying pan to medium heat and start cooking your chicken.

While your chicken is cooking, chop your red peppers, green peppers and onions into fairly large pieces. Big chunks of each is the general standard for sweet and sour chicken.

Finely chop your garlic cloves and your ginger.

While your chicken is (probably) still cooking, start preparing the sweet and sour sauce.

The Short Version of the Sweet and Sour Sauce Recipe

Combine:

  • Three quarters of a cup of sugar
  • Two thirds of a cup of water
  • A third of a cup of white vinegar
  • A quarter cup of soy sauce
  • About a tablespoon of ketchup
  • And about two tablespoons of corn starch

In a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook for about 5-7 minutes or until the sauce thickens.

With your chicken (probably) about cooked, add a few tablespoons of vegetable oil to a frying pan and begin cooking your peppers, your garlic, and your ginger. Once the peppers have started to soften, add your onions. Cube up your chicken breasts and add those as well.

Pour your sweet and sour sauce overtop and allow to simmer for a few more minutes, and you’re done.

Tips for Making Sweet and Sour Chicken

  • This recipe is written in an order that allows for the cooking times to align with your prep time. You can pre-make the sweet and sour sauce if you consider it simpler.
  • If you choose to use the pineapple, add it at the same time you re-add the chicken.
  • Some recipes suggest you cook the chicken along with the peppers. This one doesn’t. It’s for health reasons and for simplicity’s sake. Do what you will.
  • Serve with rice.
Teriyaki Marinade
with 0 Comments Tags , , , ,

Making a Simple Teriyaki Marinade

Teriyaki marinades can be used for a variety of recipes. Teriyaki sauces and marinades were originally meant to be used for fish recipes, such as teriyaki salmon, but in the Western world it is very common to use them for other meat dishes such as chicken.

This recipe is not exactly “traditional” and is meant to be a simple version of a teriyaki marinade. There are more traditional, authentic recipes available. This particular recipe is meant to be easily made with ingredients most households should already have.

Teriyaki Marinade

Soy sauce is basically the only real ingredient, anyways

Teriyaki Marinade Ingredients

You will need:

  • Soy sauce
  • Brown sugar
  • Fresh garlic
  • Black pepper
  • Optional: Cinnamon or cayenne pepper

How to Make a Simple Teriyaki Marinade

In a large bowl, combine a third of a cup of soy sauce with a third of a cup of water. Add a tablespoon or two of finely chopped garlic. Add about half a teaspoon of black pepper.

A small pinch of either cayenne pepper or cinnamon should suffice, but you can add more if you want your marinade to have a bit of a “kick.”

Place whichever meat you choose into the mixture, cover it, and marinate in the fridge for as long as possible. Two hours would be considered a safe “minimum,” but a bit longer is usually better.

Tips for Making a Teriyaki Marinade

  • Try using orange juice instead of water for a citrus flavor. This option is best used for fish dishes.
  • While neither cayenne pepper or cinnamon is completely necessary, this recipe benefits from using one or the other specifically because it is such a basic recipe for teriyaki.
  • When using a marinade, longer is typically better. It is typically best to prepare your marinade the night before you plan on cooking your meat. This gives the marinade proper time to work its magic.
A bunch of fresh red cayenne peppers
with 6 Comments Tags , , ,

How to Make Homemade Frank’s Red Hot Sauce

Here’s the deal, you can’t actually make homemade Frank’s Red Hot Sauce. You can make a very similar cayenne pepper sauce, but it won’t be the same.

You don’t have a giant factory churning the stuff out, and you probably don’t have the time to age your cayenne pepper sauce, either.

This copycat recipe will be close enough.

A bunch of fresh red cayenne peppers

Frank’s Red Hot Sauce Ingredients

You’ll need:

  • A bunch of red cayenne peppers
  • Some white vinegar
  • A couple garlic cloves
  • Sea salt (preferably.) Regular salt will do if you don’t have any of the fancy stuff.

How to Make Hot Sauce

Wash your peppers and cut off the stems. Use a bunch. For the sake of this recipe we’re going to be using twenty.

Throw them in a saucepan and add about two cups of white vinegar, half a teaspoon of sea salt, and three chopped garlic cloves.

Bring everything to a light boil and reduce to low heat to simmer.

Simmer for about 10-15 minutes, or until the peppers are very soft.

