Lemon Ginger Shrimp in Parchment Paper

US wild jumbo shrimp frolicked in my dreams last night. Oh yes, not only in costume but performing silly dances and unbelievable acrobatic feats. Better than a nightmare, this exhibition just might have been inspired by a package of Gulf shrimp that should have been last night's dinner. But the cook was lazy, reheated some spicy soup, and went to bed quite early. Hmmm, maybe I should blame the evening's entertainment on that spicy soup. Today those frisky crustaceans shared the spotlight with some Asian flavors and starred in Shrimp en Papillote... aka Lemon Ginger Shrimp in Parchment Paper.

Local groceries and big box stores offer frozen shrimp sourced from a variety of countries, but I know very little about these other fisheries. Lacking specific knowledge of or confidence in foreign catch and processing methods, I choose US wild seafood, especially Pacific Northwest products, whenever possible. Lucky for me, Seattle holds several quality fish markets with impeccable fresh and frozen seafood. I have previously used this simple method with fish fillets, but admittedly not often. Surprising, since the results were so popular.   

Fish Fillets en Papillote

Sturgeon in Parchment

Why not cook shrimp en papillote? Somehow other favorite shrimp and prawn dishes tend to muscle parchment pouchs out of the limelight.

Cajun BBQ Prawns,

Greek Shrimp Taverna, 

Lime and Sweet Chili Prawns,

Piccata Prawns & Pasta, 

Shrimp & Grits  

No more understudy role for shrimp in parchment; this dish is ready for star billing.    

Shrimp en Papillote

for 2 servings

1/2 cup Napa cabbage, julienned (or substitute baby bok choy)

1/2 cup cooked rice

1/4 cup green or white onion, sliced thin

1/4 cup carrots, julienned

2" fresh ginger, peeled & cut into 8 coins

10-12 wild jumbo shrimp (size 16-20/lb), shelled & cleaned

salt and white pepper

1/2 lemon, sliced into thin rounds

2 TBS mirin

2 TBS sesame oil

1 TBS ponzu sauce (or use lemon or lime juice plus soy sauce)

2 pieces of parchment paper, roughly 15"x24"

Preheat the oven to 425 F. Set out a baking sheet, ready to transfer the parchment packets to the oven. Fold each parchment sheet in half (now 15x12) and cut a large, fat heart shape.

Spread half of the cabbage shreds on one open sheet of heart-shaped parchment close to the fold line. Spread it out, but leave an inch or two bare along the cut outside edge. Top with half of the rice, onion, carrots and coins of ginger. Add half of the shrimp on top, sprinkle with salt and pepper and arrange half of the lemon rounds over the shrimp. Sprinkle with half of the mirin, sesame oil and ponzu sauce. (Short version: layer half of the ingredients on the paper and sprinkle half of the liquids evenly over the top.)

Fold the other half of the heart over the top, lining up the edges. Begin with the top of the heart (the fat part) at the fold; fold over a short section, pleat and pinch together, press down to seal and repeat the fold/pleat/pinch/press as you work around the edge to the bottom point. Twist the final section to seal and tuck under the pouch to secure it. 

Repeat with the remaining ingredients to create a second packet.

Move the packets onto a baking sheet and place in the center of the preheated oven. Reduce the oven temp to 400 F and bake for 15 minutes (only 10-12 minutes for smaller shrimp). The packets should puff slightly as they cook. (I suggest opening one packet a few minutes early to check for doneness - you don't ever want to overcook shrimp!) 

To serve, transfer each packet to a dinner plate; use kitchen shears to cut an X on top to fold open. The aroma is tantalizing. Serve with lemon slices and/or Sweet Thai Chile Sauce to drizzle over the packet contents if you like. (I prefer mine plain.) 

Green Sauce for Salad and Prawns

Fresh Alaskan spot prawns, caught that same day, cooked briefly then shock-chilled in ice water, ready to peel and eat with your fingers – OH MY GOODNESS! That’s good eats!!

