The simple and delicious way to make a complicated dessert in no time.

 

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Shrimp are very tasty and relatively cheap, and generally as easy to cook as seafood gets. The most challenging aspect of cooking shellfish is usually peeling and deveining them, so many home chefs skip those steps and purchase shrimp already peeled and deveined. But in doing so, they lose a major flavor component: the shell. If you buy whole shrimp still in the shell and take a little time to peel them, you have a wonderful opportunity to make a simple ‘shell stock’, which will multiply the flavor of any shrimp or seafood dish exponentially. As for deveining, some chefs actually view the step as unnecessary.

Watch a video of one of Chef Jim Gray’s favorite recipes: Shrimp Bisque, and see for yourself how easily you can enjoy the full ocean-infused flavor of shrimp.

Kitchen Guy’s Shrimp Bisque Recipe

Ingredients

1 1/4 pounds shrimp, shelled and deveined, shells reserved

1/4 cup butter, unsalted

1/2 cup white wine

2 quarts water

1 bay leaf, preferably Turkish

3 medium carrots, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

2 tablespoons rice, long grain and wild

2 tablespoons tomato paste

3/4 teaspoon cayenne

2 teaspoons salt

1/3 cup heavy cream

lemon juice

Method

Cook shrimp shells in 1 tablespoon butter in a 4-quart pot over moderately high heat, stirring frequently, until golden. Add white wine and boil, stirring frequently, until most of the liquid has evaporated. Add water and bay leaf and simmer, uncovered for 20 minutes. Pour shrimp stock through a fine sieve into a bowl, pressing on shells and then discarding them. While stock is simmering, cook shrimp in 1 tablespoon butter in a 6 quart heavy pot over moderate heat, stirring frequently, until just cooked through, about 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer with a slotted spoon to a bowl. Add remaining butter to pot, and then cook carrots, celery and onion over moderate heat until softened. Stir in rice, tomato paste, cayenne, salt and shrimp stock and simmer, covered until rice is tender, about 20 minutes. Set aside 12 shrimp and stir remainder into bisque. Puree bisque in batches in a blender, using caution when blending hot liquids, then pour through a strainer into another pot. Stir in cream and cook over low heat until heated through, taking care not to let the soup boil. Stir in lemon juice and salt to taste. Cut reserved shrimp into 1/4-inch dice and use as part of garnish for bisque along with fresh chopped chives.

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Summer fruits with a long season, like apples and peaches, and other fruits that ripen in autumn, like many plums and pears, are among the most excellent fruits for making fillings for pies and tarts. Autumn is the harvest season, and these and other fruit, especially stone fruit, are the first to fill the proverbial cornucopia, and are in fact falling off the trees this time of year.

Enjoy this recipe for Blueberry Plum Tartlets. It calls for a traditional pie crust, but you may also substitute this Almond Shortbread Crust recipe for an even more elegant treat. And consider making this Bourbon Whipped Cream as an accompaniment.

Summer has finally made it’s sultry self known here in the City by the Bay, after the standard ocean-induced foggitude. By now most of the rest of the country has already drowned it’s thirsty palate in iced tea, lemonade, Gatorade, soda pop, and ice water, but many of us San Franciscans are just getting into the summer swing of things.

There are teas, energy drinks and vitamin drinks aplenty, but sometimes the best things are made with good old raw ingredients right at home. Lemonade is easily made by the glass, and it’s as good for you as it is refreshing.

But another beverage that has real health benefits and is also yummy, but which gets less recognition, is homemade ginger ale. It’s easy to make:

Ginger Water (prepared ahead)
5 cups water
2 cups fresh ginger (finely chopped)
Boil the water, add the ginger, and reduce the heat. Let it simmer for a few minutes, then remove the mixture from the heat and let it cool for about 15-25 minutes. Pour the ginger water through a fine mesh strainer and discard the boiled ginger.

Simple Syrup (prepared ahead)
2 cups water
2 cups sugar
Simmer until clear and transparent.

Ginger Ale, by the glass
Ginger Water
Simple Syrup
Club Soda
Lemon Wedges
Fill each glass 2/3 full with ice, and add 1/2 cup of ginger water, 1/2 cup of club soda, and 1/4 of simple syrup (or more to taste). Garnish with lemon wedges.

And if it’s a cool summer cocktail that beckons you, you can always add a bit of quality whiskey, vodka or rum to the ginger ale, or you can add the ginger ale’s components (namely the ginger water, or even a ginger simple syrup) to champagne, a martini, or a mojito.