Brandied Shrimp Étouffée with Leek

A variation on something my father used to cook on special occasions, étouffée has origins in Louisiana, a place I've never been, but hope to visit one day. Feeling some need for comfort and sophistication all on the same plate, try this one on your palette:

Brandied Shrimp Étouffée with Leek

Ingredients:

Tomatoes 2 plum
1/2 a large Red Pepper
1 lbs Shrimp peeled, but leave the tails on
1 Leek
1/2 an onion or a 1/2 a cup of chopped
2 garlic cloves
4 slices of ginger
basil
cayenne
bay leaf
pepper
sea salt
water
fat, oil, lard (I used a bit of leftover beef fat after frying a large burger the night before) - many people use vegetable oil, but I am moving away from this because I have found animal fats to be better health-wise and better to work with on heat while things like olive oil are healthy but cooking with them is less than ideal because the heat ruins the health benefits.
1/2 cup of flour - you can use cornstarch or some other thickening agent - I think I will purchase some arrow root to experiment with it as some point.
1-2 ounces of Brandy

The Process:

As usual, I typically arrange all my ingredients out on the counter prior to cooking, meat, or in this case some frozen shrimp (gasp! I know, sometimes I use frozen seafood) should be brought out and left to come to room temperature prior to preparation.


At this point, I start preparing the the pan, by heating it lightly. Vegetables are to be chopped, usually I will start chopping in the order that I will add to the pan, so that I can make better use of my time; for example, I will typically fry ginger and onions first, so they will be first to be chopped.

The mushrooms for this dish should be chopped lengthwise rather than quartered. With the red peppers, I cut them lengthwise into inch wide strips and then again diagonally, but much thinner, say about 1/2 to a 1/4 centimeter (I use two measuring systems, deal with it - My American brothers and sisters, lets make a deal, you learn metric and we will learn imperial - there is no need to argue anymore)

The leek, I will quarter lengthwise by cutting along the stem in half and then half again, then grab the whole lot, line it up and chop these lengths into rectangular chunks say a cm to a half an inch.








Cut the plum tomatoes (you can use other types if you prefer, but I had plum tomatoes in my fridge so I used them. I cut mind into quarters and then I cut the quarters into strips.



Notice my messed up cutting board, it split a year or two ago but I did not throw it out and well, now I have two smaller, matching cutting boards. Anyhow, I have all the stuff chopped and laid out and ready to go. If you know what you are making and you have done it dozens of times, then there is no need to be this prepared prior to cooking, and you can multitask a bit more. I do find this allows you to concentrate on what you are doing and have less mistakes. You do not want to be that person that lets the onions burn while you muck about chopping a tomato that is to be added later.




At this point, the pan should be heated a bit and your fat should be added to the pan. First add the slices of ginger, heat should be on medium (I use gas, so I cannot provide a temperature). Leave the ginger and have your chopped onion ready to go into the pan, about a minute or two later.









Now I did mention burning, because burnt ginger and onion tastes much worse and in some kitchens this gets thrown out because you will be messing up the flavors from your more expensive ingredients. With that in mind, allow your onions to fry, they do not need to be constantly stirred, but at the same time, the individual pieces need to be moved around to get coated in the fat and cooked evenly. Ideally you want the onions slightly caramelized, but nothing to go black.







After about a minute or two, add the chopped leek, then stir, about a minute or two later, add your garlic. Then add mushroom a bit after that.










Then add the red pepper, and then the tomatoes. I will typically start salting the food as it sautees. I found a great trick a while back while watching a cooking show where the cleaver chef person was holding the cutting board above the pan and using their knife to shovel the ingredients into the pan, which makes a heck of a lot more sense than grabbing this stuff with your hands and putting it into your pan in some cases, but whatever works for you.





Again, keep stirring every once in a while, you can be slightly more relaxed about this as the mushrooms, the leek, and the pepper release a bit of water into the mix.











Then the spices with the exception of the bay leaf. Stir this fairly constantly so everything cooks evenly and nothing burns, then cover the pan, allow the vegetables to sweat down a bit, then add 1/2 a cup of water, and cover. Bring to a gentle boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer. Now if you really want to do a proper job, I forgot to do this, take your shrimp peel, put it in a small covered pot with water and simmer it to make shrimp stock and use this instead of water, or use chicken stock, but the former is preferable.

Wait about 20-30 minutes, and then add a bit more water, to make sure all the vegetables are swimming, but not drowning.

Add the brandy at this point and allow to simmer for another 20 minutes. Typically you can stop the heat for an hour or so to let the flavours marry.

Add about 1/3 of a cup or less, depending on how thick you want the sauce, preferably when the sauce is relatively cool, stir the flour in thoroughly so you don't make dumplings, rather you want a roux. Add the shrimp into your roux, and simmer for about 30 or so minutes to allow the shrimp to cook with the lid on. If you are preparing side dishes for this, now is the time to get to it. I typically serve this on a bed of basmati rice, so I would be making this now.






