Whether you’re in the mood for Asian, Caribbean, Italian or good modern American cuisine, Sea Cuisine has an entrée for you.
If you win this week’s Gourmet Giveaway, you’ll be able to choose from a wide variety of chef-inspired recipes, including Tortilla Crusted Tilapia, Tuscan Parmesan Crusted Shrimp and Roasted Garlic & Herb Scallops.
Sea Cuisine specializes in restaurant-quality frozen dinners, finished in flavorful crusts or delicate sauces. Regardless of which ones you choose, you can be assured of a dish made with the finest ingredients.
THE PRIZE: Two winners will each receive coupons for five free Sea Cuisine entrées. Enjoy “seafood night” with your family and friends, or keep them in the freezer for those nights when you’re too tired to cook, yet what something yummy and high in protein. Approximate retail value: $35.00 each.
To Enter This Gourmet Giveaway: Go to the box at the bottom of our Gourmet Seafood Section and enter your email address for the prize drawing. This contest closes on Monday, May 17th at noon, Eastern Time. Good luck!
To learn more about Sea Cuisine, download $1 off coupons and check out Sea Cuisine’s sweepstakes, visit SeaCuisine.com.
Yum: White Wine & Herb Shrimp. Enjoy
these and other choices as the winner—or go
for the $1 coupon. Photo courtesy Sea Cuisine.
A new way to enjoy guacamole! Photo
courtesy FronteraFiesta.com.
Guacamole is popular party fare. But for a sophisticated cocktail party, you don’t want to dip tortilla chips.
Turn that guac into something special with this recipe from Top Chef Masters winner Rick Bayless, owner of Chicago’s Frontera Grill and Topolobampo restaurants.
RECIPE: CHERRY TOMATOES WITH
PUMPKIN SEED GUACAMOLE
Ingredients
– 30-40 large cherry tomatoes
– 3-4 avocados
– ½ cup Frontera Guacamole Mix (or make your own
guacamole recipe)
– ¼ cup cilantro, chopped
– Salt to taste
– ½ cup pepitas (toasted pumpkin seeds) and/or
crumbled cooked bacon
Preparation
1. Slice the cherry tomatoes in half lengthwise. Gently scoop out the pulp and seeds of each tomato half.
2. Lightly salt the insides of the tomatoes and turn over onto paper towel. Let sit to drain out the liquid.
3. To make the guacamole, cut each avocado in half. Remove the pit and scoop out the flesh from each half. Mash the avocado with a potato masher or fork. Stir in guacamole mix, cilantro and salt to taste.
4. Using a small spoon, fill each tomato half with guacamole. Place on serving tray.
5. Garnish with three pepitas or crumbled bacon. Or, alternate toppings on the tray.Makes 60-80 hors d’oeuvre.
Find more of our favorite hors d’oeuvre recipes and an hors d’oeuvre estimator: how many pieces do you need per guest.
One of the first terms a culinary school student learns is mise en place (meez on plahss)—French for “everything in its place.”
It means that everything needed to prepare and serve a recipe—the prepped ingredients, utensils, pots, pans and plates—is gathered and ready to use before the cooking begins.
This allows the cook to work in a state of constant readiness. There’s no need to stop to get tools, to slice and dice, to find the lid to the pot, etc. It makes cooking a very calm experience.
Use mise en place the next time you follow a recipe.
To get you started, here’s a lovely spring recipe: Lamb Loin with Blood Orange Sauce and White Bean Purée.
Using mise en place makes cooking this (or
any) recipe a snap. Photo courtesy of Meat
and Livestock Australia.
May is National Salsa Month, honoring America’s most popular condiment: Since the early 1991, more salsa has been sold than ketchup!
Salsa is the Spanish word for a sauce of finely chopped vegetables, that dates back to the ancient Aztecs. Red salsas are tomato-based, green salsas are tomatillo-based and there are dozens of different types of both.
Fruit salsas, such as cherry, mango, peach and pineapple, are a modern invention, enjoyable with grilled meats and breakfast eggs.
See the many different types of salsa in our Salsa Glossary.
Learn the history of salsa, which was first taken from a homemade Mexican-American product to a bottled grocery store product by Texan Dave Pace, in 1947.
Salsa goes global: Check out spins on salsa, including Indian and Southeast Asian recipe ideas.
Don’t throw away trimmed bread crusts. Save them in the freezer in resealable bags. Then bake them in the oven or toaster oven until dry and toss them into the food processor. Combining different breads just adds to the flavor.
Breadcrumbs are used for much more than breading foods. Use them in stuffing, to garish soups, top casseroles and mac & cheese, thicken stews and stretch ground meat (in meatballs and meatloaf, for example).
Homemade bread crumbs taste so much better than store-bought, as you’ll see with this recipe.
You can use almost any type of bread; but of course, different breads will add different flavors to the crumbs.
You can use stale bread to make breadcrumbs; but take a bite to make sure you won’t get stale bread flavors.
If you do use stale bread, just skip to Step 3.
RECIPE: HOMEMADE BREAD CRUMBS
It’s easy to make homemade bread crumbs in your food processor (photo CCO Public Domain).
1. PREHEAT oven to 300°F. Place the bread pieces (or whole slices) on an ungreased baking sheet in a single layer, not touching.
2. BAKE for 10 to 15 minutes; flip halfway through.
3. REMOVE from oven; cool. Pulse into crumbs in a food processor.
