Sweet Shrimp - Endorsed by Kids

OK - this might end on shaky ground for some, but the following recipe is almost surefire for kids. Most of them love shrimp, love a little sweetness, and this immensely simple recipe is sure to please the whole family - and add a littel sophistication to a kid friendly dish.

1 lb peeled shrimp - any size
1 T butter
1 T olive oil
2 T good quality sherry or amontillado

1. Toss shrimp with salt and pepper.
2. Heat butter and oil over medium high heat and add shrimp.
3. Saute 1-3 minutes per side, depending on size of shrimp.
4. Lower heat slightly and add sherry. Cook just long enough to reduce sherry and allow it to combine with oils, shaking pan.

Server over pasta, rice or plain.

Alright - there's alcohol, and we're serving it to kids. If you were to argue that NO alochol burns off, and NONE remains in the pan, and ALL of it is in the kids serving, then do the math. If a kid eats 1/4 # of shrimp, they'll get one and a half teaspoons of sherry. Let's now consider how much wine the average 12 year old in France drinks per week. I'm not too concerned about this topic anymore.

Just A Menu - with Crab Pasta

Note to self: even if there's not time to write details and recipe critique, at least get the darn menu into a post. After all, the purpose of this blog is first and foremost as a recipe index.

Saturday October 11 - VERY quick dinner

• Cucumber and Radish Salad - Gourmet January 2008
• Fennel and Coriander Crusted Tuna - Bon Appetit
  
• Spicy Crab Pasta with Lemon - Gourmet May 2008 - the cooking school issue

Cukes - OK? Yeah OK. Nothing special. From the Southern cooking issue

Tuna - still a favorite.

Crab pasta - from the cooking school issue, which has some GREAT recipes. This one is not great, just good, but in a white-trash, simplistic kind of way. No depth of flavors, just a squirt of hot sauce so only one type of heat. Crab+Pasta+butter = always enjoyable. Short on herbs and the lemon didn't contribute enough character. Still - simplistic and tasty. But you're better off spending your $24 on crab legs in a better recipe.

Coaches Fiesta

While Ms. Finn and the kids were still in Chicago last weekend, I needed to host a party for the Waves Swim Team coaches and some of the board members. The coaches are high school kids (well, graduating seniors) and two young adults. So I was thinking of just ordering a few pizzas and calling it a party. But of course there needed to be a few appetizers, and then one thing lead to another and before you knew it I planned to make an entire Rick Bayless menu from his current TV show.

About Rick Bayless. Rick is one of the foremost authorities on Mexican cooking. He opened his Frontera Grill in the mid 80’s in Chicago, and my friends and I were among the first customers. Shortly thereafter he opened Topolobampo – the first “fine dining” Mexican restaurant in Chicago. Both are still around today.

But Rick Bayless has become an industry. Unlike other chefs who open outputs in food meccas and the latest hotspots (read Vegas), he seems to be focused on outreach, with a possible lean toward empire building. He’s authored a half dozen cookbooks (his Authentic Mexican is considered a modern classic, side by side with Diana Kennedy’s Mexican cookbooks); he’s a staple on public television cooking shows and his name is on a line of respectable nationally distributed products.

Despite my knowledge of him, I’ve never been a big fan, with no reasonable explanation. I’ve never bought his books, watched his shows or cooked his recipes. Until now.

The hook was that his “party fare” dishes were quick to put together. For the most part they were, but don’t forget I’m a very experienced and efficient cook, and they still took me a lot longer than what’s implied on screen. Why? The age old cooking show problem: prep time. Though he shows some chopping and sautéing, there’s no retreiving, package removal, cleaning or skinning involved. Pots and pans are pre-staged. On TV, plating simply requires that one reach for the perfect bowl, which has been placed within arm’s reach.

One further delay is that I needed dinner, not just appetizers. And while the multiple small taco menu seemed OK, I felt we needed more substance. So I added a flank steak, chicken thighs and tenders as soft taco ingredients, using a recipe from The New Basics, one of my old favorite cookbooks. Those recipes are back from when fajitas were considered a new trendy dish. Wow.

