Chili Shrimp for Any Family

Every once in awhile a new recipe catches my eye and I just know it's a keeper. This particular one from Mario Batali jumped off the page, likely because of the ingredients but also for the story behind its creation.

In Batali's place, a meal like this would be served by cooks to cooks in the wee hours of the morning, at the end of a busy dinner shift. I didn't ever experience this exactly - a pastry chef, I was routinely edged out of counter space by 4pm. But every one in awhile I would be around for the Family Meal, the meal the back of the house shares together before the dinner rush, and the end of a particularly long shift for me. "Shares together" is overstating things - we didn't actually all sit down and eat together. It more like we broke off in small groups for a short interlude. One line cook would take responsibility for preparing the family meal and it was always homey, delicious and really did feel like family time.

My only beef with Batali's recipe is that there's too much coconut milk. I love the stuff, but prefer lighter meals so I routinely use light coconut milk and much less of it than recommended.

Here's that recipe:

Chili Shrimp
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Serves 4 as an appetizer

INGREDIENTS
One pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 T red curry paste
2 T fish sauce
2 T sambal
2 T sweet chili sauce
1 T sesame oil or canola oil
2 green onions, thinly sliced on the diagonal
2 T soy sauce or tamari
2 ounces light coconut milk
2-3 T cilantro, chopped

METHOD
Combine shrimp, curry paste, fish sauce, sambal and chili sauce in a medium bowl and toss to coat.

Heat skillet. Add oil tand let heat for a minute, then add shrimp and saute for 2-3 minutes. Add green onion. Cover and cook 2-3 minutes. Stir in soy sauce and coconut milk and cook another few minutes. Add cilantro and serve.

Serving suggestions:
Left to our own, we eat these with our fingers. For guests I griddle a few pieces of baguette, thinly sliced on the diagonal and lightly brushed with olive oil. Or, when served as a main dish to those who are not carb-adverse, with rice.

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On Death and Lobster

There's a spectrum of emotional response to the how-and-when circumstances of a person's death. At one end, there's sad-but-peaceful acceptance of what many would see as a favorable death - i.e. age 82, while sleeping. At the opposite end of the spectrum is sorrow-induced rage caused by what most would agree as an untimely or unfair death - i.e. age 24, choking on food/brain tumor/auto accident.

We also care about the planned death of the animals we eat (putrid, nasty slaughterhouse at one end, state-of-the-art, clean slaughterhouse at the other?). The Humane Slaughter Act, first signed in 1958 by Dwight Eisenhower, requires requires meatpackers to anesthetize or stun livestock prior to killing, except in the case of kosher slaughter. Animals are meant to be rendered insensible to pain prior to killing so that they won't suffer. Interestingly, the Act doesn't protect poultry, fish, or rabbits, a fact not lost on proponents of animal rights. It doesn't protect lobsters, either, an omission which fuels the debate on the best way to kill them.

People who cook lobster fall into one of two categories: stabbers or boilers. Professional cooks are mostly stabbers, but I think that might speak more to a predisposition for using knives than concern for animal welfare. Stabbers like to say that their way is more humane, taking the position that swiftly stabbing the lobster in the back of the head is faster and more painless than death by boiling water. Most home cooks self-report as boilers.* A rarely-acknowledged third category includes rubes who accidentally kill their lobsters before cooking them. No one I know advocates drowning lobsters as a means of killing them. But then again, up until this summer, I wouldn't have guessed it was possible to drown an animal that LIVES IN THE OCEAN.

Ever since he published the recipe in June 2012, I've been wanting to make Mark Bittman's Singapore Chili Lobster. Since co-council was required for an undertaking of this magnitude, I enlisted help from a friend. The sauce really is the heart of this dish, and the saucier's cooking skills and palate matter tremendously. I can't take any credit for the sauce - Ari took care of that on his own. What I can take credit for is the procurement of four live lobsters, being brave enough to handle them, and being gauche enough to drown them.

What happened is that after allowing the live lobsters some time to frolic on our patio (which they declined to do, either because they knew what was coming and weren't going to give us the satisfaction, or because they were scared of the dog), I thought they looked a little sad and dry. We consulted the internet which said we could make them a seawater bath, and since I had a container of sea salt and a beverage tub, I thought: Groovy! We can make a lobster pool! I made the pool and explained the situation to the lobsters as I set them into it. The lobsters seemed to be enjoying themselves - they become a lot more active in the water than they were on the patio. But after about five-ten minutes, there was no more splashing around. I picked one up to see how he was doing and he was totally limp.

