Shrimp Scampi Tacos with Cilantro

I have a soft spot for ugly beaches. Growing up in Houston, our summer vacations meant Galveston or Rockport, where the sun was bright, the air salty, and the water filled with tar. Red noses and black feet were the signatures of a day well spent and I racked up my share of both.

They definitely weren't the prettiest beaches. The sand was far from white and the ocean more brown than blue. But they were my beaches. And let me tell you - I have been in California many many times happy to trade their beautiful, fog covered coastline for a good old sunny Texas beach. California beaches are gorgeous - they just don't want anyone to know it!

Anyway, long preamble into a simple recipe and a new all time favorite. After a long, travel-filled work week, all we wanted was to have a margarita (or two) and enjoy dinner on the porch in this unbelievably balmy 70 degree weather. Kris wanted shrimp scampi. I wanted something to go with the margs. We both won. Hooray marriage!

Shrimp Scampi Tacos with Cilantro
* You can saute onions, peppers, or jalapeno with the shrimp if you like.

Ingredients:
16 fresh peeled and deveined shrimp - large in size
1 tablespoon butter, plus 2 additional tablespoons
salt and pepper, for seasoning
1/2 cup dry white wine
3 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh cilantro, plus extra for garnish
Shredded cheddar cheese, optional
Several flour tortillas, wrapped tightly in aluminum foil and warmed in the oven on 250 for at least 10 minutes

Instructions:
Add 1 tablespoon of butter to a large, rimmed nonstick pan. Put the pan over medium heat and once the butter has melted, tilt the pan around to evenly coat the bottom and add the shrimp, giving each its own private space to cook in.

Season the shrimp with salt and pepper and let cook for about 2-3 minutes, or until you can see the sides of the shrimp becoming nice and pink. Use tongs to flip them to the other side, and cook another 2 minutes or just until the tails have become bright and there is no more translucency in the shrimp. Bring heat to medium high and add in the wine.

Let the wine bubble away for a minute or so just to burn off the alcohol, then stir in the last 2 tablespoons of butter and cilantro and reduce the heat to low. Stir the butter until it's melted and incorporated into the sauce. At this point, you can keep the shrimp on the lowest flame just to keep warm until serving - they'll hold for about 15 minutes just fine.

Or eat right away, spooning extra sauce into the tortillas along with the shrimp if desired. Garnish with additional cilantro and/or cheese and don't forget to pull the tails off first if you're wimp like me.

Farro with Shrimp, Parmesan, and Peas

This is an easy recipe if you do your 'mise en place' (chopping, measuring, and sorting) ahead of time. Don't let the long ingredient list or multiple steps scare you off. Just start everything at the same time and dump it all into a dutch oven along with the vegetables at the end of cooking.

If you love tucking into a bowl of pasta in this cold weather but don't want to break your New Year's resolution, I beg you to try farro. It's as easy to cook as pasta and equally as satisfying. In fact with its slight nuttiness, some may argue it's even more comforting. Trust me - I generally turn my nose up at uber healthy dishes (and have the arse to prove it) and yet I eat this like it's running away from me. But then again, I do add a cup of cheese to it...

Farro with Peas, Shrimp, and Parmesan
* I use Whole Foods frozen shrimp, unthawed. If using fresh shrimp, roasting time will be shorter.
* Ideally, you start the veggies in the large dutch oven the same time you start boiling the farro and roasting the shrimp. That way, once all ready you can just dump the shrimp and farro into the dutch oven, warm through, and serve.

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon butter + 1 tablespoon olive oil
½ cup chopped shallots
2 carrots, chopped
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
2 garlic cloves, minced
½ cup Chardonnay vermouth or other dry white wine
3 tablespoons finely chopped flat leaf parsley
¾ cup thawed peas

20-22 frozen shrimp peeled and deveined shrimp with tail on, unthawed
1 tablespoon olive oil, or enough to lightly coat each shrimp
salt and pepper, for seasoning

1 (8.8 oz) package farro, ¼ teaspoon kosher salt, and 1/4 cup dried porcini mushrooms boiled in a large pot of water for 10 minutes or until just al dente. Drain and set aside.