Do not be that idiot that cooks their main dish to perfection and then leaves it to get cold while they mess about with deciding "oh, I should make the rice now" or do I boil potatoes, or maybe I should make a salad. Cooking is a choreography of preparation, chopping, heating, and then synchronization of the times when your various components will be finished. I lived with a girl once that decided to make hotdogs and fries for dinner one night, and then I nearly lost it (I was not mean or visibly upset, more flabbergasted and almost tongue tied) when she made the hot dogs, put them in the buns, and only then decided to start making the fries. For some people this might be unnoticeable, but my whole attitude is if something is worth doing, it is worth doing right. To her credit, she learned that lesson and became a slightly better cook in the future.

The main is almost ready and the rice should only take a few minutes. One thing I noticed about rice, is that it does not need to boil through the entire process. How I make my rice, and this works with most varieties of basmati or jasmine, figure out how much rice you want, visualize in your pot, then put half to a 1/3 the amount in the pot (it will need a lid), then put in enough water to cover the rise and then some. What I do is the very scientific method of taking my thumb, putting the tip of my thumb at the level of the rice and topping the water so that it extends to the level of my cuticle (where the nail starts), and then put the pot on a high heat, with the lid off. Add a sprinkle or two of salt, and you can add saffron - I lost mine in a move, and have yet to buy more. Once the rice starts to boil, then lower the heat to minimum, and cover the pot once the boil has subsided, otherwise it will boil over and make a mess. Let the rice cook for about 10 or 15 minutes (you can usually smell once it is done). Most of the moisture should be gone, and test the rice to see that it is soft and ready, then just turn the heat off completely and leave the pot covered and it will hit a perfect temperature and moisture level in the next five minutes or so - I do not like my rice to be hot, but rather warm.


Meanwhile the main dish, has stewed to perfection. Often I will leave the dish covered and allow to sit for a few minutes with the heat off just to get down to an edible temperature - not cold - not lukewarm, but still lightly steaming.

The main sauce should be a rich brown colour with a hint of orange, and you will notice the red peppers are still red and should pop nicely. The shrimp should have a bit of red in it indicating it is cooked thoroughly but not overdone.

The plating of this dish is very simple, but what I found works the best is to have a heated plate - my dad would use the microwave, but what I do is put the plates in the oven on minimal heat for a few minutes. Scoop the rice onto the plate to form a raised bed of rice, obviously you can adjust your carb portion here.


Then, once the rice is there, take a serving spoon and scoop a healthy amount of your etouffee over the rice, but leave a border of rice at the edges uncovered for presentation.

Pour yourself some red wine and then just admire what you have done for a bit.

If you want to kick this recipe up to the next level, do what I forgot to do when I cooked it this time, and take your shrimp peelings and boil them in a bit of water to make shrimp stock and roll that back into the étouffée and use less water.

Weather it is spring, summer, fall or winter, this dish will please your tummy and will impress anyone you are cooking for, and it is not that hard if you break it down into steps and pay attention to what you are doing, so why are your ordering takeout or having a frozen pizza when you can make this!

Sourdough Bread - the way Bread used to be Made

Sourdough is the way leavened bread was made for thousands of years, prior to the 1950s when commercial yeast became the defacto way to rise a dough and make bread. Sourdough is not your parent's bread, it is not even your grandparent's bread, but it is the bread of your ancestors. Just like everything else in our 5 min. culture, older, and sometimes better ways of doing things, especially with food, has given way to faster and more convenient. For people with the attention span of gnats, this might be considered a good thing, but when one can think beyond the next five minutes, good nutrition and taste should be more important - when you have the time and planning to do so.

In that respect, sourdough bread does not take 5 minutes, or 14 as with commercial yeast, it can take days to get a good vigorous starter going, and a day or so to make a decent loaf of sourdough bread, but the rewards can be worth it with a bit of forethought and preparation time. I would argue that it takes about as much work, but the time is spread out. If you have patience, sourdough rocks and it should be the only bread you eat. Okay, that is a bit of an exaggeration, but seriously it kicks other bread's asses.

You cannot have proper sourdough bread without the use of a starter. If you know someone that has a bit of starter on the go, you can obtain it pretty quickly, but if you are like me and you want to make your own starter, the steps are fairly simple, it only takes a bit of patience beyond some basic ingredients.  

