Honeyed Prawns, Sausage and Polenta (Faux Shrimp and Grits)

If you've ever been to the South (yes, with a capital S), then more likely than not you've heard of the wonder that is shrimp n' grits. Like most of their cuisine, it's based on simple hearty flavors....with lots of butter. No no, that's not doing it justice (not being from the South myself). There's such a richness of tradition in southern cooking that it's hard for a poor non-southerner like myself to describe it accurately. Many of its iconic dishes are based on what used to be the food of the poor- what was left over or what could be acquired cheaply. Grits, rice and beans, ham, collard greens, all these things started out as what you could make easily and cheaply. No longer. Give those people a few hundred years and you get one of the best (and perhaps most definitive) cuisines of the US.

For me, nothing represents the best of Southern cooking like shrimp and grits. Ostensibly simple, it involves a base of grits (for an explanation on this, see earlier posts lamenting its absence in England), topped with a hearty portion of shrimp/prawns and sausage cooked in a special blend of seasonings. The dish is one of my all time favorites. But alas, re-creating it authentically over in England is a bit far-fetched. So I resorted to the usual grits substitute: polenta and worked with what I had in terms of sausage (hunter's sausage in this case) and shrimp (all I could find were the tiniest little things I had ever seen). If I ever make this recipe again (more than likely), I would search high and low to find sizable prawns, the tiny things I could find did not do the trick. Regardless though, it was absolutely delicious and still had a tinge of the authentic to it. The sweet currants in the polenta with the spicy/savory sauce for the protein were a great combination. A great twist on the old Southern standby.

Ingredients
For the prawn/sausage marinade:
4 tablespoons tomato paste
3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons hot sauce
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Sea salt
1 pound large, peeled, and deveined prawns
2 links, hunter's sausage, sliced thinly

For the polenta:
1 cup polenta
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) corn kernels, fresh or frozen
1/4 cup currants
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, or 1/2 teaspoon dried
Sea salt
Black pepper

For the topping:
1/3 cup feta cheese, crumbled
2 to 3 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped
2 tablespoons capers
Hot sauce (optional)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (204°C). Butter an 8 x 10-inch (20.3 x 25.4 cm) baking dish. Oil a rimmed baking sheet with olive oil. Set the pans aside.

2. To make the marinade: Combine the tomato paste, honey, lemon juice, olive oil, hot sauce, garlic powder, and a pinch or two of salt in a medium bowl. Toss the prawns and sausage with the marinade. Set the bowl aside, giving it a stir every few minutes.

3. For the polenta: Bring 3 cups cold water to a boil in a medium stainless-steel pot. Add the polenta. Cook seven minutes, stirring often. Remove the pot from the heat, cover, and let sit for 10 minutes.
4. In a large bowl, mix the corn (completely thawed if frozen), currants, honey, butter, and thyme. Stir in the polenta, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

5. Add polenta mixture to the buttered baking dish. Spread evenly with a spatula, and place in the oven to bake for 35 minutes.

6. Spread the prawn/sausage mixture evenly onto the oiled baking sheet. After the polenta has baked for 25 minutes, add the prawns to the oven, alongside the polenta. Place both pans on same rack if possible; otherwise, place the baking sheet on the lower rack.

7. Bake the prawns for five minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven, and flip all of the prawns over. Return to the oven and bake an additional five minutes, until the polenta is slightly browned and the prawns are pink and firm.

8. Remove the prawns and the polenta from the oven. To serve, scoop individual servings of the polenta onto plates. Lay a few prawns over each serving, then top with crumbled feta, fresh parsley, and capers. Drizzle with a few lashings of hot sauce, if desired.

Sautéed Shredded Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Toasted Pecans

Brussels sprouts. I think everyone can agree this is a love/hate relationship vegetable. When I was young (and wonderfully foolish), I used to think they were mini-cabbages or heads of lettuce. Not that I wanted to eat them, mind you, but I found it amusing that these things seemed fit for a gnome's table.

Anyway, enough foolishness. I was in search of a vegetable side dish for dinner a few days back and I thought of the lowly sprout, so ignored by me in cooking. Well, those days are at an end. This was (believe it or not) one of the first times I had actually cooked the things raw (rather than frozen and re-heated in a microwave). And what better way to mask a vegetable than by putting bacon with it? Always guaranteed to please. The nuts were also an inspiration, giving just enough of a crunch and texture to the dish that made it all the better. The only time-intensive part of the dish was the endless shredding of sprouts. Unless you're handy with a mandolin (and even I won't dare to use one on these little mini-cabbages), you're setting yourself up for a lot of knife work. But worth it for the sprouts!!