It all began when we invited a couple from a boat anchored nearby in Gut Bay (link) to join us for an evening of chili, cornbread and conversation. They arrived with a bottle of wine and a plastic bag bursting with some of their just-pulled and cleaned Alaskan spot prawns. Wow, what thoughtful hostess gifts! These jumbo beauties were perfect to turn a plain green salad into something extra special. The dressing, adapted from one found in a Food & Wine cookbook,  “Soups & Salads”, was delicious on the greens alone as well as on the prawns. Think green goddess with an attitude.

Note: the extra sauce made a second appearance as a cracker and vegetable dip later in the week. There were no extra prawns.

Are you thinking about serving the prawns as a stand-alone treat, an appetizer perhaps with sauce on the side? Peel the cooked and cooled prawns if you feel you absolutely must. I favor the peel and eat as you go method with prawns; it’s messy but utterly delicious. Fastidious friends might use knife and fork or even chopsticks, but fingers are hard to beat for efficiency. Besides, you get to lick the sauce off the prawns and your fingers as you go.  

Great Green Dressing for Salad and Shrimp

Inspired by Food & Wine “Soups & Salads” recipe  

6 anchovy fillets

2 teaspoons minced garlic

Grated zest of 1 small lemon

½ cup mint leaves and stems (or dried mint)

4 ounces olive oil

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juce

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

1 medium avocado

2 tablespoons water, more or less as needed to adjust consistency (optional)

Pinch of ground white pepper

Add the first 8 ingredients (anchovies through avocado) to a blender jar. Pulse to chop, then blend continuously until smooth. Add water as need to thin as needed. Taste, then season with pepper (and salt if desired) to suit your taste.

Christmas Cioppino

I have childhood memories of Christmas Eve suppers with Mom’s homemade soup, usually a vegetable beef blend, simmered slowly on the stove and accompanied by fragrant loaves of white bread, still warm from the oven. Decades later I continue the family soup and bread supper tradition, but now we enjoy a NorthWest cioppino with crusty sourdough loaves. I tried to follow tradition for Christmas Eve 2012, but life got in the way.

On the morning of the 24th I made an early-morning run to my favorite seafood market, Mutual Fish, at least I thought it was early. Customers must have lined up very early that morning, long before the usual 8:30 opening. As I pulled plastic tag number 54 to mark my place in line, tag number 4 was called – and Mutual had run through an entire set of 100 tags once already prior to this round! The minutes flew by as I hung out, made new friends, compared recipes with strangers, and marveled at the patience and good cheer shown by everyone in that crowded market. Finally it was my turn at the counter. Soon small packages of cod, shrimp, crab, scallops, calamari and clams went into a sack and traveled home in my cooler. The seafood went directly into the refrigerator and I went directly to bed... damned flu bug! I should be recovering, not relapsing. Niece H phoned to report her last-minute call out on a 3-day trip, and our Christmas Eve supper was officially postponed until later in the week... whenever. 

About that fresh seafood... clams prefer an underwater life, don't like to hang out in the fridge very long, and certainly don't improve with age. So we had a simple supper that night, eating a few clams steamed with wine, diced chorizo, peppers and aromatics. The uneaten clams were scooped from their shells, the broth reserved, and all of the seafood tossed into the freezer until that indefinite later in the week. 

Fast forward to later in the week when H returned home and my flu bug was less pesky. We celebrated being together for the holiday and enjoyed a new recipe for an old favorite, cioppino. Fresh seafood is always the best, but recently-frozen worked out just fine for this holiday.