How to create a Sourdough Starter

Ingredients:

• Flour - preferably unbleached, can be rye, wheat, or whole wheat. I used white, general purpose
• Non-chlorinated, or filtered water - if you do not have a source of additive-free water, I recommend filtered water that has been left to stand for 24 hours. I simply filled a wine glass with Britta water and let it stand for a day prior to use.
• A glass container with a lid, or a mason jar - I have heard that metal is not ideal for this, and I avoid as much plastic when it comes to food so I recommend glass
• (Optional) Grapes, apple skins, or potato - I used grapes

Process:
When using grapes, make sure that they are organic and they should have a bit of white on their skins, which indicate that natural yeasts are present.

Cut up or mash several grapes, I used about 15 or so into the clean glass container, cover the container, but do not fasten it tight, just leave the top on loosely. Place the container in the cupboard (room temperature) and wait for 3 or 4 days.

After 3 or 4 days, add water and flour and mix thoroughly and cover loosely - C0₂ is released so you do not want an accident with an exploding jar.

Wait a few days - this depends - check it every day. When you see some bubbling, you will know that the process is underway. Patience is key here, mine took over a week before it seemed to be working.

Once the bubbling is underway, you can remove whatever grape material (it can disintegrate) you can find.

A note about mold - you can throw out the whole thing, or do what I did and just remove whatever looks moldy.

After a day or two, I have read that you dump half of the mixture and then add more flour and water, I just skipped that and started using my starter because I do not believe in wasting unnecessarily.
Now, you should have some sourdough starter, the rest is just feeding - Write about care of sourdough starter


After two weeks, my starter looked like this, a bit messy and you can definitely smell it (sour/sweet), but it is active and it is alive.

When I started mine, it was in late autumn, last week of October, so I left mine in the cupboard, but I think after a couple of days, you can put it in the fridge.
 At this point, you can refrigerate it and feed it once a week, except when using it. The rule I follow is whatever I take out of it, I put back into it. If I take half out to make a loaf of bread, I will put in enough water and flour to top it up to where it was before. I do not put sugar inside this starter, but occasionally I will put potato water (cooled water that potatoes were boiled in). At this point, I do not think killing the starter is an easy thing to do. Neglected, yeast will go into hibernation, but heat will kill it, and impurities can hurt the colony, so be careful what goes into it, and I'm fairly sure that chlorinated water is not a good idea.

How to make a Sourdough Boule and how I learned

When I started on the crazy idea of growing bacteria and fungi in my cupboard, I accepted the idea that it might turn into an ugly pile of smelly mold and got on with it, but I also had a divergent vision of a crusty, mulch-textured and richly hued loaf as crafted by professional bakers in upscale bakeries. The vision does not come with a minimal effort and it takes time and the willingness to let go of perfection.

My first effort consisted of a couple of dinner rolls that I baked impatiently after eyeballing the proportion of ingredients, only about eight minutes of kneading, a hour of rise (called proofing), and then tossing into the oven. I was in a hurry to get the thing done and see how the process works rather than achieve something I would serve to friends and family.

The results left much to be desired but I was prepared for that and despite my missteps, the damn things rose (albeit not by much) and I had two delicious bricks of sourdough bread. They did not last 24 hours as I ate one that night, and then the other in the morning with soup.

 After a bit of reading and watching some YouTube videos, I looked at what I was doing was to figure out not what when wrong, but rather, how to improve my technique.

My next effort was a boule of sorts, which is a french loanword for rounded loaf, which was a bit more in line with what I wanted to be able to achieve. While it was still a bit dense, the use of moisture in the oven gave the bread a slightly more brownish colouring in areas. I even added caraway seeds and a bit of rosemary for flavour.

next I wanted to have make myself a cheeseburger with fries, so instead of going to the grocery store and purchasing some kaiser buns, I figured, what the hell, why not make some sourdough buns. The process worked as before with the result being two very dense but otherwise edible and tasty sourdough buns. The problem of course was the burger being squished during consumption. I was in a hurry and did not allow sufficient time for a proper rise - lesson learned again. I also tried a rough baguette which had a nice texture and had a better colour because I remembered to add moisture to the oven during the intial stages of baking.

Things came together a few days later when I decided that an overnight "proofing" was required so I gathered my patience and prior to making dinner I decided to create a dough.

Sourdough Boule:

Ingredients:

2-3 cups of Flour - I used white, unbleached all purpose - use what you want, but it is best that you use the same type as that of your starter. I have heard and read, you can convert a starter, by slowly introducing it to different types of flour.
1 cup of water (probably best if it is filtered and left to stand for a day, or if you have spring water)
1/3 to 1/2 a cup of starter
a half teaspoon of sea salt - kosher salt works as well. I have read that iodized salt is a not recommended
a teaspoon to a tablespoon of oil, lard, or melted butter - I used canola oil because I find it convenient, but I intend to switch to lard with a bit more experience. 
You can add sugar - I prefer to use honey - a note here, I have read that pasteurized honey works best as it is less likely to contain organisms that might compete with your sourdough starter, but I will probably experiment with unpasteurized honey at one point. I literally use about a half-tablespoon to a full tablespoon.
Optional Spices and/or Herbs - I typically use a bit of rosemary or oregano with caraway seeds as my go-to herbs. About a half teaspoon of each or less, depending on your tastes.
An Oven - Something that goes to at least 450 Fahrenheit or 220 Celsius
Some people use a baking stone, but I don't have one, so I bake my bread in a ceramic casserole dish
I have heard that a great way to do it is in a dutch oven
A bit of water for while it is baking

