Recipe: Shrimp Scampi

If you've ever watched the movie "Defending Your Life" by Albert Brook's you'll surely remember the restaurant scene? The movie is Brook's look at the afterlife and consequently (among many things) the restaurants and food to be found there. In that scene Brook's character, now deceased, dines in an afterlife restaurant, and the food, its calories and other health implications are meaningless and the waiter just indulges the patron's desires much to Brook's bewilderment. You can see the scene here on YouTube.

When I prepare shrimp scampi, that scene often comes to mind because overindulging in shrimp scampi with no health implications would surely be a little bit of heaven to me. I love shrimp scampi. Unfortunately, with my family's medical history, shrimp scampi is a cholesterol and saturated-fat-packed shotgun pointed right at my heart! So while this recipe is a huge personal favorite, I don't prepare it all that often. Yeah, way to bring down the enthusiasm for something that is so good!

You'll notice that I prepare the shrimp differently than other scampi recipes. Tossing them with some brown or turbinado sugar and then precooking them gives the shrimp a wonderful snap and good texture. This is not one of those depressing mushy scampi dishes! Also, I leave you a little margin in how much shrimp you want to put in and how spicy you like the dish. Personally, more shrimp is better for me, but I tend to stay on the low end of the amount of red pepper flakes written below. My wife and kids don't like it too spicy. If you like a little fire in your scampi, go for it.
Also, I have easily converted this to chicken scampi by substituting chicken for the shrimp (der!) and omitting tossing it with the sugar. Just sauté the chicken in the oil until it is just done and then proceed with the recipe as written.

Shrimp Scampi

1/4 cup olive oil
1 to 1-1/2 lbs. raw shrimp (peeled, deveined, rinsed and blotted dry)
2 tsp brown or turbinado sugar
4 large cloves of garlic (chopped)
1/4 to 1/2 tsp dried red-pepper flakes
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
5 Tbs sweet butter
1 lb. of your favorite long pasta (angel hair, linguini, etc.)
1-2 plum tomatoes (diced)
1/2 cup parsley (chopped)

Place a large pan filled with water on high heat and bring to a boil while you prepare the other ingredients. Cook pasta until it is al dente.

Toss the shrimp with the sugar until they are evenly coated. Set aside while you prepare your other ingredients.

When all the other ingredients are ready, place a deep heavy skillet over medium high heat. Add the oil when it begins to shimmer and carefully cook the shrimp in small batches. Cooking about one minute per side. Remove the shrimp, set aside and keep warm while you continue to prepare the rest of the sauce.

Add the chopped garlic to the oil remaining in the skillet along with the red pepper flakes, wine, salt and pepper and cook over medium high heat, stirring occasionally for about 1 minute.

Add the butter to skillet, stirring until melted, and stir in the shrimp, diced tomato and parsley. Remove the skillet from the heat.

As the pasta finishes cooking, reserve 1 cup pasta water. Drain the pasta and toss it well with shrimp, sauce and parsley in large serving bowl.

If the mix seems dry, add the reserved pasta water as needed.

Serve with a sprinkle of parmesan-reggiano cheese with a good crusty bread on the side.

Recipe: Shrimp Scampi Pizza

Pizza with shrimp on it reminds me of Montreal. My great grandparents were Quebecois and Montreal has always been a nice weekend getaway for me so I've been to the city many, many times. The city is about as European as you can get in North America and going there is kind of like going very far away, but not traveling all that long to get there. That's a unique feeling. It's been a few years since my last visit and I feel one coming on.

One of the features of Montreal is good food. The city has more than its fair share of great restaurants, cafés and other kinds of eateries. One of my first stops when I'm in town is a wood-fired brick oven pizzeria named "Pizzaiolle". It occupies two floors in a narrow and old victorian building on Rue Crescent. It is a tight fit and the tables are close, but that just adds to the coziness and atmosphere.

My favorite pizza at Pizzaiolle is the #12 of the "Tiziana" whose ingredients are listed as "sauce tomate, crevettes, fromage, ail." Sure, it does have that in it and a few things they don't mention. That big 'ol wood fired brick oven sure doesn't hurt either! In any event it is delicious and I have had many. If you're ever in Montreal, be sure to check out Pizzaiolle, they now have several locations and I'm sure none of them will disappoint you!

