Spot On!

There was a new stand at the Point Richmond farmer's market last week, set up by a friendly, gangling young man from Alaska. He grew up in Alaska and has lots of fisherman friends - a young man we definitely wanted to get to know! He was selling spot prawns.

Wild caught, jetted down from those cold, cold waters, he was offering small size or large and suggesting that they be cooked with garlic butter.

He recommended that I sauté them lightly with garlic butter. Or steam them briefly and dip them in garlic butter. Or, alternatively, they could be grilled and slathered with garlic butter. His last suggestion was barbecuing and then - you guessed it! - garlic butter.

Who am I to buck such good advice? I bought a pound of those big beauties and took them home to sauté very briefly and served them with a nice artichoke, also from the farmer's market. The still-warm shrimp were the sweetest I have ever tasted, bar none. We stripped off the shells and followed the young man's advice about the you-know-what. Turns out, garlic butter is also good with artichokes.

We had enough left over for a nice salad the next day, when they were equally delicious cold.

Our young man will return next Wednesday with more prawns, plus salmon, rockfish and, if he can find some, halibut as well. Needless to say, we will be there in line since our first taste of his wares was spot on.

Crustaceans and Snaps

I had gotten out of the habit of using sugar snap peas. Don't ask me why - they are a delicious addition to all kinds of dishes - but I had. I guess I overdosed on them a while back; I hadn't bought any in perhaps two years.

Then, just when the selection in the produce section at my favorite supermarket was looking decidedly uninteresting, with little of local interest to offer besides six kinds of greens we'd been eating all winter and the stalwart broccoli, there were the sugar snaps!

I ate one or two as I stripped out the strings and was reminded just how crisp and delicately crunchy they are. As green as an Irish spring and crisp, sweet and bright-flavored, what could be nicer to wake up a plate of food? I used them about a week ago with pasta, so this time I was more in a stir-steam-sauté kind of mood. With a package of shrimp from the freezer, I had dinner in no time.

Not only were the sugar snaps the essence of spring, so was the green garlic. I sautéed two chopped spears of green garlic in a little butter with some of my fresh thyme from the garden, little lavender flowers and leaves stripped off the woody parts of the stems, before adding the sugar snaps for about one minute, then the shrimps and the water from their package (less than 1/4 cup) for another minute or two. The shrimps got so pink and curly that I expected to hear giggles while the sugar snaps got even greener and sweeter, if that's possible. The mellow little goozle that formed at the bottom of the pan was officially declared the elixir of the gods of spring.

I settled them onto our plates next to a brown rice pilaf (more about that later) and we dove in to our plates of crustaceans and snaps for an easy-pleasy spring dinner.

Pappardelle and Peapods

Okay, I'm speechless, a rare event around here. This is one of the best meals I have ever cooked in my life and I can't find words sufficiently compelling to describe it.

No kidding! The ingredients were terrific but they doubled each other down. It's simple, fresh - just the way I like to cook - but with a spin of quiet sophistication that we really loved. The peas tasted of pure spring, the pasta was rich and brightly yellow and the shrimp sweet and mellow. I can't find the words to describe it and yet I can't say enough about it. You'd just have to make it to see what I mean.

Pappardelle with Peapods and Shrimp, Serves 4

10-12 oz raw small shrimp (I used frozen, thawed)
1 package papardelle pasta, I used Rustichella brand egg noodles
2-3 cups sugar snap peas, de-stringed
2-3 Tbs unsalted butter, divided
1 cup dry white wine
2-3 small tomatoes, finely chopped (I used canned, chopped tomatoes as fresh are still nasty here)
1 tsp sugar
2 Tbs fresh oregano, chopped

While this is a pretty simple recipe, I'd suggest having all the ingredients on hand and prepped before you begin, as the dish comes together fast at the end and you want it to be nice and hot when served.

Cook the pasta in boiling salted water until al dente - about 10-12 minutes. Three minutes before the pasta is done, stir in the peas and let them finish together. Drain and transfer to big bowl. Toss with 1-2 Tbs butter and salt and pepper to taste.

While the pasta and peas cook, season the shrimp with salt and pepper to taste. Heat another tablespoon of butter in a wide frying pan over medium high heat. When the foam subsides, add the shrimp and any shrimp juice, sauté, flipping a couple of times until just done, perhaps 3 minutes total - they will get lightly pink when they are done. Transfer with a slotted spoon to a plate, retaining any pan juices - this stuff is pure gold!

In the same pan, to the juices add the wine, tomatoes and sugar and cook, stirring, until the tomato breaks down, about 4 minutes. Return the shrimp to the skillet and stir in the fresh oregano, tossing together.

