Table for Two - Asian Shrimp Omelet

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...This is a reprise of a post that I first featured in 2010. It highlighted one of my favorite recipes, and because it makes a fabulous meal for two, I wanted to include it in my Table for Two recipe collection. The recipe is a Mark Bittman creation and it really is delicious. Here is what I originally had to say about the omelet.

Over the years, I've tried at least a thousand recipes and, of that number, only a hundred or so have survived and regularly appear on my table. This homely and unlikely candidate is one of them. The dish comes from Southern China and has several virtues to commend it. It has wonderful flavor and a play of textures that will appeal to almost any palate. It is also easy to prepare. It uses no exotic ingredients and its beautiful play of pink on yellow can be table ready in about 30 minutes. The two primary ingredients are eggs and shrimp. The Chinese rub the shrimp with a paste of cornstarch and salt to whiten them. If you are in a hurry this step can be omitted. The eggs are flavored with a very small amount of sesame oil. The trick to this dish is in the way it is cooked. In China the omelet is cooked in lard. We'll fore go that and use canola or peanut oil to cook ours, but you'll need a cup or so of oil. Don't stint on that measure. The shrimp are quickly fried in the oil and then drained. Because they have no coating to absorb the oil, you'll find that almost all the oil remains in the pan after cooking. The shrimp will subtly flavor the oil and add a unique taste to the finished eggs. Omelets made in this fashion are easy to assemble because they are not rolled and require no special techniques to get them from the pan to the table. The eggs are gently cooked in a bit of the flavored oil and as they begin to set the shrimp are added to the pan. The only caution is to make sure you can serve these while they are still hot. This is a lovely, light dish that is perfect for those who are trying to cut back on the amount of meat they consume. Here's the recipe for this treasure.

Cherry Berry Buckle

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...While many folks save warm berry desserts for the dead of winter, I tend to serve them whenever our favorite fruits appear in the market. More often than not, I'll make a crisp or crumble, but every so often I'll break ranks and make a buckle. A buckle layers a more traditional, cakey batter underneath the fruit rather than on top of it. As the dessert cooks, the cake rises around the fruit, which tries its best to sink to the bottom, making the whole thing buckle inwards. When it's served warm with a scoop of ice cream or dollop of cream, it is a memorable, if simple dessert. Although they were not grown locally, I saw some gorgeous sweet cherries in our market and couldn't resist buying them. In truth, this dessert could be made with any combination of fruit, but it is especially good when made with the cherries. The only trick to making this buckle is to keep the quantity of fruit used to 3 cups. If you go too much over that quantity, the cake will be damp and soggy and you'll be disappointed with the result and unhappy with me. I found the recipe for the buckle in Eating Well magazine, and if you skin through the ingredient list, you'll see it is marginally better for you than others of its ilk. I hope you'll keep this recipe in mind when local berries hit the market. The buckle is a lovely old-fashioned dessert that I know your family will enjoy. Here is how it's made.

White Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Cookies

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...This simple cookie is always well received, and if you are a fan of white chocolate, I suspect it will become a favorite of yours. I dropped off a batch of these for a bake sale today and they were gone before they made it to the table. I must add that I'm not baking this week and my contribution had been frozen several weeks ago in anticipation of the fundraiser. The cookies keep wonderfully well and only I knew they had come from the freezer. These cookies are easy to make and the macadamia nuts add wonderful texture to what would otherwise be a pillow soft cookie. The recipe I'm sharing with you comes from Taste of Home magazine, and while I'm presenting it to you in unaltered form, I must admit that when I bake these cookies for my family, I also add a teaspoon of lime zest to the mix. With or without the lime zest, I think you'll find this cookie to be a winner. Here is how they are made.

Menu for the Week of April 6, 2014

Weekly Menu at One Perfect Bite... 

Menus this week continue to be simpler than usual. Hopefully, next week we can return to our regular menu format.

