Of all the recipes that I have this one is by far the most requested. Its easy to make, and when done with good ingredients is really hard to beat. Its great by itself, as tacos with slaw, or over rice.

I "discovered" the dish this recipe is based on when Naomi and I stopped for dinner in the small town of Cuba, New Mexico on our way to Albuquerque from Chaco Canyon. We stumbled onto the most unbelievable appetizer, 6 shrimp, sauteed with piñon in an rich, slightly sweetened chile oil. After a period of trail and error I came up with a recipe that takes its inspiration from the flavors in that dish, but has been built to serve as a stunning main dish, perfect for a dinner party. A simple combination of shrimp, piñon nuts (pine nuts) honey, olive oil, New Mexico chile powder and cream, this dish can be an extraordinary experience. Save your very best chile powders and olive oil for this recipe, as it offers a chance to truly showcase the complexities and richness of your finest ingredients.

Shrimp with Red Chile and Piñon Nuts

Ingredients:

2 pound medium-large pink shrimp in shell, Peeled and deveined 4 cloves garlic, crushed and minced ¾ to 1 cup medium hot New Mexico Chile Powder ½ cup olive oil 2 cups piñon nuts (pine nuts) ¼ cup honey 3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream ½ cup coarse chopped cilantro 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt

Directions:

Start by toasting your piñon nuts in a large dry pan over high heat. Keep the pan moving continuously, being sure not to let piñon nuts burn; holding pan several inches over heat and using a heavy bottomed pan to disperse heat will assist in this process. Work pan over heat, moving piñon nuts continuously for about 4 minutes or until nuts begin to turn a golden color. While keeping pan moving over heat add your minced garlic and shake pan vigorously to mix garlic and piñon nuts. piñon nuts contain a lot of oil, so adding oil at this point is unnecessary. Continue to work pan until garlic is sauteed and pine nuts have a reddish gold color, take care not to let nuts burn keeping pan off of direct heat by an inch or two. Add about 1/4 cup of olive oil and toss in to nuts and garlic well. Saute nuts and garlic an additional 45 seconds, allowing oil to warm. Add shrimp when olive oil has warmed to cooking temperature. Toss shrimp continuously to keep nuts and shrimp moving in pan. When shrimp are cooked through lower heat to medium low and add additional 1/4 cup olive oil. Stir in oil mixing well with piñon nuts and coating shrimp well Add chile powder in 3 steps dusting top of nuts and shrimp and mixing in, and repeating until powder has mixed well with shrimp and piñon nuts. Add honey, and cream and stir in to shrimp, nuts and olive oil. The chile powder should begin to clump and coat over shrimp. Plate shrimp, sprinkle with kosher salt and garnish with cilantro Serve

I have been looking for a good high alitude cinnamon roll recipe for a quite sometime. I finally worked out this one after a couple of tries. The rolls are huge, none of us ate more than half a roll. The recipe is set up to make 12 rolls, this time around I did 8 with the same recipe, and they were great.

I admit that I have a Cinnabon problem. Not one that I indulge very often as we don't have one in Laramie - and in fact, I don't even know if there are any in Wyoming. My solution was to come up with a recipe that was just as good, and I think these are it - that said, they take a very long time to make!

Recipe After Jump

So I have a copy of Diana Kennedy's newest book "Oaxaca al Gusto: An Infinite Gastronomy" on the way to my Wyoming casa. Anyone who knows me well knows that Mexican Cuisine, and in particulaly Oaxacan cuisine has a very special spot in my heart. I very much look forward to reading and reviewing the book (all 492 pages of it).

I am particularly interested in reading her recipe(s) on mole(s) from the region. I am a die hard fan of Rick Bayless's Oaxacan black mole, but I am excited to find some other variations.

I will post photos, and more once I have the book, but for now, here is an interview with the author.