1 cup (or more) shredded Parmesan, plus more for garnishing
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons minced fresh flat leaf parsley or basil
fresh cracked pepper and additional sea salt, for seasoning

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 400.

Add the butter and oil to a large dutch oven and bring over medium/high heat. Let heat through for 1-2 minutes, then add the shallots, carrots, and thyme. Season with salt and pepper and cook stirring occasionally until tender – about 8 minutes. Add in garlic and cook 2 minutes, stirring often. Bring the heat to high and add in the white wine. Allow to boil for 4-5 minutes, or until most of the liquid has evaporated. Add in thawed peas and stir to warm through then lower the heat to low or turn off if you still have a while to go with the rest of the steps and leave be.

Meanwhile, add the frozen shrimp to a large rimmed roasting pan (you can use aluminum foil to line it, for easier cleanup - just spray with nonstick spray.) Drizzle the shrimp with 1 tablespoon olive oil, or enough to lightly coat them, then season with a pinch each of salt and pepper. Bake for 12 minutes or until the shrimp are bright pink, curled and cooked through. If using fresh shrimp you won't need as much time so keep an eye on them. Remove from the oven and set aside while you get on with the next step.

Meanwhile, add the drained farro and porcini to your vegetables in the dutch oven, putting the flame on low/medium heat. Stir well to mix, then add in the parmesan and stir again. Add in the roasted shrimp along with any leftover juices from the pan and stir again.

Finally stir in the last 3 tablespoons olive oil and chopped herbs, if desired. Taste for seasoning and adjust with salt and pepper to suit your needs. Serve by the bowl full.

Cilantro, Shrimp, and Goat Cheese Pizza with Rebecca Rather's Crust

Rebecca Rather of the Rather Sweet Bakery and Cafe in Fredericksburg, TX is dubbed 'The Pastry Queen' because of her delicious pies, cakes, and cookies. But the funny thing is when I eat at her restaurant, it's the savory items that stick with me. Her chicken salad with field greens and balsamic dressing tastes so much more than the sum of its parts, I feel obligated to rename it something with more oomph (she uses homemade mayo for the chicken salad which is simultaneously lighter and more decadent than other versions.)

But today is all about pizza - the first report back to you all on the pizza smack down challenge between Rebecca and Ree Drummond (The Pioneer Woman.) With Rebecca's dough, I chose to make a cilantro, shrimp and goat cheese pizza and was not disappointed. Although I mentioned in the last post that Rebecca's dough isn't as simple to make as Ree's (more ingredients), the payoff is that it's incredibly reliable and easy to work with.

It rolls easily, not getting too mushy or sticky no matter how long it's on the counter, and slides easily off the peel onto the preheated pizza stone. I would learn later that this is not a given with every dough. In fact Ree's cannot in my experience be cooked on a pizza stone at a high temp (and in fact she doesn't advise you to do so - it's too loosy goosy.)

Rebecca's cooked up at 450 in about 10-12 minutes with a perfectly crispy, thin crust that was still strong enough to support most anything you put on top of it. Was hers as complex in flavor as I had hoped given the semolina and honey? To be honest - no. When I make it again I'm going to 'age' it in the refrigerator for a couple of days and see what this does to it. I have a feeling it will be the bull's eye.

But as for a really good, wonderfully textured and reliable pizza dough that wont' leave half the crust stuck to the inside of your oven after flinging it in with the peel - you can't beat Rebecca's. She is after all, The Pastry Queen.

Rebecca Rather's Pizza Dough
(from the book The Pastry Queen)
*Requires a standing mixer or a handheld mixer and a sturdy large bowl.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water (110 to 115 F)
2 (1 oz) packages active dry yeast
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for brushing on crusts
2 teaspoons honey
4 to 5 cups flour
3 tablespoons semolina flour
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (I omitted them)
1/4 cup cornmeal or grits