My shrimp scampi pizza recipe below is inspired by Pizzaiolle, it is not an homage. Pizzaiolle creates the Tiziana with a thin crust and delicate "baby" shrimp. I opt for something a little more substantial because my pizzas usually have to feed up to 10 guests at a pop. Also, I can't help it, I am an American!

Before we move on to constructing the amazingly delicious Shrimp Scampi Pizza below, allow me to address four primary ingredients that all but guarantees you can make pizza at home that is as good or better than the average local shop. Get used to seeing these important "ingredients" because I am going to add them to every pizza recipe I write on Chop Onions, Boil Water. They are critical to your success.

Cornmeal: Cornmeal's tiny grains act like little ball bearings between flat surfaces. Spread cornmeal on the surface of what you build your pizza on and you'll be able to slide your masterpiece right off it and into your oven. Speaking of what you stretch your dough on, go get yourself a...

Pizza peel: Buy one, construct your pizza on it, use it to put your pizza in the oven, use it to take your pizza out of the oven. Seems like a small thing right? Try it! By the way, when you're using your peel to slide your pizza into your oven make sure your oven contains a...

Pizza Stone: Nothing is going to make your home pizza match or exceed the quality of the store bought stuff more than a pizza stone. Get a thick one and get a big one. I park mine right on the lowest rack of my oven and that is where it stays. It makes all the difference in the world and in no time you'll be pulling pizzas out of your oven that will make the thought of a store-bought pie a less-than-ideal option. The pizza stone is not going to work optimally though unless you...

Preheat your oven: Flat out, no joke, crank her up to 500°F and do that a full 45 minutes before you plan to sprinkle that peel with cornmeal, stretch that dough and then slide that pie onto that stone.

Now let's make a pizza with some giant shrimp on it!

Shrimp Scampi Pizza

2 medium tomatoes (diced and set to drain in a colander)
1 pinch of oregano
1/2 lb. of largeish shrimp (shelled and deveined)
2 Tbs olive oil (and a little more for drizzling)
2 Tbs sweet butter
4 cloves of garlic (chopped)
1 pinch of red pepper flakes
Enough dough for one 16" to 18" pizza.
1/4 cup parmigiano-reggianno cheese (grated)
A good pizza cheese blend (shredded, should contain mozzarella, cheddar and asiago)
1/4 cup of chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup of chopped fresh basil

Preheat oven to 500°F for 45 minutes to one hour before you plan on cooking the pizza.

Take the drained tomatoes and chop them along with the pinch of oregano. Set aside.

To make the scampi sauce: place a small sauce pan on medium heat. When the pan is hot, add the olive oil and the butter until the butter melts. Add the garlic and the red pepper flakes and sauté for a few minutes. DO NOT LET THE GARLIC BROWN OR IT WILL BE BITTER! Remove from heat and allow to cool a little bit.

When the oven has almost finished preheating, toss the shrimp in the scampi sauce, drain and set the shrimp aside. DO NOT DISCARD THE REMAINING SCAMPI SAUCE!

Stretch a dough ball to a 16" to 18" disc and place it on your cornmealed peel. I'm not going to go into dough stretching here because it is a learned thing and there are a variety of methods each with its proponents, each for good reason. Do a little research and practice a bit. Don't plan on a perfectly round pizza all the time!

With a brush, paint a thin layer of the scampi sauce over the stretched dough.

Add the chopped tomatoes and oregano mix to the scampi sauce and mix in well. Then spread the tomato-scampi sauce mixture evenly over the stretched dough.

Sprinkle a little of the basil and parsley evenly over the pizza (reserve most of the basil and parsley for when the pizza comes out of the oven).

Sprinkle the parmigiano-reggiano evenly over the the pizza.

Distribute the shrimp evenly over the pizza.

Distribute the shredded cheese blend over the pizza. When doing this it is important to remember to keep most of the cheese out of the middle of the pizza. As it melts it will tend to gather toward the middle anyway.

