This is a gorgeous hors d'oeuvre I've adapted from Weber's Art of the Grill. The original calls for a lot of garlic and dill to flavor the shrimp. I've reduced the garlic, added lemon zest, and replaced the dill with mint (the garden variety spearmint, which is growing rampant in my side yard). The salty prosciutto makes a great foil to the sweet shrimp and mint. I love these best at room temperature—the salt from the prosciutto is tempered just slightly, so the other flavors really sing. I like the presentation with one shrimp per skewer—but two per skewer works as well. I like to Microplane the garlic—it quickly and easily turns into a paste. The fussiest part of the dish is the prosciutto—I invariably end up with little bits that don't want to stay attached when I cut the prosciutto in half or when I wrap the shrimp. Good thing they fry up nicely and make a great garnish for salad, scrambled eggs, and even pizza!
This recipe has nothing to do with barbecue. These shrimp are cooked in a roasting pan, not in a smoker or on the grill. Cooked in their shells with more pepper, garlic, and butter than you are probably comfortable with, the shrimp come out ready for you to peel and eat. Sop up every drop of the sauce with good French bread and make sure you have extra napkins.
I had a delicious calzone topped with a balsamic roasted cantaloupe and arugula at Portland's Oven and Shaker recently. I had never had nor thought of roasted cantaloupe, but it was surprisingly good -- it still tasted like melon, but deeper and almost squash-like. I knew I wanted to incorporate it into a sweet and savory dish, but I didn't have much direction.
A couple of years ago, my husband and I went to Portugal with friends. We traveled all over the country, and often for lunch, we found small, family-run restaurants where the husband fished, and the wife made a stew out of whatever was fresh-caught that day. These were some of our favorite meals—super fresh seafood prepared simply in a flavorful broth. Seafood stew made at home has since become one of our favorite suppers. Served with a green salad, a loaf of rustic bread, and lots of wine, this stew makes for a homey dinner with friends.
I love this Ecuadorean addition of salty, crunchy popcorn to ceviche. Shrimp "cook" in the lime juice particularly well, although I have made this with firm-fleshed white fish as well as dry scallops. Ceviche is, of course, all about the freshness of the fish—so make sure that whatever you use is as fresh as you can get it.
Until recently, I had no idea what XO sauce was; I only knew that I loved it. (To get the Beyoncé puns out of my system from the top: I loved it like XO.)
There are different variations on the folding: Some will use the purse-string style. Others fold a round wrapper into a half moon and crimp the ends. Some will do the same using a square one, but fold it in half with the filling in the center and make a triangle. The edges are crimped together. I have also seen a wonton folded like an envelope of sorts, too.
The nuoc cham is spicy, sweet, sour, and somewhat funky; when you add coconut milk, some of the fire is toned out and replaced with a rich creaminess. Since the nuoc cham contains a fair amount of fish sauce, it makes a sensible companion to seafood. Here, we've used shrimp, though flaked poached fish would be welcome, too. The fast-to-cook rice noodles will loop around whatever protein you've chosen, catching the sauce and hiding kernels of corn and little sweet peas.
The beauty of a shrimp boil recipe like this one, besides it being one of the most delicious ways to eat fresh seafood, is that it feeds a large crowd easily. While it does takes some special equipment to prepare it—chiefly a really large stockpot—you can use it over and over again to deep fry a turkey, make fried chicken for a lot of people, and even host a catfish fry.
I was very surprised the first time I ran across Loup de Mer at the fish store. They had it labeled as Bronzino which is the Italian name, well one of them the Italians have different names for this fish according to what part of the country you are in. This fish has several names but the way they are marketing it now is Mediterranean or European Seabass. No matter what they call it it is a wonderful fish. It is a fish that needs little adornment, in fact if you were to ask Marcella Hazan she would inform you to simply poach it and serve it with mayonnaise. I can say I have to agree and especially the part about the mayonnaise.
Like many of the recipes in The Gift of Southern Cooking, this recipe is a little bit Scott Peacock and a little bit Edna Lewis. Stirred through the creamy grits, the shrimp paste goes further than a few pretty prawns piled on top ever could, pervading every spoonful with the pure essence of shrimp at its best and most seductive. The shrimp paste also makes a lovely spread for crackers and all-purpose flavor enhancer (just imagine stirring it into risotto, saucing fish, or filling tea sandwiches with it).
This soup is from Olives, Lemons & Za'atar by Rawia Bishara. From the book: "I created this soup for my son, Tarek, who loves seafood above all else. There’s nothing quite like the flavor of the very freshest fish and shellfish cooked in an herbed broth; I use as many fresh, fragrant herbs as I can get my hands on. Of course, it’s okay to substitute more of one for another, but the combination of fresh cilantro, basil, dill and oregano is ideal. It is unusual to find cumin in a seafood soup, but I find a touch subtly warms the broth. The beauty of this soup is in its versatility: you can use whatever firm fish you like. Sometimes I prepare it with root vegetables, other times, I add more chopped tomatoes to make the
soup resemble a classic bouillabaisse. The recipe can be halved, if desired."
A hands-off method for a rich, dark gumbo roux, so you can celebrate Mardi Gras away from the stove. While I recommend following the recipe as written—and it's well worth the trouble of finding head-on shrimp and filé powder for what might be the most soul-stirring gumbo you've tasted—the most important lesson to take away here is that any gumbo is more within reach when you bake your roux. Adapted slightly from The Food Network. Serve with rice.
"Cataplana" is the word for both the dish and the spherical pot it's cooked and served in. This pork and seafood stew is found in the Algarve, in Portugal. You don't need a cataplana to make this; a Dutch oven or large pot with a tight-fitting lid does the trick (though it may not be quite the same).
There are 4 simple tricks for better grilled (or seared) shrimp nested within this recipe, which add very little more time or effort and outsized success: air-drying, dry-brining, adding baking soda, and snuggling on the skewers. Feel free to mix and match anytime you cook shrimp—they will all pamper them to a degree—or use them all right here. To read the full article, head here. Recipe adapted slightly from Serious Eats.
This tomato and horseradish root cocktail sauce has an incredibly light mouthfeel. The flavors are similar to a classic cocktail sauce, but with the volume turned way up.
During the summer, whether I’m enjoying the dry heat in California or stepping out into a moist blanket in Boston, I always crave one dish: gỏi cuốn, fresh spring rolls made of pork, shrimp, fresh herbs, crunchy vegetables, and vermicelli, all wrapped up in bánh tráng, or rice paper.