Christmas 2012 Cioppino

serves 6+

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 large fennel bulb, thinly sliced

1 onion, chopped

1 sweet red pepper, chopped

1 large leek, halved lengthwise and cut in half-moons

2 teaspoons salt

4 large garlic cloves, finely chopped

3/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper flakes, plus more to taste

1/4 cup tomato paste

1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes in juice

1 1/2 cups dry white wine

5 cups fish stock (or use clam broth and chicken stock)

1 bay leaf

1 tablespoon each fresh thyme and oregano 

2 pounds manila clams, scrubbed

1.5 pound firm fish fillets (halibut, cod, etc) cut into 2-inch chunks

1 pound uncooked large shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 pound mixed scallops and calamari

1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, rough chopped

Dungeness crab meat sauteed in butter  (optional garnish)

Heat the oil in a very large stock pot or dutch oven over medium heat. Add the fennel, onion, red pepper, leek, and salt and saute until the onion is translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and 3/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes, and saute until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste. Add tomatoes with their juices, wine, fish stock, bay leaf, thyme and oregano. Cover and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer, covered, until the flavors blend, at least 30 minutes. (I like to make the broth a day in advance, then reheat before proceding on.)

Add the clams and to the cooking liquid (or cook the clams separately and add to each bowl before serving.) Cover and cook until the clams begin to open, about 5 minutes. Add the fish, shrimp, scallops and calamari. Simmer gently until the seafood is just cooked through, and the clams are completely open, stirring gently, a few minutes longer (discard any clams that do not open). Season the soup, to taste, with more salt and red pepper flakes.

Optional topping: melt a tablespoon or two of butter in a small saute pan over medium heat. When bubbling add chunks of Dungeness crab meat or additional prawns and cook briefly. Sprinkle with a pinch of cayenne or pimento if you like.

Ladle the soup into bowls, add the clams if you cooked them separately, sprinkle with the chopped parsley, add a small mound of warmed crab chunks and serve with crusty bread. Add a green salad and a glass of wine and there's a dinner to celebrate any holiday or special event.

Piccata Prawns and Pasta

What's hanging out in your freezer? I recently found a forgotten treasure in mine. The bottom freezer drawer, the drawer dedicated to seafood, was all topsy-turvy and jammed full. Cranky me rushed to reorganize and toss out some bait packages. Bait?! oh yes, we store fish heads, bellies and carcasses to use for halibut, crab and prawn bait. A small container of prawns lurked beneath some lox and bait packages, hiding almost in plain sight. How long had they been buried down there, tucked away under some fish fillets? Since Laredo Inlet, several weeks ago, and now it was time to eat those big guys, right away. 

Waiting for the prawns to defrost I considered some recipe possibilities, mentally tasting each preparation and weighing the effort involved. A great tasting, quick to make saute of Piccata Prawns won out, sauced and served over pasta. 

Most of the effort went into peeling the prawns. They are much faster and easier to peel after being frozen, so even that step did not take too long.

Lemon, garlic, butter, white wine and capers combined to create a sauce yummy enough to make even cardboard taste good... okay, maybe not cardboard. But it was delicious with prawns and pasta and came together in mere minutes. Cooking the pasta took longer than preparing the prawns and the sauce.

The tangy citrus notes of the lemon and the salty bite of capers provide a nice balance to the richness of the butter and prawns. Oh, yum! Piccata-style prawns (or chicken piccata) rank high on the list of family favorites, simple and quick enough for weeknight meals and tasty enough to serve to guests. They were also a tasty reward for straightening out the freezer, a bonus beyond a newly-organized freezer drawer with room for a few fillets and a lot of bait.

Piccata Prawns and Pasta

Serves 2+, appetite dependent

1 pound peeled and deveined large prawns/shrimp
2 tablespoons AP flour
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup lemon juce
1/4 cup lo-sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon capers, drained
1/8 teaspoon each salt and freshly ground pepper, or to taste
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter (more as needed for prawns and at finish)
2 cloves garlic, smashed or minced
cooked angel hair pasta or fettucine
lemon wedges, minced green onions, chopped fresh parsley (optional)
long pasta, cooked and drained

