Cooking contest

Okay, guys, I'm thinking of entering a cooking contest so I need your help in trying out my recipe and letting me know what you think. It's supposed to be fast, easy, and tasty. Be honest and if it needs something let me know. I appreciate any input!

Simple Seafood Pasta

12 oz. Angel hair or linguine pasta, uncooked

4 tablespoons butter
½ cup onions, chopped
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium red bell pepper, chopped
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
½ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

6 oz fresh medium shrimp, peeled, deveined, tails removed
6 oz smoked salmon, chopped in 1/2" cubes

2/3 cup whipping cream or half-and-half
1 tablespoon flour
4 ripe roma tomatoes, chopped
2 tablespoons capers
1/3 cup torn fresh basil
½ cup shredded parmesan cheese

1. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and keep warm.
2. Meanwhile, melt butter in 10-inch skillet over medium high heat until foamy. Add onions, garlic, bell pepper, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper and cook 4-5 minutes.
3. Add shrimp and salmon and cook another 5 minutes.
4. In small bowl, stir together whipping cream and flour. Add to skillet and cook 2 minutes.
5. Add tomatoes, capers and basil.
6. Place hot cooked pasta in large pasta bowl/serving platter and mound with seafood mixture. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Serves 6

Estimated prep time: 15 minutes
Estimated cook time: 15 minutes

[fluffhead]

Re: Cooking contest

Wow! did you invent this? Looks pretty amazing.
Anyway, being a vegetarian, I won't try it, but I think that

Estimated prep time: 15 minutes
Estimated cook time: 15 minutes

is probably somewhat optimistic, unless ;you're a super-efficient cook and cutter upper.

Hi Fluffhead,
I'll try it! We like seafood esp shrimp and smoked salmon.
Just a few thoughts though where I would modify (I can't help it): I just can't use that much butter and would cut it by half, and I think 5 miin may be too long for the shrimp (??). Have you ever tried this -- if you are making a dish w/ seafood, add a wine cork and the seafood won't get tough even if you cook it longer than recommended. It really works...don't know why.
But I will try it in the next few days and give you a full report!

[DCJenn]

I'll try it on Sunday and will report in the results.

Jenn

Thanks, Jenn and Nellie! Do let me know how long it takes you to make it. Appreciate it!

Sorry for any confusion on my previous post -- I thought Fluffhead had posted the recipe. Then I'm thinking, why is he developing a seafood recipe if he's veggie...hmmm....oh!!!
Thu Van, I will try it and let you know!

[SueC]

That sounds tasty! I'll try it too, though I'll have to modify it since hubby is allergic to shrimp. Did you make that recipe up? If so, I'm impressed--I lack any creativity in the kitchen, if it isn't on a recipe, I'm clueless about what to add.

It actually evolved from several recipes that I've tried. Suzanne, you can use just regular salmon, too, because sometimes smoked salmon is hard to find and/or is a little pricey. I'd probably add more salt though since the amount of salt I use is lower because of the saltiness of smoked salmon.

Also, if chopping up tomatoes is too time consuming, try adding a couple of cans of drained diced tomatoes (Hunt's makes some with basil and garlic) and see how that works. Let me know if that is a good alternative.

Thanks everybody!

[Meenah]

I'm going to try it this weekend.
Luanne

Wow! That was delicious! And the true test of a recipe for us....we will make it again. We loved the spicy flavor of the chili flakes and the basil flavor.
I made it (by myself) in 29 minutes. A few things to consider though: I made half a recipe which may affect the time a bit and I used canned tomatoes. Per your suggestion, I used the Del Monte Petite Cut Tomatoes. They tasted fine in the recipe. I think we missed out a little bit on a fresher tomato taste but it definitely didn't have a canned taste. I think I used about 1/4 of the can for the half recipe, so you could say 1/2 a can for the whole. Or maybe the whole can but drained. I did grate the parmesan cheese myself rather than use pre-shredded so that added a little bit of time.
Also, you may want to adjust the amounts of seafood. I noticed that smoked salmon comes in 4 oz packages -- at least that is all my grocery carries. I always like to use a whole package of something for a recipe.
Maybe you could do 8 oz of shrimp and 4 oz of smoked salmon?
Yum! Definitely a good contender for a cooking contest!

[Auspicious]

I liked it, and my boyfriend loved it. His comment was that it had "the perfect amount of 'bite' to it."

I forgot to time how long it took us to prepare it--the two of us together in our tiny kitchen is chaos.

We halved the recepie but only used 1 Tbs of butter. And we used canned mini-shrimp (have I mentioned that our neighborhood grocery store is lame? Ugh). And we used fat-free half&half, which I was shocked to learn even existed. The recepie still came out great, though--I say it's a winner.

Thanks for the input, Nellie and Julie. Nellie, you're right about the smoked salmon - I had forgotten that they came in 4 oz packages. I will have to make that adjustment. And glad to hear that the canned tomatoes worked out alright.

Julie, I'm so glad to hear making it lower in fat still tastes good. I absolutely did not know fat-free half and half existed. And canned shrimp - I never even thought that existed either! Great suggestions!

[DCJenn]

Didn't get a chance to try it out over the weekend but will for sure this week. (ended up sipping gin and tonics on the porch and noshing on cheese and crackers instead- which was quite nice, I might add!)

Jenn

Jenn -- I can't wait until it is warm enought to sip and nosh on the front porch. ahhhh.....

I forgot to say that I also used only 1 T of butter (for half a recipe) and it seemed fine. I used regular half and half.

[PrincessFiona]

Bummer

Bummer..I missed trying this out, ThuVan....did you enter the contest? It sounds like a wonderful recipe!

kris