Serve the shrimp over the pasta/pea melange and spoon the pan sauce over the top. Let the drooling begin!

I did wonder if a little ParmReg would enhance the dish but we didn't use it this first time and, honestly, it was not missed. We might try it next time but, then again, we might just leave it to the pure, uncomplicated flavors of shrimp and fresh peas that transported us. Win-win situation, huh?

Southern Tradition

At a vastly more upscale restaurant, Bistro in Greensboro, North Carolina, I was introduced to a low country tradition, shrimp and grits. It was nearly enough, all by itself, to have me thinking about spending part of the year in the South.

The closest recipe I can find on epicurious.com is this one, but I know there was more to it than this. The Bistro version of shrimp and grits paired mildly spicy, tomato-based sauce and sweet shrimp with richly cheesy grits with fresh corn mixed in. There were fresh herbs in the grits as well and the red sauce was deeply flavored, as if it had been cooked for a long time or started with a special stock, even though the shrimp were not over done. The fresh corn gave a lightness and a sweetness to the grits, which were themselves more textured than what I think of as the plain white, grainy "breakfast grits."

I bought a bag of water mill stone ground white grits to bring home in my suitcase - they seem to have the coarser texture I enjoyed in the shrimp and grits dish. I have some 'sperimenting to do in the next few weeks to come up with a dish as delish as the one at Bistro.

Shrimp Stories

Oops, please forgive this badly unfocused picture of a great, quick meal - I was in a hurry making it as well as photographing it.

My Beloved and I had returned home late and we were starving. I made the tactical error of starting some lovely Massa rice as the base for a stir fry, the quickest meal I know how to make. Massa rice is the most delicious rice on earth, but it does take almost twice as long to cook as white rice does. I was shaky with hunger by the time dinner was on the table - you can tell by the blurry photograph.

I never make anything with shrimp without remembering the time at age seven when I, an animal lover from an early age, fed half the cocktail shrimp my mother had prepared for a dinner party to a rangy, shaggy stray dog who showed up at our doorstep in Hawaii and with whom I fell instantly in love. Shrimp was a rare treat in our house (I had sneaked one or two for myself earlier in the day) so I figured the dog might decide to stay if I gave him some. My mother was furious, the dog had a owner, and I was grounded for the rest of my natural life. Despite these little setbacks, I still love shrimp.

I seem to be on a ginger roll, enjoying adding a little fresh grated ginger to everything from Pear-Ginger Upside Down Cake to teriyaki sauce for our grilled tri-tip to this shrimp, carrot, green bean, garlic and onion stir fry. It made an otherwise fairly bland meal into something fresh and special. These days, I get to welcome as many stray dogs as I want but I have to admit I don't feed them shrimp - I keep it all for myself and My Beloved!

Seeking the Dream Crab Sandwich

Back in the '80s, My Beloved frequented a restaurant in the Ignacio section of Novato where they served what he thinks of as the Dream Crab Sandwich. He can't recall the name of the long-gone restaurant but the memory of the crab sandwich is still with him. Twenty plus years later, he searches still for one as full of fresh Dungeness crab on as tangy sourdough bread with a frill of fresh lettuce. His recollection is that there was no sauce and the bread was untoasted, just a heaping serving of the best fresh crab between two slices of excellent bread. It has proved to be elusive heaven - he has never again found one as dreamy.

In Sunol at Bosco's, however, he came mighty close. His fresh Dungeness crab and bay shrimp sandwich was grilled and the shellfish had a light dressing, but it was as fully sumptuous a serving as the Dream Crab Sandwich. The menu offered this combo with cheddar cheese as a melt, but he wanted just the seafood and he made a good choice. Topped with cheese, it would have been too rich - undressed, it was lovely. The accompanying French fries were done perfectly, crisp and golden on the outside, almost melty on the inside. We will happily return to Bosco's in the future - it's a major "find!"

We explored the Niles Canyon on the way home, noting that there's a tourist railway that offers rides down the canyon, an amusement for another day. The drive through the canyon is very scenic on a pretty little two-lane road that we shared with a few other cars and brightly dressed bicyclists hunched over their handlebars.

My Beloved is still seeking the Dream Crab Sandwich so if you have leads to great crab sammies, please let us know. In the meantime, however, we can recommend a trip to tiny Sunol in search of the Almost Dream Crab Sandwich.

