Tuesday, August 16, 2011

The Shrimp Boat Ginny

I'm not sure what's going on down in Atlanta but I suspect the recent heat wave had some unintended affects. I think it scrambled part of Chef Willis' brain because she posted not one, not three, not five but TEN recipes for her readers to try. Ten shrimp recipes.

suckdaheads

Not just shrimp recipes but also NOAA graphics to better illustrate the lunar tidal changes and shrimp harvesting. Let's face it, the woman is a shrimp lovin' fool.

Virginia loves shrimp

Bubba-Gin Shrimp can't be far behind.

So which of her many recipes did I decide to make? Actually I did a riff on her Shrimp Cakes. I was house sitting and was lucky enough to dig into the CSA offering this week and found these tender little baby eggplants.

baby eggplant

My mind immediately went to a popular dim sum dish of eggplant stuffed with shrimp and covered with a soy/hosin sauce. I'd use the shrimp cake as a stuffing.

baby eggplants stuffed1

Trimmed off some of the skin, split the eggplant down the middle and filled it with the shrimp paste. Then I gave it a quick fry in some canola oil.

baby eggplants stuffed2

At this point, the dim sum version would be steamed to complete the cooking process. Instead I felt like I needed to add a sauce to counterbalance the slightly spicy bite of the hot sauce and white pepper in the shrimp paste. I wanted something a little sweeter than the soy sauce. I decided to brush the eggplant with the sweet miso sauce used in Nobu's popular white miso marinated black cod dish.

baby eggplants stuffed

A little time under the broiler to meld the sauce into the eggplant and shrimp and there you have it, Shrimp Stuffed Baby Eggplant with Miso.

Still had plenty of shrimp so I thought I'd give the Savannah Marinated Shrimp a try.

jar of shrimp


Because what's not to like about having a jar of marinated shrimp hiding out in your fridge?

Now I'm sure you're thinking, did you really follow the recipe to the letter and use half a red bell pepper? Hella NO! Just couldn't do it. Instead I thinly sliced a preserved lemon and layered that in with the shrimp instead.

savanah shrimp

Hello my little bright tasting shrimp. No peppers for you. What Virginia is saying with her 10 Pounds of Shrimp post is that shrimp is a fantastic canvas protein. You can begin with shrimp and paint it with so many different flavors and cooking methods. Lightly fried shrimp cakes with a back bite of hot sauce and smokey white pepper and marinated shrimp with the subtle flavors of lemon, bay leaves and apple cider vinegar. Playing with tastes you like and exploring more unfamiliar flavors is half the fun. And remember, you don't always need a full moon to go crazy with shrimp.

14 comments:

the dogs' mother said...

When we lived on the coast of northern British Columbia my mother would go down and get fresh caught shrimp off the boat. I'd come home to all these gray shrimps filling the kitchen sink. I sooooooo did not appreciate it being a teenager at the time.
It all looks so tasty!

Big Shamu said...

Because you had to clean them all or because you were tired of eating them?

the dogs' mother said...

Didn't consider them all that special!! Crass child!

MakingSpace said...

My daughter said she is going to explode with love for the marinated shrimp. There may or may not have been jazz hands and great jubilation in her voice.

MakingSpace said...

My other daughter wonders if you can stuff the eggplant with chicken katsu. (LOL but serious question, she wants that eggplant dish!)

Big Shamu said...

Exploding with love for marinated shrimp? Luckily for Mom, it's an extremely easy dish to make. The hard part is waiting for the shrimp to be done marinating. As for stuffing eggplant with chicken katsu, I guess if you ground up the chicken breast you could. I like the way they think.

Dani said...

Good to see your mad photoshopping skillz.

Big Shamu said...

Dani, thank goodness there will always be chickens that need party hats and chefs with a sense of humor.

virginia Willis said...

OMG. I just snorted coffee out of my nose.

That whole Forest Gump thing is too much.
Vain me only wishes that when you were photoshopping my head you had trimmed some of my generous chin, too.

Thanks as always for sharing. Best VA

Big Shamu said...

Now see, I toyed with that idea but after your recent "Fat" post it felt wrong. You're beautiful the way you are. Bat-shit crazy for shrimp but beautiful none the less.

Susan said...

I'll have the coconut shrimp with a side of shrimp cakes s'il vous plait and for my dessert of course ...

peanutbutterchocolatehoneycombpie

xo s

Big Shamu said...

Do they get shrimp for Fish Truck Fridays?

Dani said...

Blackberry Lime!!!!!!!

chickory said...

first photo. straight up fine art.