Instructions:
Combine the lukewarm water, yeast, olive oil, and honey in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add 3 cups of the all purpose flour, the semolina flour, and salt. Mix on low speed for about a minute or so until all is just combined. With the machine running (start on low and as it gets thicker you may need to kick up the power to keep from straining your machine) add 1 cup of the all purpose flour to make a soft dough. Mix the dough on low speed for about 5 minutes longer until smooth. At this point, the dough will still be quite sticky and useless, falling over on itself. Therefore, keep adding more flour, about 1/4 cup at a time with the motor running. The dough will start to look like viable dough and hold its shape but then become wet and fall apart again at which point you just add in more flour and keep watching. Finally it will hold and keep its shape, at which point you'll also notice it breeding little pea-sized clumps that stick to the sides of the bowl. This is the signal that your dough is ready to go so stop adding flour.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and kneed until smooth and elastic, about 10 to 15 turns using the heel of your palms. Place in a large bowl brushed liberally with olive oil. Cover with a damp cloth or several damp paper towels, cover and let rest at room temperature for 30 to 40 minutes (no need to hunt down that illusive 'warm place' in your house!)

Check on the dough which should have doubled by now and look nice and puffed and smooth. If you're not convinced, give it some more time to think about life and other things and check it again a little later.

Turn the dough back out onto a floured surface and use a pastry cutter or knife to divide the dough into quarters. Roll each piece into a ball then place the balls on a baking sheet or tray, cover with a damp towel, and let rest another 10 to 15 minutes longer.

At this point, you can roll out to bake off right away or place in plastic bags and refrigerate for up to 3 days. I'm also trying freezing the dough so I'll report back later on how this works out.

Cilantro, Shrimp, and Goat Cheese Pizza
* Ideally you'd use a pizza stone for this which also requires a pizza 'peel' that lets you slip the dough onto the stone. If you don't have these tools, and/or if the idea of pizza flinging scares you, just bake the pizza on a greased baking sheet sprinkled lightly with cornmeal or grits. You might not get quite as crispy a crust but you'll avoid the panic of realizing your afternoon spent making dough was all for not as you try to clean up wayward dough from the inside of your oven - and this is worth it's weight in gold.

Ingredients:
1/4 (one ball) of Rebecca's pizza dough, rolled out onto a floured board or counter top into about an 8x8 inch diameter
additional flour, for rolling

3 oz goat cheese
8 thin slices fresh part skim mozzarella cheese
1 tablespoon minced jalapeno, deseeded and deveined
fresh cracked pepper
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 jalapeño, (deseeded - optional) minced
1 green onion, minced
Zest of a small lemon
Good pinch (or two) sea salt
Pinch pepper
1 teaspoon or so olive oil
1/4 cup cornmeal or grits, for sprinkling on baking sheet or stone and peel

16 shelled fresh shrimp, with tails on preferably fresh and not previously frozen marinated for ten minutes in:

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
good couple cracks black pepper
2 large garlic cloves cut into large chunks
2 bay leaves

After ten minutes, pluck from the marinade shaking vigorously and grill on a hot, oiled grill for about 2-3 minutes per side, just until they've turned opaque and slightly pink.

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 450 and place a pizza stone inside to let heat through for at least 30 minutes.

When ready, brush the rolled out crust with olive oil (use a pastry brush dipped in olive oil and use a lighter hand - you don't want to drown the dough but just lightly glaze it with the oil.)

Sprinkle your pizza peel with cornmeal or grits, then place the rolled pizza dough on top. You can now assemble your pizza (if using a baking sheet go ahead and transfer the dough to the oiled sheet sprinkled with cornmeal or grits and then assemble right on the sheet.) Place the slices of mozzarella evenly around the dough, leaving a good 3/4 inch edge free all the way around. Crumble the goat cheese into small chunks with your fingers and place in any empty spaces around the mozzarella, trying to distribute it as evenly as possible. Sprinkle evenly with the tablespoon of minced jalapeno then with fresh cracked pepper then open the oven and carefully but quickly 'fling' the pizza onto the preheated stone, trying to get it evenly onto the stone and not over the sides (I close my eyes and pray as I do this but you do whatever works for you.)

Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the edges are becoming golden brown and the cheese has melted nicely and begun to bubble and brown in places. Meanwhile, blend the cilantro, jalepeno, green onion, lemon zest, salt, pepper and olive oil up with a fork in a small bowl. As soon as the pizza comes out, sprinkle evenly with the cilantro mixture then top with the cut up shrimp. You can hit the whole thing with another light drizzle of olive oil and teensy pinch of sea salt, if desired. Cut into wedges and serve.

Date Night Appetizer - Coconut Crusted Shrimp with Pink Pepper Honey

I have a love/hate relationship with appetizers. The IDEA of them - the endless possibilities, the whole 'canapes with cocktails' at 6 concept, is irressistable to me. But the reality of them - having to whip something together before whipping up the main course leaves me cold. I mess up my kitchen before I've even started the real cooking. I panic about how to time everything out. And I look nothing like one of those fifties housewives, happily doling out blinis with caviar. In fact, I look more like a grizzly bear.

And then I discovered something that reignited my passion. I learned that I can make them ahead of time. Not the cooking of course, just the prepping so that I can stash them in the fridge until go time. I am constantly shocked at how well this works - case in point - even this shrimp recipe. You can rinse, dry, and coat them in the morning, cover tightly with plastic wrap and put in the fridge right on their baking sheet. All you do before baking is drizzle them with oil and sprinkle with salt. And I don't even have to set down my cocktail to do that.

Finally, the pink pepper honey sauce is a nice change from the apricot or honey mustard type sauces usually served with this. I made it after having a cheese plate at Mario Batali's Otto that includes honey and fresh cracked pepper. SO good. But of course you can use whatever sauce you like.

Coconut Crusted Shrimp with Pink Pepper Honey
* I apologize for the terrible picture. These are much prettier in person and the sauce has a deep, hypnotic reddish pink, not the house of horrors bayou mud color above.
Ingredients:
10 peeled and devained shrimp, tails on

1/3 cup all purpose flour
2 eggs beaten combined with small splash milk
1 cup panko crumbs combined with 1/2 cup (more if you want) shredded raw coconut
2 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil, for drizzling shrimp
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt or sea salt, for sprinkling shrimp

Instructions:
If making right away, put your oven on 375.

Cover a large rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. Place a baking rack (cooling rack for cookies) over the baking sheet and spray liberally with nonstick spray. Set aside.

Rinse your shrimp under cold water and thoroughly pat dry with paper towels. Prepare your breading stations - your flour in a flat wide dish, your eggs and milk whisked together and ready in one bowl and your panko/coconut mixture in another.

Begin breading. One by one, lightly dredge the shrimp in the flour lightly coating all sides. Give a little shake to remove excess, then dip coating all sides briefly in the egg mixture. Shake lightly and move to the breading, pressing both and all sides in a couple of times to get as much to stick as possible. Place on your prepared baking sheet fitted with the sprayed rack. Repeat with the rest of the shrimp, spacing them evenly apart on the sheet. I like to pile a little extra panko/coconut on top of each shrimp on the tray afterwards, knowing the plastic wrap is going to knock some off.

If making ahead, cover the tray with a large sheet of plastic wrap lengthwise, then place two sheets of aluminum foil, overlapping them along the short sides, gently but firmly crimping around the edges of the baking sheet so the shrimp aren't exposed to air while in the fridge. Place the sheet flat on a shelf in the fridge until you're ready to bake, removing them 20 minutes beforehand so they don't go in the oven ice cold.

Preheat the oven to 375. Remove the shrimp from the fridge, uncover and discard the plastic wrap and foil, then drizzle the shrimp with the oil (do this carefully so that you cover the shrimp instead of the sheet.) Sprinkle each shrimp with salt, and
bake for 15-18 minutes, lowering the heat slightly if the coconut gets too dark too quickly, just until the tails turn bright pink and the shrimp are cooked through with not a hint of translucence to them.

Pink Pepper Honey Dipping Sauce:
1/3 cup honey
1 teaspoon pink peppercorns
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon whole black peppercorns

Crush the pink and black peppercorns in a ziploc with a mallet or heavy pan. Add the paprika in and shake to combine. Stir the mixture into the honey and cover until you're ready to serve. Just before serving, warm the honey briefly in the microwave just to make it more 'dipable.'