Crispy Panko Breaded Fried Shrimp

1 lb raw shrimp with the tails on – it’s that frozen blue bag at Costco – you only need half of it.
1/3 cup flour
2/3 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3 egg whites
1/3 cup water
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Panko bread crumbs

Whisk together the flour, cornstarch, salt, baking powder, egg whites, water and oil in a bowl or whatever vessel you prefer.  Let’s look at those ingredients for a minute.  I’m pretty sure that if you take out the baking powder and oil, we’ve just made Gorilla Glue.  Keep this in mind and wash this vessel as soon as you’re done with it.

Pour the Panko bread crumbs into a pie plate or whatever clever device you’ve found to replace that.

Dip the shrimpies into the batter and then roll them around in the breadcrumbs. They like this part.

Fry the shrimps until they are a nice golden brown – they might not be so fond of this part but it doesn’t matter. They are food.

Drain on paper towels or newspaper or a Trader Joe’s bag, you know, something like that.

Serve them with a good cocktail sauce.

Now, I know that I just said that I don’t like to fry stuff, but this is another anomaly that’s just too good.

Filed under: Joanne Baines, Seafood

Baked Brie with Carmelized Onions

When you’re done with these onions, they will have been so manipulated and macerated that they won’t look anything like what they are. The little bit of sugar brings out the natural sweetness in the onions and it’s pretty addictive. The original recipe says that it serves 8, but if 8 people sit down and share 2 to 3 pounds of cheese, I think that there could be unpleasant repercussions – it serves a lot.

2 Tablespoons of butter
4 large Vidalia onions, sliced thinly (use the mandolin or this will kill ya)
1 Tablespoon minced fresh thyme
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 teaspoon sugar
1 wheel (2 to 3 lbs) French Brie, packed in a wooden box
2 baguettes, sliced

Melt butter in a heavy, very large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions; saute’ until just tender, about 6 minutes. Add the thyme, reduce heat to medium and cook until onions are golden, stirring often, about 25 minutes. That’s a long time to stand around stirring something – I recommend drinking some of the wine that you had to open anyway and listen to some thrilling podcast on your iPod. Add the garlic and saute’ for another couple of minutes. Add half of the wine (1/4 cup); stir until almost all liquid evaporates, a few minutes. Sprinkle sugar over onions and saute’ until soft and brown, about 10 minutes. Add remaining 1/4 cup of wine; stir just until liquid evaporates. Season to taste with salt & pepper, let it cool down.

You can make that part a couple of days in advance and leave it in the fridge until you’re ready for it. I’ll admit that this many onions really makes the house odorific, some people like it, others can’t stand it. Might want to let the place air out a while before your party.

When you’re ready to serve this preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Unwrap the Brie, keep track of the bottom of the wooden box. Cut away the rind on the top only, leave the sides and bottom rindy. Put the Brie back into the box and then put that on a baking sheet. Now, I have a chaffing dish that this fits perfectly in, if you have one of those you can put the wooden box in it or just forgo the wooden box and bake it right in the chaffing dish. Evenly cover the Brie with the onion concoction and then bake it just until the cheese is melted all the way through, from 20 to 30 minutes. Serve it with the bread.

Filed under: Appetizers, Joanne Baines, appetizer, baked brie with carmelized onions, brie, cheese, Food

Stuffed Courgette Flowers

I don’t fry things very often because I hate the way it makes the house smell. But these are worth it, I think. The batter is very similar to a chili relleno. This is a good one if you’ve planted too many zucchini and you want to nip that problem in the bud…

16 fresh zucchini (courgette) flowers
3/4 cup flour
3 large eggs
Salt to taste
1/4 cup milk
6 ounces mozzarella, chopped
3 tablespoons drained capers
a few sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil – or more if your instincts say so
Vegetable oil for deep frying

Get the stamen out of each zucchini flower, you have to be kind of gentle so as not to rip them up too much. Rinse them and make sure that there are no ants hiding out – they’re way too acidic for this recipe.

Beat the flour, eggs, and salt together in a bowl until they are smooth. Beat in the milk.

Combine the mozzarella, capers, tomato and basil together and fill the inside of each zucchini flower with some of this mixture. Fold the ends of the petals over the filling to make a little packet.

Heat the oil to a depth of 2 inches in a heavy saucepan. You could use a deep fat fryer if you have one. I use an electric skillet, it just makes it so much easier to keep a consistent temperature without having to think about it. It needs to be somewhere around 375 to 400 degrees.

Dip the stuffed flowers into the batter, allowing any excess to run off. This is pretty easy if you use a couple of forks – I haven’t had good luck getting them evenly coated with the tongs. Fry the flowers until they turn light golden, 6 to 8 minutes – they don’t need to be very dark. Drain them on paper towels or whatever and sprinkle some salt on them. These are not that great cold so you should probably eat them soon.

Filed under: Appetizers, Joanne Baines, appetizer, courgette, courgette flowers, Food, recipe, stuffed courgette flowers, stuffed zucchini flowers, zucchini, zucchini flowers