"Perhaps the most impressive of all the cookbook blogs are the three devoted to the 2004 edition of Gourmet magazine's "The Gourmet Cookbook" -- all 5¼ pounds and 1,300-odd recipes of it. Befitting this culinary Everest, all three writers are overachievers in their professional lives."

--Lee Gomes, The Wall Street Journal, May 28, 2008
"I should have told you before how much I've been enjoying reading your thoughts. You seem like such a great cook."

--Ruth Reichl, Editor-in-Chief of Gourmet Magazine, June 8 2008, comment on "Chocolate Velvet Ice Cream".

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Chinese-Style Steamed Shrimp with Garlic and Scallions



Looking for a nice, light, low-diet-impact summer dish? Here it is.

I've been skirting around Chinese-Style Steamed Shrimp with Garlic and Scallions because it required a piece of kitchen equipment I didn't have--two actually: a bamboo steamer and a wok. I'm going to not get distracted by how stupid I think it is to use woks on a western-style stove (I'm sure I mention it elsewhere) and just say that I figured one day I'd pick up a bamboo steamer which might be kind of cool and useful.

Then I actually read the directions for this recipe which ask you to put the marinated shrimp on a plate or in a bowl and put THAT inside the steamer and commence with steaming. So really, the wok and the bamboo steamer are just container/platform for the true essential ingredients here: shrimp, and steam.

Containers I got; steamers I got--plenty. So I rigged up the above arrangement, a bowl of shrimp inside a steamer inset inside a soup pot. Guess what? It worked great. It didn't look as authentic while I was doing it as a bamboo steamer inside a wok would have, but let's face it--my people are from northern Europe, not China and there's no way that scene ever really would have been authentic anyway.

Comments on the recipe--if you make this, please note that you steam this long enough to cook the shrimp, but not really long enough to cook the garlic and the ginger--so mince those suckers up if you're in the habit of sloppy chopping (like I am). The flavors were delicious and I ate the leftovers with scrambled eggs for two days in a row.