Place the pizza in the oven until the bottom is slightly browned and the cheese is bubbly (8 to 12 minutes). Remove, add additional basil and parsley to taste, drizzle with some olive oil, allow to cool for about 5 minutes, slice and and serve.

This is eye-rolling-behind-your-head pizza kiddies! It's like shrimp xanax!

Recipe: Crazy Dream Choo Chee Fish Curry

Today's recipe that you can prepare at home is Choo Chee Fish Curry and it comes to your kitchen via the exotic Southeast Asian kingdom of Thailand. It is a rich and flavorful dish and is best accompanied with a big bowl of Thai sticky rice. That sticky rice is going to serve an important function when eating this extra-spicy curry because it helps temper its heat quite well.

I'm not going the blur lines here, this curry is probably the hottest thing I serve in my home. It's not near the hottest thing I'll eat and enjoy, but it is plenty hot enough for my family. This dish packs a rich and delicious wallop for people who like spicy food, but for less robust palettes, well be careful who you prepare it for. It's just going to be too hot for some, but it does make believers out of others! My wife for instance. If you had told me all those years ago that she'd eat food this hot and not only enjoy it but request it, well I would have said you were deranged. Choo Chee Curry converted her to spicy foods.

It's also a full service seafood curry so try it with whatever makes sense. A lot of recipes call for shrimp, and I've seen others call for a kind of seafood stew which I'll be trying myself in the near future. I may even try the sauce over some panko-battered fried chicken. Now for the weird twist.

The weird twist of this dish (and hence its name) are the after effects. It makes me dream vividly and madly. At first I thought is was just a coincidence. However, after numerous similar post-chow-down experiences and even a few by my wife, I will caution you that maybe, just maybe you too may dream crazy, and dare I say forbidden and maddening things. You know, like being chased by the Teletubbies through a Jello cave while wearing a thick suit of woven angel hair pasta while aluminum foil hummingbirds whisper threats in your 31 ears.

Things like that. Still though, it's all worth it. IT REALLY IS!

Crazy Dream Choo Chee Fish Curry

1-2 lbs. of firm white fish fillets (I use tilapia or mahi-mahi)
All-purpose flour (to dredge the fish in)
4 TBS peanut oil
2 cups coconut milk (unsweetened)
Bottom half of 1 stalk of lemon grass (peeled into individual blades)
4 TBS red curry paste
1/2 cup of water
4 TBS fish sauce
3 TBS palm sugar (or brown or turbinado sugar)
2 cloves of garlic (thinly sliced)
4 TBS green onions (sliced very thinly)
3 TBS fresh cilantro (chopped)

Cut the fish in to pieces about 2" x 3" inches. Dredge individually in flour, set aside.

Heat the vegetable oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil begins to shimmer cook the pieces of fish about 2-4 minutes per side until browned and crisp. Remove from pan and allow to drain on a paper towel while you prepare the cooking sauce.

Remove the unused oil from the pan and wipe out any residue. Replace the skillet over medium heat. Add half the coconut milk and the lemon grass blades and cook until it becomes fragrant and creamy.

Add the curry paste and cook, stirring constantly until well dissolved.

Add the remaining coconut milk, water, fish sauce, sugar, garlic, half of the green onions and half the cilantro. Bring to a boil and lower to a simmer.

Add the fish pieces and simmer in the sauce for about 3 to 5 minutes. Spoon the curry sauce over and around the fish while it cooks.

Remove from heat.

Remove the lemon grass blades and discard.

Serve the fish in deep plates with the curry sauce generously spooned over it. Garnish with the remaining green onions and cilantro.

Pair with Thai sticky rice.

Dream madly children, dream madly.

Recipe: Crazy Dream Choo Chee Fish Curry from Chop Onions, Boil Water by Henry Krauzyk
http://www.choponionsboilwater.com

Recipe: Saffron Seafood Linguini

This recipe goes out to Karen and all the other folks from Newport Hospital, Newport, Rhode Island, who check out "Chop Onions, Boil Water." Hello everyone, thanks for reading my blog. Keep it up and you'll find yourself in the book coming out in 2010!

