Saturday, January 14, 2012

The Hawthornes Entertain. Creamy Cauliflower Soup With Shrimp.

XKT and Glowria stopped by this afternoon.
 We've already had salsa and chips
 and asparagus roll ups.
 Since I enjoyed it so much at the NC Aquarium cooking class,
I'm making a creamy pureed cauliflower soup, with a few variations.
I chopped the cauliflower into florets and chopped an onion.
Melt 2 TB butter and add in onions.
 Cook over medium heat until onions are translucent.

Chop 1 large potato.
Add in cauliflower and ...
... potato.
Cover with broth.
I used one can of vegetable broth and two cans of chicken broth.
Cook over low heat until potato and cauliflower are tender.
 You should be able to squish the cauliflower with tongs and have it crumble.
Ladle the soup into a processor and ...
... process.
You need to do this in batches.

Return puree to pan and pour in 1 pint heavy cream, heated.
Heat over low to thicken.
Instead of $14.99/pound scallops,
 I'm using the shrimp I already have ($2.75/pound).
 I sprinkled some Paul Prudhomme Redfish Magic over the shrimp.
1 TB butter and 1 TB oil in pan.
 Medium high heat.
 Add in shrimp.
Cook for a minute until the shrimp is just done.
Generally, people tend to overcook shrimp, so be careful.
 Turn off heat when there's still a tiny bit of translucence of the gray.
 Carry-over cooking will finish it off.
 If you'd like to throw in a swig of sherry or white wine,
 now's the time to do it.
The soup was not as thick as we wanted,
so I'm making a beurre manie (kneaded butter) to thicken it up.
Mix 1 TB softened butter with 1 TB flour.
Knead the mixture until the flour is thoroughly incorporated.
Keep going.
Like this.
Add to soup.
 Stir over low heat until thickened.
Taste test and add freshly ground salt and pepper to taste.
For my toppings, I'm using bacon, scallions, chives, and black truffle oil.
 And don't forget the shrimp.
Just a light drizzling of the truffle oil.
You don't want the earthiness to overpower.
Soup time!
I always like a little extra pepper.
Salty crunchy bacon complemented the smooth creamy cauliflower.
Nice greenness from the chives and scallions.
Sweet succulent shrimp with a slight heat to them.
 And the je ne c'est quoi of the truffle oil.
 Another happy meal.

Glowria does another face plant in her soup bowl.
Geeze, Glow.
Just ask for another bowl.
I have plenty of soup.
Glowria loves seeing herself on the World Wide Web.
Thanks imaginary XKT and Glowria for coming.
 Glow, you did see XKT there that night, didn't you?
She's so happy to be out of that European boarding school.

2 comments:

Marilyn said...

I think I may have to make this.

Rosie Hawthorne said...

I believe you must.