Shrimp Étouffée

Shrimp Étouffée

Different families have different Étouffée recipes. I got this one from a friend with a Louisiana connection. Ideally, it would have been made with crawfish but they’re not so easy to get on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Shrimp is a good substitute.
Shrimp Étouffée
Ingredients:
  • 4 teaspoons butter
  • 2 cups Cajun trinity
  • 3 minced garlic cloves
  • 2 tbsp. flour
  • 2 tbsp. tomato paste
  • 1 cup chicken stock
  • 1 tbsp. Panola or Tobassco hot sauce or to taste
  • 2 tbsp. Cajun spice mix
  • Salt and black pepper
  • 1 lb. shrimp, cleaned and shelled
  • 2 scallions, green part choppedShrimp Étouffée
Heat the butter in a large pan and add the trinity. Cook until it’s softens and then add the garlic and cook for another minute. Add the flour, mix and cook for a few minutes then add the tomato paste. Stir and cook for a minute.
Shrimp Étouffée
Stir in the stock and 1 cup of water. Cook on medium until reduced by half. Now add the hot sauce, bay leaf, Cajun spice mix, salt, and black pepper. Raise heat and continue cooking until the sauce thickens.

Add the shrimp, reduce heat, and stir and coat with the sauce. Cook for about 5 minutes, until the shrimp turn pink. Sprinkle the scallions on top and serve with rice.
Shrimp Étouffée

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Sautéed Tomato Sauce

Sautéed Tomato Sauce

When most people think of tomato sauce they think ‘simmering.’ For this recipe you start by sautéing the tomatoes. This gives them a rich hearty flavor and it’s ready to eat in about a half an hour.
Ingredients:
  • ½ cup olive oil divided
  • Salt, black, and red pepper
  • 10 – 12 plum tomatoes
  • 2 minced garlic cloves
  • ¼ cup chopped basil
  • ¼ cup chopped parsley
  • 1 lb. short pasta (ziti, penne, rotelle, etc.)
Start a pot of salted water for the pasta.
Sautéed Tomato SauceHeat ¼ cup of the oil in a large frying pan and season it with salt, black and red pepper. Cut the stem end off the tomatoes, cut them in half lengthwise and place then cut side down in the pan. Cook on medium-high heat until they begin to soften and color. Depending on their ripeness and thickness they might take 8 – 12 minutes. 
Sautéed Tomato Sauce
Season the top side and then turn them and cook for another 8 – 12 minutes. Start cooking the pasta in the boiling water.
Sautéed Tomato Sauce
The tomatoes should be soft now so add the minced garlic, basil, and parsley and the remaining ¼ cup of oil.

Sautéed Tomato Sauce

Add some of the pasta water to the sauce, blend and deglaze the pan. A ½ cup might be enough but add more if needed to get a saucy consistency.

Sautéed Tomato Sauce
When the pasta is almost al dente add it to the sauce and mix to finish cooking. Serve with grated Parmigiana.

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Chartreuse

Chartreuse is a liqueur with a history. The New York Times just did an article on it.

               An Elixir from the French Alps, Frozen in Time

Only two monks know the full recipe for Chartreuse, and even in the pandemic they stuck to their Middle Ages motto: “The cross is steady while the world turns.”
By Marion Renault
GRENOBLE, France — When the world went into lockdowns this year, the monks of Chartreuse simply added another tick to their 900-year record of self-imposed isolation . . . 

For the complete article click here.Chartreuse


 

               Chartreuse comes in two strengths. Green – 110 proof and Yellow – 86 proof.

Chartreuse
I like it straight . . .

 

. . . or with some Cognac floated on top.

More of Chartreuses’ history at their website.
Chartreuse

“The Order of Chartreuse was more than 500 years old when, in 1605, at a Chartreuse monastery in Vauvert, a small suburb of Paris, the monks received a gift from Duc Francois Hannibal d’ Estrées, Marshal of King’s Henri IV artillery . . . “

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Pomegranates

pomegranates

Pomegranates

A friend unexpectedly stopped by for dinner. I took him shopping with me to get something to cook when he noticed pomegranates at the grocery store. He mentioned that he’d seen them before but never tried one.

pomegranates

I said, “What? How could you live in New York and never have had a pomegranate? Let’s get a couple and I’ll show you how good they are.”

How to cut and remove the seeds –

pomegranates

pomegranates

Cut the skin around the top and remove it.

pomegranates

Make 5 shallow cuts along the sides and pull apart into sections.

pomegranates

Break up the seeds into a bowl.

pomegranates

Fill the bowl with water so the membrane floats and can be removed.

pomegranates

Ready to eat.

Pomegranate Juice – 

On the street in Vietri sul Mare on the Amalfi Coast.

pomegranates

Put the seeds in a blender with 2 or 3 tablespoons of water and blend for a few minutes.

pomegranates

Strain the mixture, squeezing the seeds in a sieve.

pomegranates

Ready to drink.

Pomegranate Liqueur –

After we’d made my Aunt Lena’s Coffee Sport and it turned out so well, Bridget and I got adventurous and decided to try making pomegranate liqueur. I went to the nearest Korean grocer. In NY, Korean grocer means general merchandise and very fresh and varied fruit and vegetables. I picked out 12 pomegranates and went to the cashier. As I started to unload them from the basket to the counter, a couple got on line behind me.
When they saw what I was buying the woman asked, “What could you possibly do with all of those pomegranates?”
Her husband looked embarrassed and so did she. “I apologize. Those words just fell out of my mouth.”
“There’s no need to apologize. And since you asked, my wife and I make some old Italian cordial recipes and this is for one we one we made up.”
The cashier who knew I shopped there regularly said, “These are very expensive. And you’re buying so many.”
“Maybe but that will turn into a bottle of something that will be worth it.”
The woman who apologized asked, “Why can’t you just use bottled pomegranate juice?”
Maybe I looked a little indignant when I said, “Bottled juice just won’t be a good as fresh. We squeeze the juice, strain, then simmer it until it’s  thickened a bit. Then we mix it with simple syrup and grain alcohol, and it’s done. That’s it, a simple cordial and ready to drink.”
Here’s the recipe for Pomegranate Liqueur as well as Coffee Sport.


The Myth of Persephone

Persephone and the Pomegranate Seeds  pomegranates


Helpful Hint – Don’t wear a white shirt anywhere near a pomegranate.

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