Virginia's Emerald Isle Shrimp!

I wasn’t going to bother with St. Patrick’s Day - seeing as how I’m on Spring Break, and Dr. Husband is visiting his family, and last year's St. Patrick's Day offering was fairly successful so why mess with a good thing – but a post from Yinzerella shamed me into action (I follow her with regularity, as you all should be).

I’m not sure who “Virginia” is, or why she’s so averse to flavor of any kind, but here’s her recipe for St. Paddy’s Day shrimp. You know how flamingos are pink because of all the shrimp they eat? This is kind of like that, only you're imparting the color of the spinach into the shrimp (which wasn't entirely successful here. Maybe shrimp are more color resistant these days? I blame Monsanto). 

As I write, there's a little over an hour left of St. Patrick's Day, but if you're still standing and need something to do, here's the recipe:

3 dozen medium shrimp
2 pounds fresh spinach
2 cups dairy sour cream
2 packages (8-oz size) cream cheese
6 lemons, cut into wedges

Peel and devein shrimp, leaving tails intact; sprinkle lightly with lemon juice and set aside.
Carefully wash and devein spinach; tear leaves into bits. Place in large saucepan with 2 cup water. Place shrimps on top of spinach leaves. Bring water to boil; cook slowly 3-4 minutes or until spinach is wilted and shrimp are cooked through. Take care not to overcook lest shrimp become tough.
Shrimp will turn pale green as they absorb color from the spinach. Remove shrimp from saucepan and refrigerate for later use.

Drain spinach and purée in blender or food processor; measure 2 1/2 cups cooked puréed spinach and place in mixing bowl; fold in dairy sour cream and cream cheese; mix thoroughly.
Lightly oil 6-cup ring mold; spoon spinach-cheese mixture into mold. Cover and refrigerate until firm, about 3 hours.

Unmold spinach-cream mixture onto plate; arrange shrimp on mold in decorative manner; fill center of mold with lemon wedges arranged in sunburst fashion.

Full disclosure, I halved the amounts of the spinach-cream mixture, and it was plenty. Plenty of flavorless nuthin'.  Almost any addition would make this not half bad - a packet of ranch dressing mix, horseradish, minced onion, pepper jelly - in fact, almost anything that actually possessed flavor, which spinach, cream cheese, and sour cream do not. Do you agree, panel?

Our Rating: Three Screaming Husbands!

(all dishes are rated from one to five Screaming Husbands. One Screaming Husband equals a happy home where all problems are solved during cocktail hour. Five Screaming Husbands signals the beginning of divorce proceedings.)

The Seventh Day of Kitschmas; Christmas Island Coconut Shrimp

Christmas Island Coconut Shrimp
contributed by Dr. Bobb

Remind me next year that pledging to post 12 recipes and 12 songs in 12 days can be somewhat all-consuming, especially when one spends half the week living six hours away from Dr. Husband, and has only been in residence in the Historic test kitchen for three days now.

Which is to say, I may or may not have just co-opted something we were going to have for dinner anyway into a Kitschmas blog post. 

I have no idea if coconuts grow on Christmas Island; I indeed have no idea where Christmas Island even is, or in fact if it even exists in reality, or is just an Ella Fitzgerald song. I think I'll go Google it right now.
____________________________________________________________________
Okay, I'm back. Christmas Island does, indeed, have coconuts, as well as the largest living arthropod in the world, the Coconut Crab. So next year you can look forward to Christmas Island Crab Cakes on the sixth day.

I bake my coconut shrimp (it helps me maintain the illusion that I'm eating healthier) and serve it with a sweet-ish accompaniment, like orange marmalade, cranberry sauce, or maybe even Jezebel sauce if you want a little kick. 

1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 cups flaked sweetened coconut3 egg whites, beaten until foamy
 
Preheat an oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly coat a baking sheet with cooking spray. Rinse and dry shrimp with paper towels. Mix cornstarch, salt, and cayenne pepper in a shallow bow; pour coconut flakes in a separate shallow bowl. Working with one shrimp at a time, dredge it in the cornstarch mixture, then dip it in the egg white, and roll it in the coconut, making sure to coat the shrimp well. Place on the prepared baking sheet, and repeat with the remaining shrimp. Bake the shrimp until they are bright pink on the outside and the meat is no longer transparent in the center and the coconut is browned, 15 to 20 minutes, flipping the shrimp halfway through.

