Cooking With Wine

The term Indian Summer is thrown around a lot right now. Near as I can tell it is the last few days of September when the days feel like summer and the nights fall. Well here in New Orleans, it is still just hot, but there are rumors of fall in the air. Sunday afternoon was one of those perfect Indian Summer days and it was time to grill. But this time in lieu of beef, pork, or chicken, we opted to grill shrimp.

Mad Max had provided the perfect wine for grilled shrimp. As the man himself says,"The 2008 Pinot Blanc from cult winemaker, Robert Foley, is vinified with total focus on the fruit characteristics of the Pinot Blanc grape - effusive peach and gardenia blossom notes in the bouquet, a broad and fresh mouth feel with a lingering fruity finish. The wine was vinified entirely in stainless steel to preserve the freshness of fruit, no oak barrels, no malolactic fermentation." You can find it at Carte des Vins, Rib Room, Stella!, Herbsaint, NOLA, and Coquette. This wine retails for around $25 and is best drank out of a mason jar to complete the summertime ensemble.

Good enough for good times I say. The recipe we used came out of Mario Batali's excellent Italian Grill cookbook. It is really more of a technique than a recipe as he uses it throughout the book to add a crunchy, charred crust to proteins. As you will see below, a bread crumb sort of pesto kicks ass on the grill. Batali also calls for a piastra- a  flat metal sheet over a roaring fire- in this recipe. Not having one and channeling inner MacGyver, I just flipped over a cast iron skillet and used its flat underside.

Shrimp Spiedini alla Romagnola

First combine 1 bunch of Italian parsley, 1 bunch basil, 2 cups fresh bread crumbs, a hefty pinch of salt, black pepper, and 1/4 cup of olive oil. I added a little bit of lemon zest because yellow and green look good together. You blend all of that into a paste in a food processor, blender, or mortar and pestle, if you aren't into that whole brevity thing. Toss two pounds of peeled and deveined shrimp into this paste and coat well.

Now thread the shrimp onto some rosemary sprigs that you have removed the leaves from and soaked in water. Or you could use bamboo skewers. Or if you are afraid of pokey things, just place them directly on grill. After skewering all the shrimp, leave in the fridge for about 30 minutes while you get your fire cranking.

 Take a cast iron pan (or piastra if you fancy), flip it over and place it over the hottest part of the grill. Let it get hot, brush on some olive oil, and then place the skewers on the makeshift piastra. Cook 2 minutes per side. Serve with a salad- here I did a grilled Caesar. The shrimp come out the perfect love child between grilled shrimp and fried shrimp, with little clumps of charred bread and a zip of "pesto". It is the perfect dish for an Indian Summer's Eve....Wait, that didn't come out right.

Shrimp Risotto

The Crescent City Farmer's Market is busting out right now. Spring is by far my favorite season. It is so less ultimate than either the heat of summer or the cold of winter. Unfortunately, I will have to miss the market next Saturday as I will be cooking a prized pig to help fight cancer, but you should go. Then come by and help destroy cancer.

Fava beans are in season. These velveteen pods hold a bean, that must first be removed from said pod and then peeled. Blanch the bean in heavily salted, boiling water until tender. This does not take long. Toss into an ice bath, dry and reserve. Do the same to some asparagus.

We also got some beautiful shrimp (U-15s) and some more Cilantro-Chipotle Pesto from Paul the Pesto Guy. Lindsay peeled the shrimp, reserving the heads and shells for me. Into a pot of water went the reserves, and that simmered for 30 minutes. Skim the fat, strain, and you have shrimp stock.

Swung by Nor-Joe's and picked up a muff and some risotto. Into a heavy pot, a nob of butter, some diced onion, and some olive oil. Then, toss in the asparagus and the fava beans. On second thought reserve the fava beans and put in at the end. They will remain crisper.
Place risotto in pan and saute lightly. Add a generous amount of white wine, allow to evaporate. Then ladle by ladle add shrimp stock until risotto is cooked through, all the while stirring.
Meanwhile, toss the shrimp in some of the pesto and grill outdoors. Marvel at man and his control over fire.
To plate, spoon the risotto and arrange the shrimp better than I did here. Grate some good Parmesan Reggiano over the top, use the real thing. Spoon left over pesto over shrimp. One hell of a good meal.
Serve with a bone dry white. I opted for a Robert Foley Pinot Blanc that I picked up from Partysist on Metairie Road. Don't let the vowel ending name fool you, risotto is quite easy to make and the possibilities are endless. Fresh mushrooms, walnuts and maybe blue cheese, grilled scallops with saffron risotto...

And if you are a fan of Electronic Medical Records, I am giving a hilarious routine on them tomorrow at the Doubletree. But please there wont be much time (only about 7 hours) for autographs/questions about food. See here for info.