Horrified, I called Dirk's. Now, my husband and I are in disagreement about how often Dirk gets this call. My bet is that he gets it several times a summer. I'm going to call him sometime and ask. Anyway, Dirk said lobsters drown in freshwater, and city water plus sea salt does not equal sea water. [The official answer sounded like this: Something something salty blood osmosis toxic drowning.] Dirk said all that happy moving around they were doing in the lobster pool was actually their death throes. Whoops. He also said to just boil them immediately and they'd be fine, and they were. Whew!

I still feel so badly about it mainly because, and I hate that I'm saying this, but the lobsters totally knew what was up. That's what I took the time to explain it to them, that the pool was going to be fun. They knew otherwise. Next time I cook lobsters, I'm going to have to stab them, or secure co-council who will.


* This raises the possibility of validity problems in my survey, as respondents may have lied or exaggerated about their behavior in order to appear more humane, or under-report the severity or frequency of lobster-killing behavior in order to minimize their problems. In short, the author acknowledges the possibility that respondents claiming to be boilers may actually be stabbers.

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Thai Tom Yum Soup

It's not that I only cook Asian food these days, but it's close.

I made Thai Tom Yum soup on Father's Day at the behest of the resident dad of the house. His day, his choice. Anyway, I learned to make it by following the recipe from the cookbook of one of my favorite restaurants in Telluride - Honga's Lotus Petal.

Honga's Tom Yum was the first I ever had. It's a hot and sour type thing, where the dominant flavors are lemongrass and fish sauce. The tamarind is a important player too. I remember how psyched Honga's cooks were when they were able to get fresh tamarind into the kitchen. Fresh tamarind is hard enough to come by here in the city - getting it to a town at 8750 feet and over 300 miles from Denver is downright amazing. I, however, use tamarind paste for this. I picked it up at an Asian grocer and it stores very well in the fridge. It also goes into Pad Thai, which you should try at home if you haven't.

Thai Tom Yum Soup
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Serves 4

INGREDIENTS
64 oz chicken broth - Imagine Organic
2 stalks lemongrass, pounded and thinly sliced
Zest of 2 limes (peel using vegetable peeler)
2 inches peeled, fresh ginger
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 T Thai Kitchen red curry paste
¼ cup fish sauce
¼ cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed
2 T tamarind paste
2 T sugar
¼ cup tomato sauce or a equivalent chopped tomatoes
2 stalks celery, sliced
Handful mushrooms, thinly sliced (optional)
1 # shrimp, peeled and cleaned
2-3 green onions, sliced on diagonal
¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped

METHOD
Add stock, lemongrass, lime zest, ginger, garlic and curry paste to a soup pot and bring to a boil, stirring to blend all ingredients. Turn down heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Add fish sauce, lemon juice, tamarind, tomato sauce or tomatoes and sugar and simmer another 10-15 minutes.

Use a mesh strainer to strain the soup into a separate soup pot. Add the celery and mushrooms to the strained soup and simmer for 5-10 minutes.

Add shrimp and boil another 3-5 minutes or until cooked through. Add green onions and cilantro and serve.

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Lunchtime Linguine with Clam Sauce

I love pasta, and this is a favorite sauce. It's decidedly lowbrow, what with the canned minced clams and all. You could obviously class it up and get yourself a pound of littlenecks and do whatever it is that is done to littlenecks to cook and serve them. For a quick sauce, the canned clam version really is quite good. Just make sure they're minced.

I remain confused about the minced clams, namely why minced clam pieces are larger than chopped clam pieces when mincing should always produce smaller pieces. A chopped garlic clove, for example, may only yield 3-4 smaller pieces, whereas mincing the same clove increases the number of pieces (and reduces their size) by a factor of 10. Anyway, don't buy canned chopped clams. They're weird.

Linguine with Clam Sauce
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Serves 2

INGREDIENTS

1/2 pound thin spaghetti or linguini
1 can Snow's minced clams
1/3 cup dry white wine
1 T olive oil
2 cloves garlic, sliced
pinch crushed chili peppers
2 T chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup fresh grated Parmesan

METHOD
Fill a large sauce pan with water. Add 1 t kosher salt and bring to a boil.

In a small skillet heat 1-2 T olive oil over medium heat. Add sliced garlic and crushed chilis and saute until the garlic bubbles and is fragrant. Add another teaspoon of olive oil to the pan along with the clams and white wine. Bring to a gentle boil. Simmer, uncovered, for about 10 minutes while you cook the pasta.

When the pasta is just about cooked through, season with salt and fresh ground pepper. Drain the pasta and pour it into a bowl. Top with sauce, chopped parsley and Parmesan. Serve and enjoy.

