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Monday, October 31, 2011

Food for thought

For the last few years, before ALS, I found great pleasure in the kitchen. Cooking pleasure. I started inviting family over for Wednesday night "Boettcher Feast". I concocted a different recipe each week, experimenting with variations of recipes I found, tweaking them and trying them out, using the local relatives as guinea pigs. I never killed anyone and if they got sick, they had the courtesy to stifle any bodily rejections until they exited the premises. I have printed up nearly a hundred of these concoctions. Since I have developed disabilities restricting my actions in the kitchen, I have been required to skip some Wednesdays as of late. Pre- ALS, I usually held the kitchen captive and demanded I did everything myself. Now I need help, and if I have to share in the preparation, I can't be so demanding.

I want to share. I already share my ALS experiences. I'm beginning to share my history. Now I want to share my recipes.Today I would like to post a recipe that gets my "top five" rating. I cannot claim it to be an original because I found it on line and I can't remember if or how I adjusted ingredients. Whether I did and how are irrelevant. This recipe cannot, in my opinion, be improved upon. 

Crazy Cajun Shrimp Etouffee Cream over Garlic Noodles

Feeds 8-

Ingredients:

3-1/2 tablespoons butter
3-1/2 tablespoons flour
1 chopped red onion
1 chopped green bell pepper
1 chopped red bell pepper
2 stalks chopped celery
6 cloves fresh garlic- minced
1/2 cup fresh basil- chopped
1/2 cup fresh parsley- chopped
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 10oz. can clam juice
1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1-1/2 lb 26-30 count raw shrimp (e-z peel deveined)
1 cup heavy cream
1  tablespoon Perod
1/2 teaspoon sea salt  

Noodles-

1 lb Fettuccine noodles
3 tablespoons butter
5 cloves fresh garlic- minced
1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
green onion garnish

How to:

Make etouffee by melting butter in big (big!) skillet, stir in flour,  add onion, peppers, celery, high heat it while turning, lower heat to medium, stir in garlic, basil, parsley, tomato paste, clam juice, Cajun seasoning, cayenne pepper, ground pepper sea salt. Get it simmering, add Pernod, drop in shrimp. Cook for 5 minutes. Stir in heavy cream, thicken. Lower heat and cover.


Boil water, cook noodles. During this time, melt butter in second skillet (regular size is OK), add garlic for 2 minutes on med/high. Stir in brown sugar, fish sauce, stir for 2 minutes. 
Drain, shock noodles, toss in bowl, dump garlic mix from skillet on to noodles, burn heck out of your hands by mixing noodles and sauce, dump Parmesan on noodles, toss together to coat noodles. 


Noodle up individual plates, serve big skillet cream over noodles. Drop a green onion on each plate. Eat.


An end note- shrimp can be replaced with chicken- pre cook chicken. Chicken won't taste as good unless you hate shrimp. Pernod can be replaced with any licorice liqueur. Leave out or alter ingredients at your own risk.




2 comments:

  1. Ok Tracy, I had to write it all down because it wouldn't print for me. I'll let you know!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Definitely in my top 5 recipes of all time.

    ReplyDelete