post42 // avocado shrimp rolls

why hello there and happy day to you!! thanks for tuning in. seafood lovers rejoice because this week’s post is an ever-easy recipe to keep your summer feeling summery, by way of shrimp and avocado.

in the past week, i think i’ve eaten a year’s worth of seafood. my family and friends celebrated my brother rob’s big 3-0, which called for a crab feast (as good maryland birthdays do). said crab feast turned into crab cakes one day later and a bevy of shrimp cocktail turned into this very recipe.

the thirtieth birthday party? well that was fun. we ate crab and shrimp, danced, and watched a tremendous storm from a peninsula on the chesapeake bay. it was scary and fun all at the same time! my brother jake and i gifted rob an original painting of us three made by my friend stewy. see below for a better look at his work!

okay, back to these shrimpies. i wanted an easy recipe to make with a whole batch of cooked shrimp and it seemed fitting to slide them into potato rolls with some mayonnaise. but what else? i looked up recipes for shrimp rolls and the following fillings kept popping up: tarragon, chives, celery, bibb lettuce. these green additions gave me some ideas for the type of roll i wanted: something herby and full of veggies. i ran rogue with mine though, bringing avocado, a favorite sandwich filling of mine, to the forefront of these rolls. along with dill and lemon for flavor and scallions for a bit of crunch, the shrimp and avocado mix quickly grew to be a tangy, herby, and addictive spread.

but not without a properly buttered bun! make sure you butter your rolls and toast them up. i can’t repeat this enough. not to mention, add a dash of salt and pepper to the base of the roll. you can toast your rolls on the grill, in the toaster, or as i did, on the broil setting in the oven. just be sure to keep an eye on them if they’re oven bound.

as you can see, i don’t go light on the mayo. you can adjust the measurements for your liking but the mayonnaise does lend to a rich and creamy roll. for this reason, make sure your avocados aren’t *too* mushy when you’re picking them.

what is necessary for your shrimp, crab, or lobster roll platter? potato chips!! a quick grocery store run led to these kettle cooked chips with black pepper and salt by cape cod. they were definitely a good decision.

so if you’re trying to savor the summer — literally — these rolls are for you. buttery, creamy, filled with fresh veggies and shrimp, they’re the perfect august meal for you, you and your honey, or you and a whole batch of friends.

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and in other stuff!

stewy, my friend from college, made this incredible painting for my brother. check out his work on his instagram and site!! #wildcats

hip hip hooray! my friend abby from high school made my bagel recipe!! feeling v proud and happy right now. #eagles

i have two weeks left in dc!! any restaurant recommendations for me? comment below!

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shrimp avocado rolls

serves 4

fixings

18 large shrimp, peeled and deveined

potato rolls (i used martin’s long rolls)

2 medium avocados, cut into cubes

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon old bay seasoning

1/4 teaspoon lemon-pepper seasoning

1/4 teaspoon paprika

4 sprigs dill, chopped

bunch of scallions, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

butter for buns

instructions

1. take your peeled and deveined shrimp and cook them if they’re not already cooked. you can do so by boiling them in a pot of salted water for 2-5 minutes. drain and rinse with cool water. once cool, cut the shrimp into bite size pieces.
2. put the mayonnaise, lemon juice, paprika, old bay, and lemon-pepper seasonings in a medium sized bowl. whisk to incorporate.
3. fold in the avocados, scallions, dill and lastly, the chopped shrimp. add salt and pepper to taste.
4. heat potato rolls as described above. once heated, lightly butter your rolls and add salt and pepper.
5. load on your avocado and shrimp filling. eat!

 

photography by catherine o’donnell/foodstuffs

 

post29 // an o’donnell family staple: clams and linguine

Clams and Linguine 

Over every college break, I go home and I eat a lot. It’s no secret that I love to cook and upon arriving in a large kitchen, I can’t help but meet the granite countertop with a smile. Nonetheless, I’ve got some steady competition in the kitchen at home: my mother and father. I guess I didn’t have to spell out that my two older brothers don’t frequent meal-making times because those of you who know them, well you already knew that.

I’m lucky enough to go to a college that still fits an Easter break into their academic calendar. This past Easter break, my first meal home was Clams and Linguine. As my brother Jake’s favorite meal, it’s a no-brainer that this dish is a family staple in the O’Donnell household. It was definitely a part of the rotation—hamburgers, pork and saurkraut, sausages and peppers—that made up my dinners growing up. As seafood lovers, pasta fans, and Italians at food-heart, Clams and Linguine is a perfect fit for the O’Donnell’s. Both easy to make and beautiful to serve, we pull our Clams and Linguine recipe from The Silver Palate Cookbook. We typically use littleneck clams and at times disregard the bottled clam juice. The clam juice you buy in the store can hold a lot of unnecessary sodium so to replace, we will use white wine and olive oil as our base. To take the recipe up a notch, you can buy homemade linguine to anchor your clams in. Our favorite place to buy the pasta? Vace’s in Washington, D.C.

Intertwined in a pool of linguine, the clams are abundantly spread within, beneath, and above the pasta. The meal transforms from a simple seafood dish to a full-on Italian meal with garlic, oregano, parsley, and plenty olive-oil to flavor. I couldn’t recommend an effortless course tastier than this, so make sure you jot the recipe down!

Linguine with White Clam Sauce

Serves 6

Ingredients:

¾ cup best-quality olive oil

6 garlic cloves, peeled and minced

4 dozen small clams, such as Littlenecks or Cherrystones, scrubbed, shucked, and chopped coarsely, all liquor reserved

About 2 cups bottled clam juice

½ cup finely chopped fresh Italian (flat-leaf) parsley

1½ teaspoons dried oregano

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

24 fresh clams, in their shells, for garnish (optional)

1 pound linguine

Directions:

1. Heat the olive oil in a deep heavy pot over low heat. Add the garlic and cook until golden, about 5 minutes.

2. Combine the reserved clam liquor and enough bottled clam juice to make 3 cups. Add this to the pot along with the parsley, oregano, and salt and pepper. Simmer, partially covered, for 10 minutes. The sauce may be prepared ahead to this point.

3. Meanhwile, scrub the garnishing clams, if you are using them, and put them in another pan with water to a depth of 1 inch. Cover, and set the pan over high heat. Shake the pan or stir the clams and remove them as they open. Reserve them in their shells. Discard any clams that don’t open.

4. Bring 4 quarts salted water to a boil in a large pot. Drop in the linguine and cook until tender but still firm.

5. Meanwhile, reheat the sauce if you have allowed it to cool. Add the chopped clams and heat gently; clams should not overcook or they will become tough.

6. Drain the linguine and toss it with the sauce. Serve it in the pot, topped by the clam garnish, or transfer to individual wide soup bowls and garnish each serving with the clams in their shells.

1. Heat the olive oil in a deep heavy pot over low heat. Add the garlic and cook until golden, about 5 minutes.

Recipe taken from The Silver Palate Cookbook: http://books.google.com/books?id=pokLqCAZFh0C&pg=PA91&lpg=PA91&dq=linguine+with+white+clam+sauce+silver+palate&source=bl&ots=gziX–Z8sE&sig=ZWpeREXd34X3udDyiN7oIPYfUYo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=LgJfU4PUMZHLsQSJyoCgDA&ved=0CEEQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=linguine%20with%20white%20clam%20sauce%20silver%20palate&f=false.