1. Cook your pasta, drain, toss with a smidge of olive oil and hold in a warm bowl.
2. In a small bowl or measuring cup combine wine, lemon juice, capers, salt and pepper. Set aside.
3. In a paper bag or medium bowl toss prawns with flour until all pieces are coated. Set aside.
4. Place the olive oil and butter in a large skillet and heat over medium-high heat until butter melts; add the garlic and cook for 15-20 seconds or until it is fragrant. Quickly add half of the prawns and cook 1-2 minutes per side, until they just turn opaque. Remove from skillet. Repeat with remaining prawns, adding more butter as necessary. Remove prawns from skillet, leaving any remaining oil and butter in the pan.
5. Add the sauce to the skillet and cook until it bubbles and reduces slightly, stirring frequently. Return the prawns to the pan; stir constantly and cook for a minute or so until they are heated through, being careful NOT to overcook the prawns. 
6. Remove from the heat; stir in another pat of butter or two (extra butter is optional, but it smooths the sauce nicely). Serve immediately over pasta. Garnish with lemon wedge and parsley.

Some Notes: 

• Coating the prawns with flour is optional, but I find it helps pull the sauce together and cling to the prawns.
• Capers are quite salty. If that's an issue then rinse and drain them.
• Season the prawns with salt and pepper or a lemon pepper mix before or after cooking if you like. (I don't typically)
• Mixed seafood is a terrific option, scallops and crabmeat blend well with prawns in piccata sauce. Or try a package of Trader Joe's mixed seafood blend for a fast preparation.
• The pasta readily soaks up the sauce, so consider doubling the quantity of sauce per batch if you like very saucy pasta, or a tempting puddle of sauce for dipping your bread.

Lime and Thai Chili Prawns

Prawns, Prawns and More Prawns (or shrimp perhaps)

Prawning used to be considered hard work, but it’s easier and considerably more fun now that we have a pot puller. (link) An empty prawn trap doesn’t weigh all that much, but when lowered 300 to 400 feet underwater at the end of a sinking line, well it grows a lot heavier. Believe it! Add the drag from a single 24-inch sunstar (multi-armed starfish) and it feels like you are pulling a barn door through heavy, sticky mud when you retrieve the pot. Even without a starfish, a good catch of prawns requires major muscle effort, and that’s just the first pot! Now the motorized pot puller supplies mechanical muscle and saves ours.

But I just run the skiff and let the Capt have fun pulling the prawn traps. Then it’s my job to pinch their little heads off, clean them, separate them by size and finally cook the catch.

Photo: a typical lunch of just-cooked prawns and green salad

Peel-and-eat is a typical use for the smaller shrimp, or they might fill a taco or quesadilla, flavor a soup or bisque, add interest to a pasta dish or decorate a salad (think Shrimp Louis). Very large prawns deserve something a bit more special, a preparation to complement their natural flavor without overwhelming it.

This week we enjoyed a new recipe, a tangy combination of prawns, lime and Thai sweet chili sauce. What was so special about prawns and sauce? Sweet heat with a bit of sour plus just-harvested seafood – now that's a winner! It also took mere minutes to prepare once the prawns were cleaned, and that's always a bonus.

Prawns with Lime and Sweet Chili

Adapted from The Essential Seafood Cookbook

Serves 3-4

24 extra large prawns/shrimp

2 cloves garlic, crushed (or use garlic paste)

2 tablespoons Thai sweet chili sauce

2 tablespoons lime juice

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 green onions, chopped (use green and white sections)

grated lime zest (as desired)

Remove heads and peel 24 very large raw prawns/shrimp, cut in half lengthwise and devein.(see note below if using smaller shrimp)

Combine crushed garlic cloves, Thai sweet chili sauce, lime juice and olive oil.

Add the prawns to the marinade and toss well to coat . Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Remove the prawns; barbecue, grill or sauté until just cooked through, brushing with some of the remaining marinade. If pan sautéing, add remaining sauce just before prawns completely finish.

Top with minced green onions and a sprinkle of grated lime zest.

Note: if using large or even medium prawns use them whole. Don’t bother halving the smaller ones lengthwise or they might cook too quickly.