Date Night - Whole Grain Pasta with Shrimp

I have a small confession to make. On Monday nights, Baby and I cross the hall and watch The Bachelor with our neighbors. The Mrs. is completed obsessed with the show and insists on total silence during it but her Mr. couldn't care less, even though he still watches. Baby and I however just like getting together with our friends to witness the witless parade of mewling girls fawning over the ideal, hopeful husband-to-be. There is a certain escapist sense about it, tuning in for the two whole hours every week, anticipating who will receive a rose--and who will be most grievously jilted.

Sometimes the lot of us will order in sushi together or just eat on our own before sitting down to watch. This week I offered to cook, as we had a pound of Colossal Shrimp from Trader Joe's tucked away in the freezer next to some bacon. With some sturdy whole grain spaghetti, a touch of white wine from a recently opened bottle, a few other ingredients and a little ingenuity, I made a great meal that easily satisfied four and certainly deserved a rose!

P.S. Speaking of romance and since love is in the air, this recipe could be easily reduced for just two--an ideal meal to create an intimate Valentine's Day dinner--served with a celebratory bottle of wine, perhaps. It's very quick to make, which leaves time for...other investments.

Whole Grain Pasta with Shrimp
Ingredients
1/4 lb bacon, cut into roughly 3" strips (I used Oscar Mayer Hardwood Smoked--delicious!)
6 or so cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
A big splash of white wine 
1 lb deveined, tailed thawed shrimp, the bigger the better
1 lb whole grain pasta
2 TB anchovy paste 
2-3 TB butter
2-3TB olive oil, the best you can find
1 TB Lemon rock salt, or Kosher salt
Fresh cracked pepper
Grated Parmesan cheese

Method
Fill a large pot with water and get it simmering, ready to boil quickly. On medium high heat, start cooking the bacon in a frying pan, and grind your pepper over it with abandon, flipping occasionally until nicely browned and peppery on both sides. Remove with tongs and place on a plate lined with two paper towels. Drain about half of the fat and toss in the garlic. The pan will be hot, so douse the almost immediately with a judicious splash of wine (about 1/2 cup) and remove from heat. Stir in a TB of the anchovy paste to your froth and gently simmer on low heat for a few minutes and secure the sauce in a vessel that can stand up to heat. Bring your water to a full boil, add salt and pasta and cook for 7-8 minutes. Strain when done to your liking. As the boiling process transpires, use your frying pan again for the shrimp. Melt butter, add olive oil and the other TB of anchovy paste before adding the shrimp. The shrimp cooks quickly, about 3 minutes per side. While the shrimp turns a blithely orange-pink on both sides and has become just opaque (do not overcook!), strain your pasta, which should be done by now and place into a large bowl. Toss with the garlicky-anchovy-wine froth. Incorporate your cooked shrimp evenly along with the bubbly sauce in which it has been sauteed, crumble the bacon into the mix with lots of Parmesan cheese and more cracked pepper, if you like.

Behold the bubbling bacon below--which could hardly hold still to take a decent picture!

Polynesian Cocktail Party

I freely admit I have a penchant for Polynesia. It started when I was a kid, going out to dinner with my family at the Asia Fantasia in Dover, NH. I was mad for all the screaming pomegranate-colored walls with images of cascading waterfalls hung on them, the bamboo huts where we ate, and simply enthralled by the flaming Scorpion Bowls and Volcanoes that swirled around us at neighboring tables. It was a mission of mine at a very early age to navigate the things called chopsticks. Most of all, I loved that delicious, perfect quintet with the funny name: the PuPu platter. Apart from the fact that it too arrived on fire, fueled by the preternatural incandescence of Sterno, I treasured the savory chicken wings laced with soy sauce, crispy fried shrimp, sticky spareribs, and spears of beef teriyaki that I remember, as well as the novelty of heating up the bit of exotica right at the table as we went along.

Having recently acquired a platter of our own, Baby and I were duly inspired to create an evening out of the Polynesian fantasia of my childhood. To set up our menu, we started by flipping through The House of Chan Cookbook, a modest volume that his mother had when he was a boy. After we decided what we wanted to serve, we went through old issues of Gourmet, Saveur, and other cookbooks too filling our shelves and also went online to compare recipes. Once we found what we thought would be the best recipe, we made our shopping list. We chose quite well, it turned out--they were all wonderful recipes, executed with little difficulty!

A pitcher of Planter's Punch cocktails from Anthony Dias Blue's incredibly comprehensive guide, The Complete Book of Mixed Drinks, set the mood. Equal parts light and dark rum are evenly matched by orange juice. I couldn't be bothered making simple syrup, and at Baby's suggestion, I just added some pineapple juice into freshly squeezed lime juice to sweetly balance the sour, and poured in a little Cointreau for added kick. And yes, these were served as long drinks, with knotted bamboo cocktail stirrers skewering orange and lime slices and maraschino cherries anchored by two chunks of pineapple, perched on top of the glass. One of our guests surprised us with paper umbrellas to further complete the picture.

PuPu for Eight

Beef Teriyaki Gourmet featured a PuPu platter menu October '08! We adorned with grilled pineapple and maraschino cherries.

Chinese Spareribs from Tyler Florence. We loved this. While the ribs cooked, the whole apartment smelled all gently spicy and warm like Christmas.

Dad's Chinese Chicken Wings not my dad, this is from epicurious.com. A real winner.

Chinese Roast Pork I think this was our favorite--it's actually red food coloring that turns the meat pink!

Coconut Shrimp we did not butterfly the shrimp as the recipe suggests, we just fried it, the way the Asia Fantasia would, with Panko bread crumbs added into the mix.

We laid waste to the pints of ice cream that Baby's sister-in-law brought: outrageous Toasted Coconut Sesame Brittle, heavenly Hawaiian Lehua Honey & Sweet Cream, both courtesy of Haagen-Dazs, and classic Peppermint Stick from the Adirondack Creamery.

I hope you create your own Asia Fantasia right at home too!

Soundtrack: Afro-Desia, the Exotic Sounds of Martin Denny; Ultra Lounge, Mondo Exotica; Cocktail Mix, Martini Madness; Combustible Edison, I, Swinger; Dancing at the Nick at NiteClub