Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Seafood Portabella Pasta in Butter Lemon Sauce


What I used:
12.5 oz mei fun rice noodles
8 tbs unsalted butter
12 oz presliced, prewashed portabella mushrooms
16 oz of shelled, deveined raw shrimp (frozen)
1 bundle of small stalk asparagus
2 large lemons

A note on the asparagus: I always try to choose smaller stalk asparagus. I think it cooks more evenly and has a less barky finish. Spell check says barky isn't a word but spell check isn't a cook so I will continue. I don't cut the stems; I break them. Let the spear tell you where it needs to be separated. If you put thumb and forefinger from one hand near the spear and the same from your opposite hand near the end and try to bring your thumbs together, it will break at the proper place. You may have known this but you would be surprised how many people don't know how to hull an avocado too. Just my two cents.
On to the food.

You need to start two pots of water boiling. 4 quarts in each should be plenty. While these are heating up, start melting 4 tbs of butter in each of two large saute pans. Medium heat should be fine for both. After half of the butter is melted in pan number one, add the shrimp and keep it on medium heat. Your water should be boiling now. Add the asparagus to one pot and the mei fun to the other. Keep an eye on the mei fun. Quickly add the mushrooms to pan number two. After two minutes the mei fun is done so drain, rinse and set aside for later. Slice one of the lemons in half and strain out the seeds while squeezing both halves over the shrimp in pan one.
The asparagus is properly blanched by this time and needs some love. Pluck it out of the water and add it to the mushrooms. Give pan two a toss with your tongs and repeat the lemon process over this pan. Allow both pans to cook an additional six minutes and check for tenderness. Bendy but not floppy asparagus and juicy portabellas tell you they are done. Pour the ENTIRE contents of this pan into the shrimp pan and toss again. Go rescue the mei fun. It's begging to get into the game. Put it into the now empty pan two over high heat and allow the noodles to warm. This will start the absorption process again. Once the noodles are sizzling well (30 seconds to a minute depending on how well you drained them), add the entire contents of pan one to pan two and toss for the third and final time. Add a pinch of salt and pepper to taste and voila!
(On another side note, if serving more than two people, I will cut the asparagus in half before it goes into the pan. It will distribute more evenly that way.) As always, this dish is, you guessed it, Gluten Free!

No comments:

Post a Comment