79. Herb-Poached Shrimp

Date Cooked: May 10, 2009
Page: 21
Rating: B+

** That is a very bad picture. I know. I failed at poaching shrimp.**

Shrimp were one of those foods that as a child I despised, but as an adult love. Although both my wife and I agree that the larger the shrimp gets the more important it is that it is cooked correctly. Although the recipe for herb-poached shrimp recommends extra large, all I had were large so they would have to do.

I started by peeling the shells off the shrimp which would be used to create a stock for poaching the shrimp in. If I had thought more about presentation, I would have left the tail piece on but I didn’t really think about it until later. Not that it would have mattered as you can tell by the picture. They looked horrible, but more on that tragedy shortly. With the shrimp de-shelled I set to making the poaching broth.

The shells were boiled in salted water for about twenty minutes. Once done the shells were discarded and into the hot liquid went, tarragon, parsley, coriander seeds, black peppercorns, lemon juice and white wine. The ingredients were boiled for a few minutes to allow their flavors to unite before the shrimp were added. Once the shrimp were in the solution the temperature was turned off and they were left to soak for 8-10 minutes. Or that’s how long they were supposed to be.

I think almost twenty-five minutes passed before I realized they were still in the stock. With great alarm I lifted the lid and was shocked by the disaster I had wrought! I could barely see the shrimp because the water had turned very milky white. I quickly removed the shrimp (and everything else in the water since I couldn’t see anything in the white liquid), and plunged them into an ice water bath to stop the cooking process, 15 minutes later than required.

I was a little heart-broken with this disaster since I knew the shrimp were very overcooked and tough. My wife’s family like shrimp and every family get together involves them. Well since this was a mother’s day meal with family I put them out anyway and they were still all eaten. The sauces I had made for them may have helped a little.

Rating: B+. I will make these again if only to validate that I screwed it up bad. You could taste the herb flavors but since they were so overcooked I’m sure a lot of the flavor that was gained was subsequently lost.

63. Chicken and Shrimp Jambalaya

Date Cooked: January 28, 2009
Page: 223
Rating: B+

This is a recipe I had been eyeing since the time I made Gumbo. It was a recipe with a lot of ingredients and a few techniques for cooking that intimidated me a bit. The biggest technique was simply frying chicken until the skin is crispy (see the Chicken Cacciatore post). Since I had accomplished this and had the proper vessel for cooking this recipe (my dutch oven) I figured it was a good time to tackle Jambalya.

Over the weekend I had picked up some more Andouille sausage while at the St. Lawrence Market searching for a leg of lamb roast. So I had everything I needed to make this dish. The first step in making this dish was to finely chop the garlic, red pepper, onion and celery by whizzing them around the food processor. I don’t know if I was really happy with this result. The pieces were either mush or really large, most likely due to my food processor.

The next step was to cook the chicken in some oil until golden brown and the skin is crispy. Once that was done the sausage gets its turn to brown before being removed to make room for the vegetables. The vegetables get soften before the rest of the ingredients, rice, tomatoes, thyme, cayenne, clam juice, chicken broth, bay leaves, and the browned sausage, get added. The chicken gets skinned (and you can guess where those skins ended up) before being placed on top of the mixture and everything brought to a boil and then simmered.

Everything cooked with minimal stirring for about 25 minutes, until the chicken was done. The chicken was removed and shredded while shrimp was added to the dutch oven to cook. Let’s take a moment to discuss shrimp. I need to buy raw shrimp with shells on these days because my oldest loves to help peel them. He calls himself my sous-chef and dives right into the bowl of shrimp to peel them. He gets mad if I don’t let him peel the last shrimp.

When the shrimp have finished cooking the shredded chicken gets added and the dish is ready to serve.

Rating: B+. This was a very flavorful dish and I enjoyed it quite a lot. My only complaint is that the rice turned out a little mushy. Not really bad but there was probably a little too much liquid in the dish. Next time I prepare this (there will be a next time), I will try to reduce the amount of liquid or watch the overall cooking time better.

