Birthday Cookin'...

Cooking Tequila Shrimp Pasta and Banana Nutella Cupcakes

I told my girlfriend that I would make her dinner at my house on the day of her birthday. My aunt usually cooks for my family on Sundays, so I gave her the Sunday off and cooked for everyone instead. My girlfriend told me she wanted this tequila shrimp pasta that I had made before and a dessert with Nutella in it. Easy enough, I found a recipe for banana cupcakes with Nutella cream cheese frosting, and yes it was as good as it sounds. I bought some handmade pasta from a store near me that specializes in Italian products called Severino Pasta Company. If you are ever in the area, the store is worth checking out. It's kind of like Disney World to me. I could walk around for hours, and it's not a very big place. I bought some ricotta cavatelli because it is one of my favorite types of pasta.

I cooked the shrimp quickly, just long enough to build a crust on each side, and then I removed them from the pan and began making the sauce. Tequila, lime juice, fresh chopped veggies, and some cooking cream from Philadelphia Cream Cheese finished off the sauce, which I added the shrimp back to and let the flavors meld a little more. The pasta cooked up quickly, a mere six or eight minutes, and I mixed it all together in a bowl and served it up for everyone to enjoy.

Earlier in the day I had made the cupcakes and I was even more excited to try them than I was to try the pasta. I had pureed some bananas, and added them to the cupcake batter. They cooked up way quicker than they recipe said, so I’m glad I was paying attention. I’m not sure if that’s something that happened because I over whipped the batter or what, but that is also something I get concerned about when baking. I think I over whip my batters a lot and it usually has a detrimental effect on the baked goods. That being said, these cupcakes turned out perfect! They were cooked just the right amount and they remained moist all the way through. The Nutella frosting was absolutely to die for. It was creamy and sweet, but it still had that hazelnut flavor to it. It didn’t need nearly the amount of sugar the recipe called for because it was sweet enough as it was, so I reduced the amount by quite a bit. Both of these recipes are definitely worth a try, so I have posted them below. If you give them a try let me know what you think! Cheers! 

Banana Cupcake Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 ounces unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 large very ripe bananas, pureed

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

-Line 16 muffin cups with paper liners.

-Sift the flour, baking powder, soda, and salt together in a mixing bowl. Set aside.

-Cream together the softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

-Add the vanilla and the eggs, 1 at a time, mixing well after each addition.

-Add the flour mixture and blend ingredients together until only just combined.

-Stir in the banana. Blend mixture until ingredients are fully incorporated.

-Portion batter into muffin cups.  This recipe will make about 16 cupcakes.

-Bake in preheated oven until cakes are light golden brown and tester comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes.

-After removing cupcakes from the oven, cool completely on a wire rack.

-Once completely cool, top with Nutella frosting (recipe follows) and a sprinkle of chopped, toasted hazelnuts.

Nutella Frosting Ingredients:

8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

1 cup Nutella

8 ounces powdered sugar, by weight

Nutella Frosting Directions:

-Cream together the cream cheese and Nutella until blended.

-Add the powdered sugar gradually until ingredients are combined.

-Mix on a high speed until frosting is smooth and creamy.

-Fill a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip and pipe frosting over the top of each cupcake.

Pasta Ingredients

2 lb extra large gulf shrimp
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 shallot, minced
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
2/3 cup tequila
juice of 2 limes
2 chipotles in adobo, minced
2 cup Mexican crema
2 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon fresh ground black pepper
2 teaspoon ground cumin
2 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano (sub 1 teaspoon dried)
(1/2 cup grated cotija cheese) add to calculation separately
6 oz (uncooked) cooked pasta

Directions

Heat the oil in a large saucepan or skillet over medium high heat and add the shallots and garlic. Cook just until fragrant about 1 to 2 minutes. Carefully (don’t set your house on fire) add the tequila, then the lime juice, chipotles, cumin, oregano and salt and pepper. Let this mixture cook for about 5 minutes to help meld the flavors. Now add the shrimp and cook until just opaque, stirring frequently. Finally whisk in the crema a little bit at a time until the sauce in the pan reaches the desired thickness. Serve over fresh cooked pasta and top with an equal portion of the cotija cheese.

A Smokin' Good Meal...

Smokin' Betty's

116 South 11th Street

Philadelphia, PA 19107

www.smokinbettys.com/‎ 

My girlfriend and I went on a two and half week vacation to Asia in November, and before we went, we decided to do a little shopping for some things that we needed. On our way back to her apartment, we stopped at Smokin' Betty's to grab some lunch. It had ranked pretty high on my list for quite some time, and I was super excited to try it.

I had heard really good things about the BBQ at Smokin' Betty's and with a name like that I would hope that is what they do best. We ordered a couple of beers when we sat down and looked over the menu. The brunch menu was small and concise, which I enjoyed because it made my decision a lot easier. I wound up choosing the BBQ sliders, one of pulled chicken, one of pulled pork, and one of pulled brisket, and my girlfriend ordered the Betty Burger, a half pound burger topped with confit pork belly, avocado, cheddar, tomato, lettuce, a sunny side up egg, and garlic aioli  served with some hand cut fries.

As I have said before I love that my girlfriend isn’t afraid to eat in front of me. It makes going out to eat much more fun and enjoyable because then I get to try the delicious things that she orders too! Haha we sipped our beers and took in the atmosphere. Our super hipster waiter kept trying to make jokes, but he was painfully unfunny. He brought us out our food, and I was suddenly enveloped in the smell surrounding us.

The mixture of the barbeque smell emanating from my plate and the delicious aroma of the burger wafting off of her plate were enough to make your mouth water. I dug into the first slider on my plate, a pulled Caribbean chicken sandwich with a tangy and sweet barbeque sauce. The next one I ate was the hickory smoked brisket slider with a sharp, molasses flavored barbeque sauce. The smokiness that I could taste from the brisket was to die for. Finally I ended with the succulent and tender pulled pork slider with Carolina barbeque sauce. It was everything I had come to expect from Carolina barbeque and more. The pork melted in my mouth, it was smoky, moist and incredibly delicious. 

The two bites that I had of my girlfriend’s burger were absolutely blissful. It forced its way into my top three burgers in the city, and I've got to say I am now dying to go back and eat it all on my own. Perfectly charred with a juicy center, the flavor of this burger was huge. It was rich, but not too rich, salty, but not over salted, creamy and absolutely delicious.

Three and a half pints for Smokin' Betty's. Our meal was a complete success. While our server was a little bit weird, the overall experience was great and the food was fantastic. I cannot wait to make a return trip whenever I am in the mood for some delicious barbeque or a really tasty burger. You should definitely check it out if you get the chance! Cheers!