Randomly, I happened to pick up the current Cooks Illustrated and saw Spicy Pickled Onions for steak tacos. Perfect. So that was also added to the menu.

In all, prep and cooking time ran about 2 hours; grilling was completed after guests arrived and some of us migrated back to the patio.

Here’s the menu and links to the Bayless recipes:

• Chipotle Baked Nuts
• Garlic-Black Pepper Tortilla Chips
• Porcini Queso Fundido
• Roasted Pumpkin Seed Guacamole
• Mango Guacamole
• Tuna Escabeche Tacos
• Grilled Chicken Tacos, The New Basics Cookbook
• Grilled Steak Tacos, The New Basics Cookbook
• Spicy Pickled Onions, Cooks Illustrated, Aug/Sep 2008

Results?

• People liked the pumpkin seed guac more than the mango. Very surprising. I liked them both. The pumpkin seeds I got were small, roasted ones, which were ground to a paste (with a dash of oil). I’ve become addicted to the leftover seeds.
• People loved the nuts. But I’d make a half recipe at most, and found them a little troublesome to get to the exact right crispness, especially on day two+.
• Queso was solid. Don’t add too much dark beer, and keep it warm (fondue / sterno) or it will separate later, even in a ceramic pot.
• Escabeche – probably my favorite. Perfect for a simple appetizer or light meal. GREAT recipe.
• Pickled onions – also a very, very nice recipe. Use rice wine vinegar instead of red for more delicate flavor and you’ll bring out a better pinkness in the red onion slices.
• The marinades for the chicken and steak differed quite a bit. Both were good, could have been interchanged with each other. Very simple. Don’t forget about them, even if not using for tacos / fajitas.

Spicy Pickled Cucumbers

2 English cucumbers (seedless), peeled to leave 1/2 skin, 1/2 peel lengthwise
1 1/2 T Kosher salt
1/2 C rice wine vinegar
2 T brown sugar
1/2 t dried roasted chinese red peppers; or hot red pepper flakes

1. Slice cucumbers into 1/8" rounds on a mandoline. Optionally, halve the cucumber lengthwise before slicing to result in half moon shaped slices.
2. Put slices in colander and sprinkle evenly with salt. Allow to drain for 1 hour.
3. Meanwhile, bring vinegar and sugar to gentle boil until sugar dissolves. Cool.
4. Gently rinse salt from cucumbers and combine with vinegar mixture. Add hot pepper flakes to taste.
5. Vegetables keep for several days refrigerated.

Also works well with with carrots cut into any shape and is particularly good with raw zucchini. If using Zucchini or Carrots there is no need to salt and drain them.

4th of July Menu

• No Knead Bread - New York Times, Nov 21, 2007 - Dr. Hertzberg's version
• Texas BBQ Brisket -Cook's Illustrated, Summer issue - about 4 years ago (I'll update)
• Pickled Cucumbers, Carrots and Zucchini - My own pickling mixture
• Pasta Salad with Tomatos, Olives and Herbs Cook's Illustrated, May/June 2008
• S'More Cheesecake with fresh berries - Bon Appetit, July 2008

Note: you may need a subscription to access the NYT link above.


We're heading into the holiday weekend, have invited a family over, but could end up on our own. Since it's the week before our big summer vacation, I'm resorting to tried and true recipes. The only new attempt will be the S'Mores Cheesecake. If the recipe didn't call for fresh berries I would have passed it by. But since it does, I paused and will give it a try. Since my kids (and Ms. Finn) are such giant s'mores fans, I know they'll like it. The recipe is available at epicurious.com, and 100% of the reviewers so far gave it a 4 out of 4 rating. We'll see.

The no knead bread has been a big hit with both adults and kids since I first ran across it in the New York Times about 6 months ago. But in addition to this version, I'm also going to make the 12-18 hour version that is cooked in a heavy enamel pot from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery, also published in the New York Times, but back in 2006. The downside seems to be the 12 hour rise time, but the upside is that it appears to be a larger loaf. I'll report back on this version as well.