36. Pan-Seared Shrimp with Garlic-Lemon Butter

Date Cooked: November 8, 2008
Page: 520
Rating: A

I was looking for a quick dinner to throw together and still had some shrimp left from all the Pad Thai I have been cooking. I must say that the Pad Thai I cooked awhile back has been made and consumed several times now. I really love fresh Pad Thai… but you didn’t come here for a rehash of the Pad Thai post. Today I am talking about a dish that will probably put me in the hospital.

This recipe is extremely easy, and if you like shrimp, truly delicious. I peeled the frozen raw shrimp I had left and then seared them in a sauté pan with a little oil. I no longer bother deveining shrimp that are size large or smaller since the textural difference is not noticeable (by me or my wife) and therefore not worth the effort. I haven’t cooked any really large shrimp so I’ll see about deveining them when that day comes. The shrimp get seared for a few minutes before they get drowned (3 tablespoons) in butter, garlic, lemon juice and parsley. They cook off heat for a few more minutes and then they are ready to serve.

Here is where I could have put myself in the hospital. I served this with spaghetti squash. Now I obviously was not thinking as I prepared the squash because I mixed it with 3 tablespoons of butter, parmesan cheese and some salt and pepper. I served the shrimp over the squash and poured all of the garlic butter on top. You can see the heart attack inducing butter in the photo. So for those counting at home this dish had 6 tablespoons of butter. I was dining alone and consumed all of it, but I didn’t regret one bite. Had I been thinking correctly though, I would not have added any butter to the squash.

Rating: A. I love garlic shrimp. Not much else to say.

30. Creole-Style Shrimp and Sausage Gumbo with Okra

Date Cooked: October 26th, 2008
Page: 525
Rating: B-

This dish has been haunting me for awhile. I’ve wanted to try my hand at it for months. In fact it was one of the first dishes I wanted to try. The problem is it scared me, well only the first part did… making a roux. I figured this was a technique I needed to learn. I’ve decided to take the ‘mise en place’ part of cooking more seriously and this time I didn’t start anything until everything was checked and double checked. See I am already beginning to improve as a cook. Once everything was measured and chopped I started in. The first step was to make the stock for the gumbo. This was done by taking the discarded shells from the shrimp and boiling them for 20 minutes. Once done the stock was mixed with clam juice and ice water to provide a warm stock for the gumbo base. This was placed aside so I could begin with the roux.

I was excited and hesitant about this part. The excitement came from getting to use my new La Creuset dutch oven which I picked up at Homesense for practically a steal! It isn’t the one I truly would have liked in a perfect world but the price was right and it is all I needed. Now for the hesitant part, I had to try a controlled burn of flour. The oil was heated in the dutch oven and once the temperature was reached I began slowly adding the flour and constantly stirring. Stirring, stirring, stirring. The book recommends 20 minutes to reach an optimal color? Flavor? Not sure what I am trying to reach. The recipe said it needed to look like a dirty penny or milk chocolate. What do you think?
I was constantly fearful that while making the roux I was going to grab the handles of the dutch oven and burn myself. I caught myself a few times seconds before burning my hand. I’ll need to get used to handling cast iron on the stove top. And I am sure I will probably burn myself before I am conditioned.

Once the roux reached the correct color I threw in some onions, peppers, celery and okra along with some seasonings. Let’s talk about Okra. It is a rather disgusting little vegetable. Well that might be harsh. It has a subtle flavor on its own but is rather slimy as it breaks down. I could only find whole frozen okra so I cut it myself. As it was thawing it gets slimy and when you start to cook, it gets very gummy and stringy. What should I expect from something used as a thickening agent.

After sauteéing the stock was added to the dutch oven and the gumbo was simmered for 30 minutes. Then I added the sausage for another 30 minutes before finally adding the shrimp. A few minutes later the gumbo was removed from the heat and parsley and scallions were added. Served over rice it was ready to eat. I always thought gumbo was thicker and more like a stew than a soup. So to be honest I don’t know if it turned out correctly or not.

Rating: B-. My wife and I both agree about the Gumbo. It was not spicy or seasoned enough. This is more to do with the books quantities and personal taste than anything else. Once seasoned liberally with salt and pepper it was a very nice dish but it really could have used some bite. It calls for cayenne pepper but in such a small amount that I didn’t even notice it at first.