Frugal Foodie Friday - Chicken Karaage (Japanese Fried Chicken)

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I don't often serve deep fried foods, but when I do no holds are barred. I was introduced to Karaage Chicken four decades ago, and it was a case of love at first bite. The salty marinade and crisp crust for which this dish is famous makes for an unforgettable taste treat. The chicken is inexpensive to make, easy to prepare and guaranteed to make your socks go up and down as long as you keep a couple of things in mind. Cornstarch is absolutely necessary to the success of this dish. Flour simply will not produce the crispy crust that has made this chicken famous. It is equally important to keep the temperature of your oil constant. Don't overcrowd your fryer and make sure to bring it back to temperature before frying the next batch. Quickly drain the chicken and get it to the table while it is hot. That constraint makes it next to impossible to serve this dish to guests, but friends and family are fair game and will love you for your effort and the introduction to this dish. You'll find that lemon adds enormous flavor to the chicken and helps to keep the saltiness of the soy sauce in check. These days I actually use a low-sodium sauce to make the marinade, but I urge those of you who have access to tamari to use it instead. Japanese tamari is thicker, richer, and less salty than most soy sauce and it is wonderful in this marinade. Because the dish is made with chicken thighs it is inexpensive to make and well within the reach of most budget conscious cooks. I love chicken prepared in this manner and I highly recommend it to all of you. Here is how it is made.

Dilled Wheat Bread, Home Depot and Me

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I needed to make bread today. I've found that kneading is a great way to establish some type of equilibrium when I'm really angry, and I certainly am that today. We have had to delay our move for another week because Home Depot has not honored the terms of the agreement they made with us. The floors in our new home are all being replaced and the installation of the hardwood and carpet was supposed to have started on Monday. That didn't happen, and worst still, these folks who pride themselves on customer service have been cavalier about their scheduling error. The closing on three properties, along with scheduling of painters, tilers and movers were arranged around that date, so this has been a snafu of enormous proportion. Suffice it to say, I won't be doing any further shopping at their stores and I wanted to alert those of you who might contemplate using them for large scale construction projects, that, in my opinion, their promises and written agreements aren't worth the paper they are written on. Now on to the bread! This is a Scandinavian bread that is wonderful to use for sandwiches, particularly those that are made with fish or pork products. The loaf is well-flavored, hearty and stays moist for days. It is easy to make and I know that those of you who try it will be pleased. Here is how the bread is made.

Pizza Bianco

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I think you'll enjoy this pizza, but I really think it has been misnamed. If you make this pie according to directions, you'll end up with something that is more like a loaded focaccia than a standard pizza pie. I get around it by cheating. I could have made my preferred crust, but I've been so busy this week that I bought pizza dough at the market and once it was rolled, proceeded to make the filling and topping and shamelessly called the pie my own. No one was looking. It is hard to go wrong with the flavor palate presented in this recipe, though I do think caramelized onions would kick the pie up notch or two. If you are looking for new pizza combinations, you might want to give this simple recipe a try. Here is how the pizza is made.

Table forTwo - Biscuits for Two

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Biscuits stale so quickly, that few of us will make them for just two people. While two or three from an average batch will be eaten, the rest are trashed and become fodder for the land fill. It doesn't make a lot of sense to bother with them unless, of course, you have a husband who loves biscuits. I must admit that the Silver Fox, who obviously had a hidden agenda, found this recipe for you. He even insisted I test a batch of them before sharing the recipe with you. The Book of Life should also note he ate them all in one sitting. This is a lovely recipe, but I think you'll like the biscuits even more, if you make them with butter or butter-flavored shortening. Do not be put off by the dampness of the biscuit dough. I was sure I had a tragedy in the making when I mixed my batch, but the dough came together with kneading, and while it was very soft, it could be cut. If you have a small family I really think you'll find this recipe to be a godsend. It makes a nice biscuit that I know your family will enjoy. Here is how this small batch wonder is made.