New year, new format for cooking challenge

 This year instead of a cookbook challenge, we're going to do an ingredient challenge.   DH picks two ingredients, and I try to make them into a meal.

For January, DH picked mushrooms and basil. Ok, so call me boring, but the only think I could think of to do with this was Thai. Or something with pesto. I was really unhappy about this. So I fished the remains of the Thanksgiving turkey out of the freezer (best ever Mary's heirloom free range happy turkey) and made a turkey, wild rice, and mushroom soup with a little bit of dried basil in it. (I slipped a little marsala in it, it's a glorious soup). DH told me it was a copout.

For February, he picked shrimp and scallops. So last night I made scampi, shallot tarte tatin,
and fiddle head ferns. The whole kitchen still smells like onion... It was glorious!

 

I've never worked with puff pastry... The recipe said to cool the shallots before putting the crust on and baking. As it was approaching 8PM, I figured I'd just get things started. Bad decision. The heat of the shallots melted the butter in the pastry. So it's puff pastry around the edges and dense pastry in the center. Still tastes good but I learned something.

The scampi was easy; I marinated 1/2 pound shrimp in the juice of one lemon, 2 minced cloves of garlic, a little thyme from the garden, and a glug of olive oil while the onions were cooking down. I put it the baking dish and in the oven with the tarte, cooked for 20 minutes; 15 minutes would have been enough but I was paying attention to the tarte. Since I didn't use any butter and very little oil, it ended up being much lighter in character than most scampi dishes but IMHO with as good of a taste. Let's just say I saved all the butter for the onions.

I did manage to compose a meal that stymied me as far as wine selection. Given how DH loves anything onion, I focused on that and picked a 2005 Mondavi Cabernet from the cellar. It didn't overpower the scampi and the ferns, and tasted great with the tarte.  I wish I knew more about wine pairing!

Tonight, I'll add some goat cheese to the top of the leftover tarte and serve it with a big salad.

Fiber? Lots going on in my fiber world. I'll comment on that later.