Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Rosie Makes Shrimp With A Bloody Mary Vinaigrette In Fillo Cups.

Rosie is making shrimp in fillo cups with a Bloody Mary Vinaigrette and salad greens from my garden.
Does it bother you that Rosie and I can go from 1st person to 3rd person in the blink of an eye? I certainly hope not.
These first 3 pictures
were shot this morning in natural light.
The next two were shot last night:
Don't let all the ingredients scare you off. The vinaigrette is worth it.
My mise en place for the vinaigrette: 1 cup V8 juice 1 tsp celery seed 2 TB thick Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce 1 tsp chipotle tabasco sauce 1 tsp granulated garlic 3 TB horseradish 1 TB red wine vinegar 1 TB sugar 1/3 cup lemon juice 1/4 cup Vodka 1 tsp Old Bay seasoning 1/2 tsp freshly ground salt 2 tsp freshly ground pepper 1 tsp cayenne minced with seeds 1/4 cup ELBOO (Extra Light Bertolli Olive Oil) Whisk all together then add in veggies: 1-2 stalks celery, chopped 1 small onion, chopped small peppers, chopped 2 garlic cloves, minced 1 hot red pepper, minced For the process:
Add in the tomato/vegetable juice.
Cumin in.
This is the new thick Lea & Perrins. You could use the original.
Smoked tabasco. You could use the regular.
Granulated garlic.
Horseradish. I like it hot, so I'm using 3 tablespoons. You might want to start off with one tablespoon and taste.
Red wine vinegar.
Sugar.
Old Bay seasoning.
Lemon juice.
Vodka. Sorry. I left the above picture horizontal instead of vertical. It's hard being a blogger./
Taste test. Needed extra Lea & Perrins.
Whisk in oil.
Some veggies: 1 1/2 celery stalks 1 small onion sweet multicolored miniature peppers
Mince.
I decided it needed some garlic too.
Mince. I think this picture was shot vertically. Place head on your left shoulder.
Needs a little more heat.
Remember to taste test as you go along. That's essentially what I'm doing.
Veggies ready to go in.
Onion and garlic in.
Celery in.
Peppers in. Refrigerate vinaigrette while you prepare the fillo sheets. I'm using Athens Fillo Dough. I have actually made my own fillo dough before, which is far superior, both taste-wise and texture-wise, to the store-bought stuff, which, I think, doesn't have a drop of butter in it, but fillo-making is a two day process so I'm Semi-Ho'ing it with the store-bought sheets. OK, I looked up the ingredients: Ingredients: Enrenriched, Non-Bromine Bleached Flour (bleached wheat flour, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), Water, Corn Starch, Canola Oil, Salt, Preservatives (sodium and/or calcium propionate, potassium sorbate), Citric Acid. Contains Wheat Once again, YUM! Remind me to make baklava for you some time with homemade phyllo. Yes. It's spelled phyllo if homemade, fillo if it comes from a box. (One of Rosie's Rules.) It means "leaf" in Greek.
You have to work fast, since these sheets dry out quickly. Brush with melted butter. (Keep remaining sheets covered.)
Cut into squares ...
... and line muffin tins with the fillo.
I baked these at 375 degrees until brown. These single sheets took about 5 minutes.
Mr. Hawthorne sauteed the shrimp in butter and oil over high heat for about a minute. The butter is for the flavor and the oil is to raise the smoke point of the butter, so you can cook over high heat. You want your butter slightly browned for a delicious buttery, nutty flavor.
Mr. Hawthorne likes his little sear marks on the shrimp. Please, do not overcook your shrimp. Remove from heat before you think they're done.
I'm looking at these sad little fillo cups, and I don't think they're strong enough to hold the shrimp.
So I started over. I'm using several sheets of fillo instead of just one.
These are looking a bit more sturdy.
375 degree oven for 13 minutes, turning halfway.
Add a little lettuce in the bottom of the cups,
add shrimp, and top with Bloody Mary Vinaigrette.
Here's a very important tip: After Mr. H. perfectly sauteed the shrimp in near-browned butter, and I made the Bloody Mary Vinaigrette, I made the mistake of storing the shrimp and the Vinny Garrette in the same container. That was unwise. I should have stored the vinaigrette and shrimp separately. Somehow, being together, they took on a life of their own and were not what they once were, separately.
This was unfortunate. Mr. Hawthorne made the most excellent shrimp last night. Perfectly seared. I made fillo cups. I made a lovely spicy horseradishy V8 dressing. It was terrific last night. The next day for lunch, not so much. The shrimp in the vinaigrette overnight didn't process well. I think probably what happened was the shrimp was already perfectly cooked and when I left it in the dressing overnight, the dressing cooked it more. (It was acidic.) Learn from me: Do NOT leave seafood in sauce/marinade/vinaigrette overnight. Separate the sauce from the shrimp. Another TRUST ME MOMENT with Rosie.
Mixed greens in my garden.
There's nothing better than fresh-picked lettuce. It's so very sweet and full of flavors that you just can't get from the produce section. This lettuce was planted last fall and has weathered winter quite well, even with a few inches of snow on top for a day or two.
The Bloody Mary Vinaigrette was fresh, spicy, horseradishy, and vegetabley.
The shrimp was sweet and succulent.
And then you had the lovely crunch of the fillo cups.
The perfect combination of tastes and textures.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rosie, I've taken Wonton wrappers before and sprayed them with olive oil and pressed them into cupcake inserts . They bake really fast for some reason

Rosie Hawthorne said...

Thanks, Anony. I'll have to try that.