Sweet herb for your sweetheart

Posted Feb 9, 2012 By Pat Trew

EMC Lifestyle - If you'd like to make a special dinner for Valentine's Day, serve this basil-flavoured chicken and seafood dish.

Known as the sweet herb, basil is all too often combined with other stronger-tasting herbs. Using basil on its own, however, lets its natural sweet flavour come through.

This dish is a colourful mixture of chicken, shrimp, mushrooms, onion and red pepper served in a basil-flavoured white sauce. It's excellent spooned over pasta such as linguine.

It takes about half an hour to prepare this meal. If you start cooking the pasta before starting the sauce, everything should be cooked at the same time.

You'll need one large frying pan and one smaller one. Each ingredient is cooked separately in the large pan, then transferred to the second pan and kept warm.

When you're shopping for this recipe, look for the small frozen shrimp that are already cooked and peeled. They are nicer in this dish than the large shrimp.

Look for fresh shredded Parmesan cheese in the deli section of the supermarket.

I like it because it's more convenient and moister than grating a large chunk of parmesan cheese.

VALENTINE'S DAY SPECIAL

- 2 tbsp. olive oil or vegetable oil

- 2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, sliced in strips

- 225 gm package of white button mushrooms, sliced (about 12)

- 1/2 medium onion, sliced in thin strips

- 1/2 sweet red bell pepper, cut into thin strips

- 1 1/2 cups milk

- 1 envelope chicken bouillon powder

- 2 tbsp. cornstarch

- 1 cup frozen small, cooked, peeled shrimp, thawed under cold water

- 1 tsp. dried basil

- 1/4 cup freshly-grated Parmesan cheese

Once you have the chicken and vegetables sliced, start cooking the pasta. You won't need a lot because the recipe for the sauce makes two large servings.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Add the chicken strips, and brown them on each side. When there is no pink left in the chicken, transfer it to a smaller frying pan set on very low heat.

Add the sliced mushrooms to the large pan, and cook them until lightly browned. Transfer them to the same pan as the chicken.

Add the sliced onion and sweet red pepper to the large pan, and cook until crisp-tender. Transfer them to the same pan as the chicken.

In a measuring cup, stir the milk, chicken bouillon powder, cornstarch and basil together until the cornstarch is dissolved.

Pour this into the large frying pan, and cook, stirring continuously, on medium heat, until slightly thickened.

Spoon the cooked chicken and vegetables into the sauce.

Add the shrimp, and cook for two to three minutes until the shrimp are heated through. This serves two, but it can also serve four if you cook a larger amount of pasta.