Ask and You Shall Receive...

My husband is many wonderful things, but he is not decisive when it comes to food.  In the interest of full disclosure, I'm not much better. Way back when we first started seriously dating and generally eating dinner together each night, choosing what we would make was an ordeal consisting largely of "I don't knows" on my side and "I don't feel likes" on his side.  This of course, leads to eating dinner at an ungodly hour. In a misguided attempt to solve our problem one day, I called him before he left work (this was back before texting was a thing) with some suggestions for dinner.  I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when he came back with "I can't choose.  I'm not hungry yet.  I won't know what I want until I'm hungry."  Needless to say, once we moved in together he pretty much lost all say in dinner entirely, and I just started cooking whatever I wanted.

Which is why last weekend when he suddenly developed a strong desire to have shrimp chowder for dinner, I was happy to oblige.  Not only was I thrilled that he was offering up a dinner suggestion, I just happened to have a recipe for shrimp chowder on hand that I wanted to try.  The recipe comes from a friend of my grandmother's. She hosted a lunch and my Nana thought the soup was so delicious that she got the recipe for me.  It had languished in my recipe file for awhile, but I'm glad Ryan gave me the motivation to finally try it.  It's definitely going into the rotation.

NAN JENSEN'S SHRIMP CHOWDER
altered slightly from the original

INGREDIENTS:
1 lb shrimp (peeled, deveined and chopped into bite sized pieces, but not too small!)
6 slices bacon (or turkey bacon)
1 1/2 C diced onion
2 celery ribs
2 medium baking potatoes, diced
3 bottles clam juice
1 C light cream
1 C milk
salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:
In a large heavy bottomed pot or dutch oven, cook your bacon.  You can do it as slices and crumble later, but I chopped mine ahead and then fished out the bits when they were crisp.  Crisping will take 5-7 minutes over medium heat.  Remove the bacon to paper towels and set aside until later.  Chop your celery, I do mine in a fine dice because Ryan hates celery, but you can gauge your chopping size however you please. Add the onion and the celery to the pan (no need for butter or oil if you have bacon drippings in the pan).  Cook for 7 minutes or until the onion is soft and translucent.  Then add the clam juice and the potatoes.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover.  Let simmer 15-20 minutes until your potatoes are tender.  Add the milk and cream (you can add all cream, even all heavy cream if you want full decadence).  Then add your shrimp and simmer for 3 minutes until they are pink.
Be really careful throughout these last 2 steps because if the heat is too high the cream will kind of separate and get grainy.  It'll taste fine, but look yucky. Add your salt and pepper to taste.  Once the shrimp are cooked you can add the bacon.  I served first and then used the bacon as a pretty garnish, but you're more than welcome to just stir it into the soup.

Can't Stop

My Fourth of July post was really just the beginning.  Because when I go to New England, I can't help myself, I just can't stop eating seafood.  I had grilled shrimp, fried clams (twice), fried haddock, clam chowder, steamers, a lobster and shrimp cake, haddock and clam bouillabaisse, an a hot lobster roll (butter, not mayonnaise). Then when we got home, my parents invited us over for some crab salad.  It has been heaven. I cannot compete with how fresh and delicious the seafood is up there, but on the other hand, I just can't stop eating it!! These fried shrimp will assist me in my serious efforts to completely block my arteries with butter and oil, because they are so delicious, you can't stop eating them either. Go ahead, make them and let me know!

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 C flour

1 T Emeril's "Essence"

9 oz of good beer

vegetable oil for frying

INGREDIENTS FOR ESSENCE:
2 1/2 T paprika
2 T salt
2 T garlic powder
1 T black pepper
1 T onion powder
1 T cayenne pepper
1 T dried oregano
1 T dried thyme

DIRECTIONS:
Pat the shrimp dry.  In a large, heavy pot or pan (I use a dutch oven usually), pour in enough oil to deep fry your shrimp. This should be a couple of inches deep.  You'll want a thermometer for the oil, so that you can tell when it's ready.  I fry between 350 F and 375 F.  Put your oven on low (200 F?) and line a cookie sheet with a few layers of paper towel.  This way when your shrimp are cooked, you'll be able to lay them on the sheet and pop them in the oven to keep warm.  In a large bowl, combine the flour and essence. Quickly dredge the shrimp so that they have a thin layer of flour on them.  Then pour the beer into the rest of the flour/essence mixture while whisking so that there are no lumps.  Dip about 5-6 shrimp in the beer batter and sort of hold them up so the excess drips off a bit.  It's a pretty light batter, so if you notice the shrimp aren't really getting covered, don't worry about letting the excess drip, just coat them.  When the oil is warm enough, gently place the group of shrimp in the oil.  Wear long sleeves, oil hurts like heck when it spatters.  Flip them using metal tongs after about 2 minutes. They'll only need about 2-6 total minutes, how long depends on if you little shrimp or HUGE ones.  If yours are really big, put fewer in the pot at once.  I use a spider to fish them out and drop them on the tray I've prepared.  Let the oil come back up to temperature before starting your next batch.  When they're done, you are allowed to eat them.  But don't blame me if you can't stop.  I warned you!!