The Process:

Combine all the dry ingredients, stirring
Then add the oil, lard, or butter
Combine the ingredients in a mixing bowl, and stir into a unified batter.
Add the sourdough starter and stir into a unified mix



The dough should resemble a shaggy mass that is not quite solid, but something you should be able to handle on a cutting board without the mixture spilling onto the counter.
I typically allow my mixture to sit in the bowl after the initial mixing, covered with a tea towel for about 20-30 minutes.
After the initial mixing, you can remove the mass from the bowl and put the entire thing on a cutting board - with your bare hands (hopefully you have washed them, but that is up to you)



Knead the dough, in this case I recommend that you use the palm of your hand to stretch the dough and pull it back into it's mass repeatedly, folding it into itself, over and over again. I typically knead my dough for approximately 10 minutes until the dough starts to be more manageable.



The mass will stick to a cutting board - this is inevitable - a lot of bakers will have a metal scraper to fold this stuff back into the mass, I use the dull edge of a butter knife to accomplish this.





 

 







As for your hands, you can just wash this off or roll your hands together over the mixing bowl and put this stuff back into the mass. After 10 or 15 minutes of kneading, the mass will become even more manageable and I will shape it into a round ball and put it back into the mixing bowl for the first rise. Cover this with a tea towel and leave for 30 or so minutes.



At this point, the dough will be a little bit easier to handle, I have heard that adding a bit more flour is "cheating" but I am not sure that I agree. Anyway, the goal is to have this mass that has gone from a peanut butter like mass in terms of stickiness and consistency into something that feels like play-dough, i.e. it does not readily stick to your fingers. At this point, the dough should be shaped one last time and put into either proofing basket or back into the mixing bowl if that is what you are going to use. Cover it with a tea towel - some suggest cling-wrap - I don't like this kind of product so I have none in my kitchen. Put it in the cupboard and allow to rise for 8 hours or overnight as I will tend to do - this makes all the difference. My breads went from tasty bricks to tasty bread (with holes and such) after I started doing this.




After proofing overnight, the dough has changed colour and grown in size - not sure about "doubling" but it does increase in volume by a noticeable amount.













Scoring the proofed dough with a very sharp knife is generally a good idea, but I have skipped it once or twice without too much ill effect. Generally this will prevent the dough from bursting in an unattractive way when it is baking.








Baking. Preheat your oven to 450 Fahrenheit or 220 Celsius. After this is done, have some water ready. Put your dough in your baking container, and put it in the oven. I recommend either misting the oven at this point with water, putting a container with a small amount of water on the lower rack - or do what I did and play dangerous and just drip about a handful of water on the bottom of the oven and get ready to back away and close the oven door because the steam is instant an it is scalding. The purpose of this is to reinforce a crispy and darker crust, and yes I have noticed a difference in my baking experiments.


Usually I will keep doing the water thing for the first twenty minutes about every five minutes or so. If you have a container of water, you should remove it after the first 20 minutes. I tend to cool the oven a touch by lowering the temperature at this point also down to 400, then a few minutes later down to 350 for the next 10, then down to about 200 for the last 5 minutes or so. I will then after 35-45 minutes turn off the oven completely, and allow the bread to sit for five or so minutes before removing it.





The finished product should look somewhat like the bread you might find in a decent bakery, but you did it yourself and it is yours. The one above was a second attempt at a boule, while the first, below was the first attempt ~ If you look closely, you might notice the lame pentacle I carved into the top.

Not perfect, but it did rise, and it did change colour, unlike my very first attempt which I barely put any real effort or thought into.

Indeed, it is bread...

The bread has holes, and such which also meant that it was not a brick, the internal texture was great.

After about 30 minutes of cooling, you can cut it, spread butter on it and a bit of sea salt and it is the best bread you will ever have because you made it, from scratch, now all I have to do is get some land, grow my own wheat, get a mill and I can feed myself during the coming apocalypse! Just kidding, just prepping for the zombies is all.

Moving along, after a few attempts, one including my first use of bulgur, came out with a cornbread texture - it was not what I was looking for but it tasted fine nonetheless and I figured out how that happend, so now I can do it again if I want.

This is the loaf that I did not score, but it came out just fine, and in some ways, the crust and colour was the best yet out of my kitchen.

Further reading about sourdough:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sourdough
A scientific article on the benefits of eating sourdough bread