Cheese grits with langostino and leeks

Last Friday night a few minutes before 7 pm (the days are lighter these days, so I forget that it’s time to cook dinner), I realized that there’s not much in the fridge.

We’ve been eating up the Kitchen Wizard stuff (or KW for short), and because of the convenience, I don’t have to go grocery shopping as often as I used to. My husband just came back from running starving. And it was Friday, so he would be expecting something nice. (Especially because I declined his suggestion of going out for dinner.) I needed to fix something while he was taking shower.

What am I going to do?

Here’s what I found in our kitchen.

• Instant Grits
• Frozen Langostino
• Serrano Chili
• Red leaf lettuce
• KW: English Cucumber (chopped)
• KW: grated Parmiggiano Reggiano
• KW: sautéed rounds of zucchini
• KW: tomato sauce
• KW: frozen sautéed leeks
• KW: Vinaigrette

Again, not so exciting…   BUT we’ll see…

15 minutes later, here is what we had on our dinner table… Cheese grits with langostino and leeks,  Zucchini Soup, and Red leaf lettuce salad with cucumbers.

Are you interested in having that for your dinner, at Kitchen Wizard speed?

Here are the recipes.

Cheese grits with langostino and leeks

1. Sautee minced Serrano chili in EVOO. Add leeks, frozen langostino and white wine.  Cook until they are heated through and sauce is reduced a bit.
2. In the mean time, cook grits, and (optional) mix grated cheese into grits. Serve hot with langostino sauce on top.

Tip: Sauteed leeks are really great for “batch and fridge”-ing or even “batch and freeze”ing.

There are 3 main reasons.

1. They are often sold as bundle (or cheaper that way), yet has short shelf life.
2. It takes time to trim, properly clean, and chop, let alone time takes for sautéing.
3. Leeks add great flavor to many things – soups, stews, tarts, pan-sauces, stuffing, etc.

I didn’t use them much in the past, just because it was such a pain to prepare so I let it spoil.  Now I started to sautee them all at once, I use them all the time!

Zucchini Soup

1. In a medium pan, add sautéed zucchini, tomato sauce (canned tomato or chopped tomatoes without skin will work too) and chicken broth or water. Heat at medium high. (If your sautéed zucchini doesn’t have any garlic, sauté garlic until golden brown first, then add zucchini and tomatoes.)
2. Puree the soup, and adjust the seasoning.

Salad

1. Wash lettuce leaves, tear, and top with chopped cucumbers. Dress with vinaigrette or choice of dressing.

To make the dinner more romantic, add a bit of candle-light and wine - voila!

As you continue with Kitchen Wizardry, you too can whip up a dinner like this in 15 minutes! This is so much easier and more fun, I seriously cannot go back to the old way of cooking!

Please share your success stories!

Related posts:

Tagged as: cheese, chili, cooking, easy, fast, frozen, grits, langostino, leek, Recipe, shrimp, Soup, tomato sauce, Vegetarian, zucchini