Saturday Blog Showcase

Welcome to the first ever Saturday Blog Showcase.

If you would like to participate, and we hope you will, all you have to do is prepare a recipe that you found on another blogger's website.  Post the recipe to your own blog with a link to the originating blog and then create a link to your site using Mister Linky.   Don't forget to add the Saturday Blog Showcase logo to your post.   Remember, Lori (All That Splatters) will be setting up Mister Linky next week.

To kick things off, I decided to try two new recipes this week.  The first, an appetizer which I found on Cook Eat Love.

Moe and I both love escargot and are rather fond of puff pastry, so I knew I couldn't go wrong with this recipe.  It is actually a traditional "escargot" dish, with garlic, butter, parsley, etc... Simple to make as well.  I took a package of puff pasry out of the freezer and put it in the fridge to defrost before I left for work.  I used two different size biscuit cutters to make the mini vol-au-vent shells.

The snails were the large size, 9 to 16 in a can.  The can I opened contained 12.  All the ingredients for the escargot were mixed together in an oven proof casserole and baked at the same time as the puff pastry shells, and then spooned into the shells to serve.  Rich and buttery.

Next up - Black Pepper Prawns.  I had one container of  local prawns left that I froze the last week of prawn season.   I'll have to wait until May before the season opens again.   I found this recipe on  Noob Cook.

 The only change I made to this recipe was to leave out the sugar but  add a little heat.  I sliced up 1/2 a hot red chili pepper and added it at the same time as the garlic and pepper.  Rather than use water I used chicken broth.  Served over rice.  This is recipe is a keeper.

Escargot Vol-au-Vent
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Source: http://cook-eat-love.com
Ingredients:

For the herb butter-

4 to 5 garlic cloves, peeled and finely minced
2 teaspoons kosher salt
8 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup finely minced Italian parsley
1/2 cup finely minced chives
2 tablespoons minced shallots
Pinch of freshly grated black pepper
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon Pernod

24 “very large” top-quality canned snails, drained

1 sheet puff pastry, homemade or store-bought.  You can also buy pre-made puff pastry shells and just stick them in the oven.  The second photo is made with pre-made shells and has 3 escargot inside.

Directions
1. Mince the garlic and salt together and crush with the blade of a knife to make a paste. Put the butter in a large bowl (or the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment), add the garlic paste, and cream together.

2. Add the parsley, chives, shallots, pepper, lemon juice, and Pernod and mix well. Remove the bowl from the mixer and use a spatula to make certain the ingredients are distributed throughout the butter.

3. The butter can be piped or spooned over the snails — if desired, transfer it to a pastry bag without a tip or with a large plain tip. If using snail dishes instead of snail shells, place a snail in each indentation and pipe or spoon about 2 teaspoons of butter over each. If using snail shells, place a snail in each shell and pipe in about 2 teaspoons of butter.

4. Refrigerate for at least an hour, or up to 12 hours. (Any extra herb butter is wonderful melted over meats or fish.  This is so good, I may actually keep some in the fridge for anytime I am cooking meat or veggies or….)

Direction for cooking escargot in puff pastry:
1. Preheat the oven to 450°F (230°C). With a round cutter that is about 1/4 inch larger in diameter than the indentations in the snail dishes, cut 24 rounds from the puff pastry.  I used my star cookie cutter and an aperitif glass

2. Line a baking sheet with a Silpat or sheet of parchment paper. Arrange the puff pastry rounds on the baking sheet.

3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool.

4. Bake the snails in their dishes for 5 to 8 minutes, or until the butter is bubbling. Top each snail with a round of puff pastry. and heat for about 30 seconds.



Black Pepper Prawns
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Source: http://www.noobcook.com

    Ingredients
    (Serves 2)

    - 8 large prawns (or better known as ’shrimps’ in other parts of the world)
    - 2 stalks of spring onions
    - 1 tbsp chopped garlic
    - 1/2 tbsp black peppercorn (adjust to your liking)
    - 1/2 tsp light soy sauce
    - 1/4 tsp dark soy sauce
    - 40ml water
    - 1/2 tsp brown sugar
    - small knob of butter

    Directions
    1. Remove the head and shell of the prawn, leaving only the shell tail intact. De-vein by cutting along the top middle part of the prawns and remove the black veins.
    2. Cut the spring onions to 2-inch length, separate thick bottom white stalks from the top green portion.
    3.  Pound the black peppercorn using mortar and pestle till coarse (not powdery).
    4. Melt butter in heated wok, add garlic, crushed peppercorns and thick spring onion stalks and stir fry till garlic is lightly browned.
    5. Add water, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and brown sugar.
    6. Add prawns and the rest of the spring onions, stir fry till prawns are cooked. It only takes a few minutes.