Shrimp a la Greque

A simple yet delicious recipe for shrimp. I've adapted this from Mark Bittman's Fish, a comprehensive book on all manner of finny or shelled critters. It's one of my go-to fish cookbooks because it covers the fast and simple right through to the fancy and complicated. Everything I've tried in here has been excellent. I have made the recipe for Crispy Skin Salmon with Gingery Greens and it's become a house favorite. Fish is still available and a good buy in paperback.

Shrimp a la Greque
(serves 4-5)

4 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon minced garlic
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes, drained
½ cup dry white wine
4 Tablespoons minced fresh parsley
½ teaspoon crushed dried oregano
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 ½ pounds large shrimp, peeled and deveined
4 oz. feta cheese, cut into ½" cubes

Heat the oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, wine, 2 Tablespoons parsley, oregano, salt, and pepper. Smush the tomatoes with a spoon. Turn the heat up to medium-high and cook until the sauce thickens to the consistency of thick tomato sauce.

Add the shrimp and cook until they turn pink all over, about 5 minutes. Add the feta cheese and stir gently to keep the feta cubes intact. Serve over pasta or rice. Garnish with the remaining parsley. Serve with bread to get every drop of the delicious sauce.

Adapted from Fish by Mark Bittman, Macmillan Publishing Company, 1994.

Mark Bittman's Memorial to Marcella Hazan

If you haven't yet, check out Mark Bittman's memorial to Marcella Hazan in The New York Times Magazine. I posted Marcella's recipe for pesto soon after her death in late September. I never met the woman, so have no memories to share besides my enjoyment of her cookbooks. But Bittman did get to cook with her and he shares some lovely memories, enough to give you the sense of this methodical and opinionated Italian cook who taught many of us about real Italian cooking. He went to Florida and cooked with her only weeks before her death.  What a lucky guy.

"Rice with Things"

I'm a big fan of Mark Bittman. I have 6 of his cookbooks, all solid. I'm sure part of what I like about him is his unabashedly New York attitude (I'm a native New Yorker). He's not a purist when it comes to food, another thing I appreciate. And, he's willing to break with tradition even if the purists are out there, just waiting to tut-tut about him monkeying with a classic. A classic like Paella.

Paella is the traditional rice, chicken and seafood dish of Valencia. My daughter enjoyed true Paella last summer when she visited Valencia and said it was very good. Lucky kid. I have never had the true Paella so I don't know what I'm missing. But, I do know that chicken and seafood cooked with short grain rice in rich broth is good stuff.

I live over 1000 miles from the closest ocean/sea. The odds of me recreating an authentic Paella are pretty slim anyway. Not only is the sea very far away, but cooking short grain rice just right this way at 5400 feet is tricky. You need to tweak the liquid amount and time in Bittman's (or any other) Paella recipe. If you are making this at altitude, plan to add at least ½-1 cup more liquid and you'll need to cook it for an extra 10 minutes, I found. If you are adding seafood, which can easily overcook, don't add it until 20 minutes in. To get the crust without burning (yes, mine burned just a bit, but still quite edible), you will need to reduce the heat because you will be cooking it longer. Bittman's recipe says "if you smell it burning..." I didn't smell it burning but I can guarantee it will burn if you cook it on medium-high for 30 minutes!

You can find the recipe on the New York Times site along with an helpful article by Bittman. If you want to see how impassioned people can get about him tinkering with a classic, check out the comments!

I could have used chicken broth, but I had a bunch of shrimp shells in the freezer, just asking to be made into stock. Makes a great shellfish stock that is perfect for rice with things. Here's the recipe, from Bobby Flay's  Boy Meets Grill. It's very easy and you can stick it in the freezer, ready for the next time you want to be transported to Valencia. :-)

Shrimp Stock
(4 to 5 cups)