Tuesday, May 7, 2013

The Hawthornes Attend Cooking Class At The North Carolina Aquarium.


The Hawthornes were in Manteo last week
for another class in the seafood series


Our class was conducted by Chef Alfredo Landazuri

And it was quite an enjoyable class.

Chef Landazuri is FUN!
He's from Peru,
so I was thinking we might be having guinea pigs,
but this is a seafood class.
I once watched Anthony Bourdain
eat guinea pigs in Peru,
so that's where I was coming from.
Our first dish was a shrimp scampi.
Be sure to serve it with some nice toast
to sop up every bit of that delicious sauce.

The shrimp were sautéed in oil
with diced red pepper and minced garlic and shallots.
Pull the shrimp out before they're done
to make the sauce.
Add in lemon juice and white wine
and let the mixture reduce a bit. 
Then add butter
and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Add chopped parsley to sauce.
Stir in more butter.
Add some heavy cream in and more butter.
Add the shrimp back in
and serve over toast.



Luckily for me,
Mr. Hawthorne is still not eating bread,
so I got his toast too.
I didn't want to miss a drop of that sauce.

Our next dish was shrimp and grits.

This recipe serves four people.

20 shrimp, peeled (5 per person)
3/4 cup diced red pepper
4 oz. diced shallots
2 oz. minced garlic
3 oz butter
2 oz green onions
1/2 diced country ham
Kosher salt
black pepper
1/2 cup sherry
1/2 quart heavy cream

Sauté shrimp halfway in hot oil.
Pull out the shrimp and let rest while you finish the sauce.
In the same pan, add butter, red pepper, 
green onion, and ham and cook about five minutes.
Add garlic and shallots.
Deglaze with sherry and add in heavy cream.
Allow sauce to reduce on medium high heat for about ten minutes,
stirring occasionally.
When sauce is ready, add shrimp and heat through.

Serve over stone ground grits.
Chef Landazuri cooked 1 part grits in 4 parts liquid -
2 parts cream, 1 part water, and 1 part chicken stock.
Bring liquid to boil and add grits.
Cook about 30-40 minutes.
Add in Parmesan cheese and for a special nuance,
pour in a little truffle oil.
Go easy on the truffle oil.
Just a few drops - to taste.

Give it a little parsley and chive love.
Another good class with good food.
Creamy grits.
Shrimp.
Sherry.
Country ham.
It's all there.


The turtles are always happy to see me.


And I'm always happy to see the otters.

You know how I love my otters.
They're always happy to see me!

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