Month: July 2018

Island Garlic Shrimp

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No trip to Hawaii would be complete without a trip to a shrimp truck or as my friend Ben calls it, “Scrimps Shack”. The Scrimps Shack and Giovanni’s are two of my favorites. I remember a particular trip to Oahu, Pru and I were still kidless and so we aimlessly just drove around.  While driving along H1 en route to North Shore, we happened upon a shrimp truck that I thought was Giovanni’s. We followed it for a good ten miles before I realized it wasn’t a shrimp truck at all but just a janky refrigerator repair van. That’s how much I love the world famous Kahuku shrimp, so named for the sleepy town in the north east part of the island from which these freshwater shrimp are farmed.

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Not much to look at but from that truck comes the most amazing garlic shrimp

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We sadly are not making it to the islands this year so we are bringing some of that island food to the mainland.

Ingredients

1 lb medium shrimp (21/25 per lb)
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
6 cloves roasted garlic*
1 stick butter
1 1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup lemon juice
3-4 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp chili pepper flakes
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp Italian parsley

Procedure

*How to make roasted garlic: Drizzle garlic cloves with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake cloves of garlic in a sealed aluminum foil packet in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes. When done, remove from oven and this should be soft enough to mash with a fork. Set aside.

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Sautéx shrimp in olive oil until just pink and no longer translucent.  Remove from pan and set aside. Saute garlic in butter and olive oil, being careful not to burn. Add roasted garlic, wine and lemon juice to the pan. Sprinkle grated parmesan cheese over the mixture. Cook for 10-12 minutes until reduced to half. Place shrimp back in pan and add Italian seasoning, chili pepper flakes, salt and pepper to taste.

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Peaches and Her: Peach Crumble Pie

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I am challenged by dough and crusts.  I find dough in general intimidating because it demands precision, accurate measurements, kneading, rolling, cutting–it’s all too much for a casual baker like myself.  Crusts are worse because they’re supposed to be buttery and flaky and don’t even get me started on that blind baking thing.  In short, dough for me is the human equivalent of your catholic school nun and the crust, her wooden ruler.

So I get around all that anxiety by using ready made pie crust and making a crumble.  A frozen pie crust is good to have around in your freezer for that easy pecan pie or peach pie you’d like to whip up at the last minute.  My favorite is the Marie Callender brand, (RIP Marie Callender and your creamy artichoke chicken.)  The crumble is for the crispy, sweet bites of buttery sugar to counteract the softness of the peaches.

Recipes I’ve found called for fresh peaches you have to par boil for a bit in order to peel the skin and then you still have to de-pit it.  Once again, ain’t nobody got time for that.  In this blog, we do shortcuts and shortcuts come in the form of canned peaches.  You’re welcome.

Ingredients

  • 1 9-inch pie shell
  • 2 cans of peaches – 14 oz, drained
  • 1/2 cup melted butter
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 2 pinches salt
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch

Procedure

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

To make the crumble:

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together sugars, flour, ginger and salt. Add melted butter and stir until mixture comes together. Don’t be alarmed if the crumb topping starts to look like dough.  Keep stirring until you can break it up into smaller pea-sized clumps.

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To make the peach filling

In another bowl, toss the peach slices with the cornstarch and about ¾ cup of the crumble. Pour peaches into the pie crust.

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Top the peaches with the rest of the crumble and if you don’t cover all the peaches, it’s all good.  They’re like little rays of sunlight peeking through your crumble.

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Place your pie pan on top of a baking sheet to avoid spillage in your oven and bake for 45-50 minutes or until filling is bubbly and topping is golden brown.

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