Mod Meals on Mendenhall

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, my dad and I watched an Alton Brown Good Eats episode about flammable liquors. My mother was probably regretting in her head that we saw it because we immediately starting thinking about what we could light on fire the next night. We had already planned on throwing a pasta dish together with shrimp, olives and feta cheese and I remembered that I had a bottle of ouzo in my kitchen. Ouzo is a anise flavored liquor that is popular in Greece so it was a perfect complement to the Greek inspired dish we were already making. With that, we had an excuse to light the dish on fire! Like all pasta dishes, the ingredients can be changed depending on your preference. Feel free to be creative! But, please be safe when lighting liquor on fire.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound shrimp
• 1 pound linguine
• kalamata olives, pitted
• feta cheese
• olive oil
• ouzo, white wine or lemon juice
• salt and pepper

Season the shrimp with salt and pepper and saute in a pan with olive oil. Meanwhile, cook the pasta. Once the shrimp are cooked though remove them from the pan. Turn off the heat. Add the ouzo and then light using the flame from the stove or a lighter. BE CAREFUL not to add the liquor while the heat is on. And don’t sue me if your eyebrows are burnt off! Reduce the liquor and add the cooked pasta, olives, feta cheese and shrimp.

I found this recipe in a Real Simple magazine years ago and it has become my Sunday Night standby meal. I love it because it is super simple and the leftovers are great the next day after a long Monday at work. I recommend not using any measurements and just throwing the recipe together – kind of like I envision Nigella Lawson cooking. From someone who lacks in spontaneity, it is always a good feeling to throw things together in the kitchen.

Ingredients:

• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 lemons, 1 sliced thin and 1 juiced
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 3/4 to 1 pound green beans
• 8 small potatoes, cut into 1 inch cubes
• 4 whole chicken breasts, with bone and skin (I’ve used 2 before and cut them in half)
• 1 large pinch both salt and pepper

Assembly: Preheat the oven to 450 degrees (this is great for winter months). In a large roasting pan, spread about 1 tablespoon olive oil on the bottom of the pan. Scatter lemon slices on the bottom of the pan. In a large bowl, whisk together the remaining olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and salt and pepper. Add the green beans to the mixture to coat and transfer them to the roasting pan. Repeat with the potatoes and add them over the green beans – and then the chicken. Pour all the remaining oil mixture over everything. Roast for about an hour or until the chicken is cooked through and skin is brown.