One thing's for sure, it's a man-pleaser:

(Not my) Granny's Tomato Aspic Ring

Granny's Tomato Aspic Ring
submitted by Stefania Butler, The Internets

So, here's how it all went down; Husband informed me we were to host a birthday potluck for a work associate of his.  Besides supplying my regionally-favorite Sky-like Chili and Pigeon Pea Dip (both to be featured soon in this very spot!) I was determined to try my hand at supplying a molded salad and subjecting my party guests to a taste test.

So as not to completely overwhelm them (I mean, at the moment we're pretty dependent on Husband's salary to survive, so...) I decide to go with a simple, classic tomato aspic.  I have dim memories of eating such a thing on occasion in my childhood, and my mother still extols the virtues of the dish, but my memories weren't recent enough to recall the taste, and certainly not the making of.

There are so many variations of the recipe, that I let my Googling skills determine one of the simplest, which I found here.  The recipe, as printed:

1 quart tomato juice
1/3 cup finely diced onion
1/4 cup finely cut celery leaves
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp salt
2 small bay leaves
4 whole cloves
2 tbsps unflavored gelatin
1/4 cup cold water
1 cup thinly sliced celery
crisp salad greens
for garnish: mayonnaise, avocado, and/or small bay (salad) shrimp

Combine tomato juice, onion, celery leaves, sugar, salt, bay leaves, and cloves in an enamel or glass saucepan. Simmer five minutes over medium heat. Strain.

Soften gelatin in cold water and stir into hot tomato mixture. Add lemon juice. Chill until partially set. Add celery. Stir gently.

Pour into lightly oiled 1 1/2 quart ring mold. Chill until firm. Unmold onto salad greens. Fill center with cold mayonnaise and/or with sliced avocado and shrimp.

One problem - I didn't adequately anticipate my shopping needs. Thinking I had tomato juice at home, I didn't buy any.  What I thought was tomato juice turned out to actually be V-8...exactly 1 quart.  So I took a chance and used it (as one party guest remarked, "it's probably what saved it.")

Working with unflavored gelatin is still new to me and still gives me a thrill.  I feel like I'm doing a science project. Seems like some enterprising young buck could do a bit of creative brainstorming and see what sorts of crazy flavor combinations he could come up with.  Oh wait, that's me.  Stay tuned!

The rest of the recipe came together fairly easily.  Because I was working with V-8, I cut back a bit on the onion, celery and salt, but went full in with the brown sugar.

The mold chilled about five hours in a copper mold, and was just a bit runny when I unmolded it, but didn't fall apart.  In a nod to the directions in the recipe, I surrounded the ring with avocado and canned salad shrimp, but left the mayonnaise on the side to be used at the diner's discretion.

What we thought: Me - anything reminiscent of a Bloody Mary is aces in my book. I'm thinking of adding horseradish and vodka and trying for a Bloody Mary Jell-O shooter next time.

It really wasn't bad at all, but as with the Ring-Around-The-Tuna, a dab of mayonnaise makes it go down pretty easy.  The salad shrimp and avocado were a nice touch, but not completely necessary other than for presentation purposes.

Husband - "The Tomato Aspic had a nice refreshing flavor, a nice balance to the heavier dishes in the potluck. I don't know why people stopped making it."  I can confide that husband didn't care for the salad shrimp at all.

Party Guests - admittedly, I didn't interview them all individually, but there were ten guests, and only about a serving and a half left at the end of the night. So someone must have liked it.

I'm going to make it again on Easter Sunday for mother and see if it stands up to her standards. In all, I think it's probably something I wouldn't mind making, non-ironically,  and on occasion, perhaps alongside a chicken or fish dish.

Our Rating: Zero Screaming Husbands!
(all dishes are rated from one to five Screaming Husbands. One Screaming Husband equals a happy home where all problems are solved during cocktail hour. Five Screaming Husbands signals the beginning of divorce proceedings.)