Pour it all into your handy dandy food processor and blend extremely well. Super extremely well. Frank’s Red Hot Sauce is basically liquid, so make sure it’s completely smooth, and very thin.

And then pass the whole thing through a fine mesh strainer. (Or if one’s not available, a homemade paper towel strainer.)

Make sure you keep what the strainer pulls out, you can use it as an add-on for other hot sauce recipes.

Tips for Making and Using Hot Sauce

  • Because this hot sauce is loaded with vinegar you can store it in the fridge for an extremely long time. Many hot sauce recipes started out as a preservation method for fresh hot peppers.
  • Make lots, it’s good.
  • If you prefer a thicker, hotter sauce, try out this recipe for Homemade Habanero Hot Sauce. There’s also a slightly mildly version here, for Jalapeno Hot Sauce.
Caesar Salad
with 1 Comment Tags , , , , ,

Easy Homemade Caesar Salad Dressing Recipe

To make a caesar salad properly, you should be using fresh cooked bacon, homemade croutons, and a homemade Caesar salad dressing. You can get restaurant quality food and it won’t cost you any more than the “salad in a bag” approach.

Check out the bottom of this page for complete instructions on how to prepare the perfect Caesar salad.

This homemade caesar salad dressing recipe uses anchovies. If that makes you squeamish, feel free to leave them out.

Simple Caesar Salad

Caesar Salad Dressing Ingredients

You will need:

  • A bunch of fresh garlic
  • Olive oil
  • Lemon juice
  • An egg
  • Fresh Parmesan cheese
  • Worcestershire sauce
  • Fresh ground pepper. Like in one of those big pepper thingies.
  • And optionally, some anchovy fillets

How to Prepare Caesar Salad Dressing

There is surprisingly little preparation in this dressing. You won’t even really be cooking it.

First things first, you need to measure out your ingredients.

Take four to six garlic cloves and chop them up finely. Chop six anchovy fillets, and coddle an egg. (Egg coddling is basically a light poaching.)

Combine your garlic, anchovies, and egg in a food processor or a blender. Add the juice of half a lemon, two tablespoons of freshly shredded Parmesan, and two teaspoons of worcestershire sauce.

Finally, add a quarter cup of olive oil and grind in as much pepper as you think you would enjoy.

Blend, process, whatever.

Chill in the refrigerator for at least fifteen minutes before serving.

Tips for Making Caesar Salad Dressing

Combine with homemade croutons and perfectly cooked bacon when making your caesar salad.

Don’t make more than you need. Even after coddling, the egg is practically raw. Use all of the dressing when you make it. Don’t try to store it for extended periods of time.

Spicy Jalapeno Peppers and some purple things too
with 1 Comment Tags , , , ,

Homemade Jalapeno Hot Sauce Recipe

This homemade jalapeno hot sauce is a very basic hot sauce recipe that you can make on the stove-top.

Spicy Jalapeno Peppers and some purple things too

This recipe is fairly similar to this habanero hot sauce recipe, but jalapenos are much milder and easier to eat in greater quantities.

You will need a food processor.

Hot Sauce Ingredients

For this recipe you will need about twenty fresh jalapeno peppers.

You will also need fresh garlic and onion. A little bit of salt and vinegar will be required as well.

You will also need vegetable oil for preparation, and some water. Hopefully you know where to find water.

How to Make Hot Sauce

Chop up about twenty fresh jalapeno peppers. You can slice them, dice them, whatever you’d like. They will be run through a food processor later, anyways.

Chop up three to four garlic cloves and a medium onion as well.

Coat a medium saucepan with a bit of vegetable oil and heat over high heat.

Combine the sliced peppers, garlic, and onion and saute for four or five minutes. Add about three quarters of a teaspoon of salt while sauteeing.

Add two cups of water and cook the mixture, stirring often. After about twenty minutes, remove from heat.

Once the mixture cools to room temperature, pour everything into a food processor and puree. Slowly add one cup of white vinegar during the pureeing process.

And you’re left with a delicious jalapeno pepper spicy hot sauce.

Tips for Preparing and Using Hot Sauce

  • If you pour the mixture into a sterilized jar it can be kept in the fridge for four to six months.
  • For a thicker sauce, process less. For a runnier sauce, increase the amounts of water and vinegar slightly.
  • For a spicier hot sauce, try out this habanero hot sauce recipe instead.
  • For something more “mass-market” approved you can check out our knock-off recipe for Frank’s Red Hot.