Homegrown Michelin Stars

Tuesday was something of a busy day of closing up the beach place, running errands and packing the needs for two or three weeks in Louisiana. By mid-afternoon all was ready and with the car packed I headed for my sister’s home in Maitland, about an hour’s drive west. The plan was to have dinner there with family, spend the night in my mother and father’s old bed and head off early Wednesday morning for the charms of my old hometown, Baton Rouge. Long way between central Florida and there, a drive of at least eleven hours.

But before those long hours behind the wheel there was another grand dinner of my sister’s cooking. I’ve mentioned before that her skills with cookery would garner a few Michelin stars. I asked what was on the menu, suggesting that I put up a description and a few photos here, but a part of that was hard for the cook, since she doesn’t follow recipes and has to guess at the measures to include in a list of ingredients, I had to wrestle the amounts out of her. She makes everything by taste and has to think hard to explain exactly how much of this or that. Nothing elaborate about the name ‘seafood pasta’ but it would surprise me to find a seafood pasta as delicious as this one in places outside my sister’s dining room. Here’s a try at her recipe…

Seafood Pasta (serves 6-8)

INGREDIENTS:

2 pounds of uncooked shrimp

1 pound of mahi-mahi cut into bite-sized pieces

4 cups chopped sweet onion

2 cups green pepper chopped

1 cup sweet red pepper chopped

½ cup sweet yellow pepper chopped

4 cloves garlic finely chopped

1 bunch chopped green onion with tops

1 box angel hair pasta

Sauté the chopped vegetables in ¼ cup of olive oil starting with the sweet onions. Allow the onions to cook about three minutes, holding the tomatoes aside, add the other vegetables sautéing an additional five minutes.

½ jar of sun dried tomatoes in olive oil

½ jar pimento stuffed olives drained

½ jar Greek Calamata olives drained

2 medium tomatoes chopped, the seeds removed

¾ cup toasted pine nuts

Holding the pine nuts and tomatoes aside, add the other three ingredients to the sautéed onions and peppers. Next add the mahi-mahi and cook about four minutes. Add the shrimp and the chopped tomatoes cooking another three minutes seasoning generously with Zatarain’s Creole Seasoning. Just before serving toss in the toasted pine nuts.

Serve over angel hair pasta cooked al dente. Garnish each plate with freshly grated Parmesan cheese and a sprig of parsley. Serve with a green salad and hard rolls.

Bon appétit!