22. Pad Thai

Date Cooked: September 25th, 2008
Page: 296
Rating: A+

I had been thinking about making this dish for several weeks but I was struggling with gathering all of the ingredients. Although most of the items are easy to find I wouldn’t commit to the produce until I had the rest gathered. The real hang up though was tamarind paste. To be honest I didn’t even know what it looked like so I spent several visits to local grocery stores perusing the aisles looking for this stuff. I finally gave in and hit a local Asian grocer and asked someone. They literally reached to the counter in front of me and handed a small package of a dark brown fruit paste that said Tamarind on it. Well at least I now knew what I was looking for. Here is the interesting thing though, and I am sure many of you have experienced this. Once I bought it I started seeing it elsewhere, the oddest location being Wal-Mart, although I don’t know if I would buy it from Wal-Mart. It looked pretty dry and was more like packed sawdust than a thick dark fruit paste.

So I finally had the tough ingredient to find and now I could move onto picking up the produce and shrimp to get this meal started. The one thing about pad thai is how quick it all comes together which means that a lot of work is actually required to prep the dish. I started by soaking the noodles in hot water and the tamarind paste in boiling water. As these were soaking I peeled and deveined the shrimp and set those aside as I started chopping the scallions, peanuts and dried shrimp… let talk about the dried shrimp. As soon as I opened up the bag I was assaulted by the shrimp aroma. My wife looked at me and with a little look of distaste on her face asked if I was actually going to use that. I smiled as I poured them out onto the counter and began to chop.

I confess, my wife did help me a great deal in getting things prepped. I’m trying to make it sound like I was organized while getting this done but in fact I was all over the place. When I was soaking the tamarind I left it as large chunks and in the future I would chop it up a bit more. I would probably run the peanuts and dried shrimp through a food processor to speed up chopping them. Also I would remember to defrost, peel and devein the shrimp before starting everything else. I had everything soaking and chopped when I remembered the shrimp were still in the freezer. It’s a good thing shrimp are quick to defrost in water. I spoke about dried shrimp but let’s reflect on the completely hydrated version for a moment.

I have raw shrimp in their shell simply because I plan to make gumbo pretty soon (once I find a place to get good Andouille sausage), and the shells of the shrimp are used for a simple stock. Anyway that is for another time. Shelling them is easy but deveining them was tedious and I’m not sure of the value of the process. I did a bit of research on shrimp and most agree the vein neither detracts from the flavor nor adds to it. In larger shrimp it can become a textural issue though. So while digging out this thin soggy wormlike strand I had to wonder if this was really worth it. Unfortunately that decision will have to wait until I cook shrimp again to compare… which could be soon.

After the prep was done it was time to begin cooking. The shrimp get a quick sauté and then set aside. The shallots and garlic are next into the pan and when they are softened and fragrant the eggs get tossed in for a light scramble. The noodles get added, tossed before the rest of the spices and tamarind liquid get added. Cooked for a few minutes and then finally the sprouts, scallions, dried shrimp and peanuts get tossed in. The whole dish gets tossed together and then it was plated to serve. Garnished with some scallions, peanuts and fresh cilantro it was complete.

What was the verdict? Truly amazing! I almost never eat pad thai at a restaurant because I find it oily and the noodles are usually pretty slippery with sauce. This dish was all of the wonderful flavor, without the unpleasant texture. Each noodle was tender but still had some chew to it and it was coated in flavor without a slippery greasy feel. The shrimp were delicious and everything had a nice crunch to it from the sprouts and peanuts. My wife (who likes Thai food much more than I do) was requesting I make it again before we had even finished.

I do believe it is time I get an assortment of plain white dishes for plating though. I’ve used the same plate for just about every photo.

Rating: A+ I was very happy with how this turned out. I will definitely make a few changes when I prepare it again but overall I don’t know how this could be improved upon.

Update: Between cooking this recipe and posting I made it a second time. I figured out how I can improve upon it. Either omit the dried shrimp or ensure they are chopped extremely fine. There is something not quite comforting about biting into a chewy intensely shrimp flavored crumb. On the plus side my son has decided he likes cooked shrimp now. I can barely get him to eat beef or chicken but so far shrimp and calamari are good. Oh yeah, I deveined the shrimp because the thought of that blue little string is pretty unappealing, cooked or not.