Must-Have Kitchen Tool

If I had to choose just one kitchen gadget to use, no doubt about it, I would choose my Immersion Blender. There are seemingly endless uses for this little miracle blender. You can puree soups without having to transfer boiling hot liquid into a blender, make silky smooth sauces, or keep them a bit chunky if you prefer. Making an emulsion for dressings is a breeze and pureed fruit sauces, simple. You can puree your roasted vegetables, blend a milk shake, or even make whipped cream. Let your imagination run wild! And the best part is, the bottom half of the blender pops off and goes in the dishwasher for extremely easy clean-up, or I prefer to just blend some soapy water!

No holiday wish list is complete without one of these!

Exotically Easy Shrimp & Pomegranate Tostadas

This recipe was just too good to keep to myself - Enjoy!

My goal for the evening was to enjoy a delicious meal made from the things I already had in the kitchen. I looked around to see what I had on hand and Googled it; shrimp, bacon, peas. This recipe caught my attention immediately as I have a whole bowl of fresh pomegranates just waiting to be eaten! The original recipe was found on the Food Porn Daily website and I adapted it making a few changes based on my tastes and ingredients. The final result was easy and extremely tasty! Enjoy :)

Shrimp, Sweet Pea and Pomegranate Tostadas

Ingredients:

2 thick-slices bacon, crispy and crumbled
1 1/2 tbsp canola oil
8 shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/4 tsp granulated garlic & 1/4 tsp Cumin
fresh pomegranate seeds
crumbled feta cheese
2 Tortillas (I used Trader Joe's Handmade Sun-dried Tomato & Habanero Tortillas)

Sweet Pea Puree:
1 tsp canola oil
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp Cumin
1 cup frozen sweet peas
juice from 1/2 lemon
1/4 - 1/3 cup milk
kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper

Preparation:

Make the sweet pea puree. Add canola oil to a small saute pan over medium heat. Once pan and oil are hot, add the onion. Sweat the onion over medium heat until softened, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, salt, pepper and cumin to the pan. Cook for another minute. Add frozen peas and lime juice to the pan. Raise heat to medium-high. Cook an additional 4-7 minutes or until peas have been heated through, stirring occasionally. Transfer mixture to food processor or use and immersion blender. Add 1/4 cup sour cream and a splash of water then blend until smooth. Season to taste with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper.

Add 1 1/2 tbsp canola oil to a medium-sized saute pan over med-high to high heat. Season all sides of shrimp with granulated garlic, cumin, kosher salt (just a pinch) and freshly cracked black pepper. Once the pan is hot, just BEFORE the oil begins to smoke. add the shrimp to the pan in a single layer. Sear the shrimp for 1 1/2 minutes per side (3 minutes total) until just cooked through. Shrimp will be completely white and not longer translucent when fully cooked. Remove from heat a begin assembling tostadas.

To assemble, take one tortilla and spread a layer of pea puree over it. Gently layer bacon, and a generous amount of pomegranate over the pea puree. Finish with Shrimp and Feta. Repeat with second tortilla - I just put all the shrimp on one! Serve immediately. Enjoy!