The lack of a proper name has kept me from adding this recipe, but tonight I've decided it's going on the blog and the name will come to me as I type. Of course I'm typing right now and nothing is happening. Nope, not yet.

You see, by all accounts, it would appear to be a seafood linguini, only it's really not. The basis of the recipe is a French bouillabaisse and then I commenced to twisting it to my desire and well when seafood is involved I just know I'm going to add something Portuguese in there. I just love chourico, but when that doesn't work its got to be linguica. Then of course there's saffron. I mean you cannot pull off this dish without the saffron. So many complications.

So, in the end, what seems Italian is really French and then it's got a South Coast New England and Portuguese twist that just complicates the whole thing! A name should reflect something important about the dish. As of this moment a name hasn't come to me yet.

It's not that my ego can't float calling it "Henry's Awesome Friggin' Saffron Seafood Bouillabaisse Linguini", my ego could certainly handle that. It's just not pretty or short enough. As Shakespeare said "Brevity is the essence of wit."

Well, it's crunch time and I'm just going to type out a name as the words pop into my head here goes: Saffron Seafood Linguini.

Okay, it's done. For the record, you need saffron for this. There's no substitute for it and you cannot omit it. It's not going to be the same dish without it. Also, mail order the saffron because the grocery stores sell horrible saffron for bewilderingly high prices.

Saffron Seafood Linguini

1 lb. linguica (cut in 1/4" slices and pan fried until cooked and firm)
1 lb. linguini
1/4 cup olive oil
2 leeks (white and pale green parts only, cleaned, split and thinly sliced)
4 cloves garlic (chopped)
1/2 tsp saffron threads
1 cup of diced tomato (the redder, the riper, the better-ALWAYS)
3/4 tsp thyme
2 tsp fresh parsley (chopped fine)
1 bay leaf
1 tsp grated orange zest
1 TBS tomato paste
32 ozs. chicken broth
2 lbs. littleneck clams (scrubbed and set aside)
2 lbs. mahi mahi filets (or similar fish)
1 lb. sea scallops
1 lb. medium shrimp (in the shell)
2 lbs. mussels (scrubbed, debearded and set aside)
1/2 cup of white wine (I use pinot grigio)
1 TBS sweet butter
Salt and pepper to taste.

For the pasta, place a large pot of water on high heat to boil.

Place a large pot or dutch oven over medium heat. Add the olive oil.

When the oil begins to shimmer, add the leeks and the garlic and sauté until the leeks become translucent.

Add the saffron threads, salt, pepper, tomatoes, thyme, parsley, orange zest and tomato paste and blend together well for about 2 minutes.

Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Lower to a low simmer and continue cooking for about 30 minutes.

Bring to a higher simmer. Add all the seafood and cover and simmer until the littlenecks and mussels open wide (5 to 8 minutes usually). Discard any that do not open.

Remove all the seafood and place it in a large bowl to cool. Return broth to a low simmer.

As soon as it's cool enough to handle, remove all the seafood meat from its shells and place it in a bowl. Discard shrimp shells, but reserve littleneck and mussel shells. Cut mahi mahi into chunks and place in the bowl with the shrimp, littlenecks, scallops and mussels.

Place all littleneck and mussels shells back into the broth and cook until the white abductor muscles attached to the shells fall into the broth or are easily removed. Don't worry, these will not be tough and they add a creaminess to the final product.

The pasta water should be boiling by now, cook linguini in the normal way, drain and set aside. Try to time everything to end at the same time. Yes, it can be difficult, but you can do it.

Raise the heat on the broth until it comes to a high simmer. Add the white wine and the butter and reduce the broth until it begins to thicken. You're looking for the consistency of loose melted ice cream. I know that is a strange analogy, but it works.

When it reaches the desired thickness, add the fish, scallops, littlenecks, shrimp, mussels and linguica and toss to coat and warm. Immediately add the cooked and drained linguini and toss well to coat. Be sure the seafood and the linguica is evenly distributed in the linguini. Remove from heat and allow it to set and cool a little before serving.

Serve with a good white wine (Pinot Grigio) and crusty bread.
Recipe: Saffon Seafood Linguini from Chop Onions, Boil Water by Henry Krauzyk