Lemon Risotto Riff

What do you make with a half cup of salad shrimp left over from having a friend over for lunch? NamasteNancy had graced me with a lunchtime visit for which I made a simple shrimp salad, but I had just a handful of the little darlings left over and no real idea what to do with them besides pop 'em as a snack like pink Cheetos which, while it would have been delicious, seemed somehow like a waste of a luxury ingredient.

Then, as I was watching an episode of "Follow That Food," the wacky Aussie host was talking about carnaroli rice and I remembered that I had some in the cupboard - risotto!

I had only made risotto once before and I had no seafood broth on hand but decided to wing it with chicken broth. I also had no open bottles of white wine, so I subbed in (believe it or not) a little lemonade tartened up with a generous squeezing of fresh lemon juice 'til it was about as acidic as white wine would be. As odd as that sounds, it really added a lemony zest to the rice. I sizzled some onion and garlic in a knob of butter, added the rice and stirred, then the lemonade and began ladling in the chicken broth once the lemonade was absorbed.

Stir, ladle, stir, ladle, yadda until all the chicken broth was gone, then added a nice handful of freshly grated ParmReg, another little knob of butter, some strips of dark green Swiss chard leaves from my garden (still booking from last year!) and, when they were just wilted, stirred in the salad shrimps only long enough to heat through and sprinkled the top with chopped green onion tops.

Creamy, subtly lemony and rich with shrimp, it was a killer risotto and I was kicking myself for not making this for my luncheon guest.

Sopa de Camarones

This bowl of soup, brimming with fragrant broth, nearly a dozen good-sized shrimp plus a plethora of chunky vegetables and a spritz of sprightly lime juice, was the perfect antidote to a gray, misting California winter day. I enjoyed it, or rather half of it, at Cazuelas Grill, a no-nonsense Mexican food restaurant in, of all places, the Hilltop Mall in Richmond.

Hilltop is a sprawling shopping center on the shaved-flat crest of a hill surrounded with brand new housing tracts and apartment complexes and ringed with so many empty acres of blacktop that it would make a great place to teach a kid to drive. I have never been there when even a quarter of the spaces are filled - one wonders how they can keep the place going. They have tenants like JC Penney and Macy's but I think the store that really brings 'em in is Cazuelas. It's a fun place to meet Cookiecrumb and Cranky for a quick bite and a visit.

The soup could have been improved in three ways. First, the shrimp should have been shelled, at least down to the tails. Second, the veggies were pretty soft and should have been cooked a bit less to leave them more integrity. Third, the shrimp should have been slipped into the broth for just the last few minutes as they were a bit rubbery. Still, you'd hardly have guessed that these shoulds were running through my mind if you'd been at the table watching me eagerly spoon up the rich, tasty broth. There was so much, I brought home half to share with My Beloved, who had been there just minutes before we arrived and missed us. Rats!

I've had the posole there and now the sopa de camarones - I can recommend either one to fortify a California wuss for the rest of an afternoon of errands and chores.

The Last Bite

I have been in the habit, ever since I was a small child, of saving the best bite of dinner for last. I love ending a meal with the savoriest, tastiest bit on my plate, a sort of gustatorial "ta-da!" that rounds out the experience.

My problem last night was deciding which was the best bite of these two killer offerings, the lively lemon shrimp or the slightly spicy roasted broccoli from the recipe I found on The Wednesday Chef and loved.

Maybe this isn't a decision bearing the gravitas of finding peace in the Middle East or solving the worldwide financial crisis that is daily shrinking my retirement funds (that's what we have a fine, young President for), but in my little life, it was a biggie - and impossible to resolve. So, I cut both in half, loaded a bit of each onto my fork, and enjoyed two eye-rolling last bites. TA-DA!

A Simple OMG Will Do

Every now and then, the interweb brings an idea that spreads like wildfire. I'll get emails from friends with offers to make a poster of myself in the Obama style and several of my friends will have discovered and done it. Or I'll receive exhortations to view a hilarious YouTube video about a skateboarding bulldog and more than one of my pals will have alerted me to this bit of silly fun. Expressions like LOL fly around the world in a flash. And, best of all, sometimes a dynamite new recipe will appear on one of the blogs I follow, and it will be spread to everyone I know in less than the time it takes to tell it.

I predict the wildfire spread for this recipe. Click this link to The Wednesday Chef and read the drool-worthy words that Luisa has written about Melissa Clark's roasted shrimp and broccoli, then Try This Recipe!

It is simplicity itself, using only a very few ingredients and coming together lightning fast, but it is the best thing we have tasted in months. My Beloved and I literally gobbled our dinners, only raising our heads at the end to look at each other in awestruck amazement. A simple OMG will do.