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Easy Appetizers: Chipotle Shrimp

First of all, it's pronounced chip-OAT-lay, not chip-OADLE like I thought before I moved down the street from the ubiquitous purveyor of gourmet burritos and tacos.

These make a delightful starter, and one that I can count on whipping up at the last minute. I always have frozen shrimp in my freezer and a can of chipotle chiles in my pantry. And usually cilantro. These would be a great base for shrimp fajitas, too, with some fresh avocado and corn tortillas. The avocado would really pacify the palate. These shrimp are muy caliente. Anyway, the recipe is adapted from Mexican Everyday, a fantastic cookbook from Rick Bayless.

Chipotle Shrimp
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Serves 2-4

INGREDIENTS
1 pound medium-large peeled and deveined shrimp
One 15-ounce can Muir Glen Fire Roasted Crushed Tomatoes
2-3 canned chipotle chiles in adobo
1 tablespoon of adobo sauce (reserved from canned chiles)
1 T olive oil
3 garlic cloves, pressed
1/2 cup water or stock
salt to taste (about 1 teaspoon)
2/3 T fresh cilantro, chopped

METHOD
Puree the tomatoes, chiles and adobo in a food processor and process until smooth. I use my mini-prep processor for this.

Heat the oil in a 10-inch skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and saute gently for one minute. Add tomato-chile sauce. Bring to a boil and cook five minutes. Add broth or water and salt and bring back to a boil.

Add shrimp and cook 3-5 minutes, adding more water or stock if it gets to thick.

Transfer to plates when cooked through. Top with chopped cilantro and serve immediately.

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Staycation Crab Cakes on Mixed Greens with Red Pepper Sauce

In a summer of traveling vicariously, I’m cooking foods I’d eat if I were anywhere but stuck in the middle. This week it’s crab cakes, inspired by the Paul family’s east coast adventures.

My recipe for crab cakes is from Wolfgang Puck’s Adventures in the Kitchen cookbook. They are beautiful and decadent. With an almond meal crust and a red pepper cream sauce these are the classiest crab cakes I’ve seen. Atop a bed of mixed greens they make an impressive summer lunch.

Crab Cakes with Red Pepper Sauce
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Serves 6

YOU WILL NEED
1 medium red bell pepper, cored, seeded and diced
½ medium yellow bell pepper, cored, seeded and diced
1 medium red onion, diced
1 jalapeño
2 cloves garlic, smashed
½ cup dry white wine
1 pint (2 cups) cream
1 ¼ # lump crab meat
3 cups mixed greens

for the crabcakes:
2 T olive oil
½ medium red bell pepper, cored, seeded and diced
½ medium yellow bell pepper, cored, seeded and diced
½ medium red onion, diced
1 cup cream
1 t jalapeño, finely chopped
2 t chives, finely chopped
2 t dill, finely chopped
1 t parsley, finely chopped
½ t kosher salt
Pinch cayenne
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup bread crumbs
1 c almond meal (found at Trader Joes or grinding almonds)
1 ¼ # lump crabmeat

for the sauce:
2 T olive oil
½ medium red bell pepper, cored, seeded and diced
½ medium red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, smashed
½ cup dry white wine
1 cup cream
Juice of one lemon
Salt and pepper, to taste

METHOD
Prepare the crab cakes:
In a sauté pan , heat the olive oil. Add the onion, red and yellow peppers and gently sauté over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and reserve.

In a small saucepan, heat cream and jalapeño and reduce by one-half (so that ½ cup remains). Cool.

Chop chives, dill, and parsley and add to pepper-onion mixture. Stir in cooled cream, salt, and cayenne. Stir in egg and ½ cup each breadcrumbs and almond meal. Gently fold in crab meat. Divide mixture into 12 crab cakes - about 2 ½ ounces each.

Combine remaining breadcrumbs and almond meal on a plate. Coat both sides of crab cake well. Place on a tray and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.

Prepare the sauce:
Start the sauce closer to the point of service, or about 30 minutes before you plan to sauté the crab cakes.

Sauté pepper, onion and garlic in olive oil over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes. Deglaze pan with white wine and cook until 3 tablespoons of liquid remain. Add cream and bring to a boil.

Transfer mixture to a blender and puree until smooth. Strain into a clean pan. Add lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste and reserve, keeping warm.
When ready to serve, wash salad greens. Prep a sheet pan with paper towel to drain the crab cakes.

Working in one or two skillets heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Sauté crab cakes for about 4 minutes on each side, or until golden brown, avoiding over-crowding. Transfer to sheet pan to drain while sautéing all the crab cakes.

Plate greens and arrange two crab cakes per plate. Drizzle sauce over the greens and crab cakes. Enjoy immediately.

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