Ingredients
2 pounds brussels sprouts
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 1/4-inch-thick slices bacon (about 6 ounces), coarsely chopped
1 large garlic clove, minced
2/3 cup low-salt chicken broth
Coarse kosher salt
1/2 cup pecans, toasted, chopped

Method 

Trim root ends from brussels sprouts. Using sharp knife or processor fitted with coarse shredding disk, thinly slice brussels sprouts into shreds. 
Melt butter with olive oil in large deep skillet over medium heat. Add bacon; sauté until golden, about 3 minutes.
Add garlic; stir 30 seconds. Add brussels sprouts and broth; sauté until crisp-tender but still bright green, 3 to 5 minutes. Season with coarse salt and black pepper. Transfer to serving bowl. Sprinkle with pecans.

Tortellini Gratinata with Mushrooms and Parsnip "Bechamel"

Baked pasta. Pasta casserole. Hot dish. All things I associate inherently with America. I swear, within each American there's some pale distant memory of a potluck at which either your mother or your neighbor's mother insisted on bringing her "world famous" tuna noodle casserole. Or baked pasta. Or...well, you get the idea. I'm fairly sure this memory never took place in reality; however, the fact that I spent my formative years in the MidWest makes the likelihood of the above even more plausible. Nothing says comfort food like some baked pasta.

Which is why, when my mother smuggled me an American copy of this month's "Bon Appetit" magazine and I saw they were doing an entire feature on the glorious American dish, I had to dust off my Midwestern genes (and jeans) and get to cooking. The promise of a faux parsnip "bechamel" sauce got me on this one. I had no idea what they were talking about but it turned out that the parsnips replaced the flour in the bechamel, keeping the thick consistency of the sauce but giving it an earthier if still starchy flavor. It was a win all around.

I also recommend getting bold with your tortellini in this recipe. The magazine called for either plain or cheese tortellini. Bah! I went with some sort of wild mushroom and stuffed sausage tortellini and in my opinion (humble as it may be), it made what can be a very bland dish (hey, we are talking about baked pasta here) into something with a little more subtlety. 

Ingredients
2 large parsnips, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch-thick rounds
2 1/2 cups whole milk, divided
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided
large pinch of grated nutmeg
4 1/2 tbsp butter, divided
1 1/2 lbs baby portobello mushrooms, or chestnut mushrooms, thinly sliced
2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tsp. minced fresh rosemary
2 packages tortellini (of whatever kind, should be around 18-24 oz.)
6 oz. creamy Gorgonzola cheese, cut into small pieces
1 cup chorizo sausage, cut into small pieces

Method
Cook parsnips in a medium saucepan of boiling salted water until very tender, about 20 minutes. Drain. Place parsnips in same saucepan along with 1 1/2 cups of milk. With an immersion blender, blend until smooth. Add 1 cup of milk, 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese, and nutmeg to saucepan. Blend again.

Place saucepan over heat again and simmer until reduced to about 3 cups, whisking often, about every 5 minutes. Season bechamel sauce to taste with salt and black pepper.

Melt 2 1/2 tbsp. butter in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms, garlic, and rosemary. Saute until mushrooms are brown and tender, 6-7 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 400F. Butter a 12-cup capacity baking dish. Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite. Drain pasta, return to pot. Add remaining 2 tbsp of butter and toss to coat.

Stir in mushroom mixture and cut chorizo. Transfer pasta to prepared baking dish. Spread bechamel sauce over; sprinkle with Gorgonzola, then remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan.

Bake pasta until heated through and sauce is bubbling, 18-20 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes and serve.

Apple Cake

I am not usually a baker of cakes. Muffins, bars, cookies, sure. Cakes seems like so much more of an investment. Who's going to eat a whole cake? I mean, I can handle at least a couple of cookies, but a whole cake? That just seems excessive.

Well, my non-baking cake days are apparently at an end. I have a roommate who loves cake. Any kind of cake. "They feel like a celebration!" she says to me as she pores over recipe books devoted to the subject. She herself is queen of what is now infamously known as the Guinness Chocolate Cake. More on that later though.

But my tendencies toward simplicity resulted in this- an apple cake courtesy of the good ol' "Joy of Cooking". I'm a fan of apple pie but I wanted something sweeter and...well, softer. I had no idea that apple cake was even an option. And now, because of this, poor apple pie may never again find a place in our household. The absolute simplicity of this cake made the fact that it was so delicious even better. I was put on dessert duty the evening we made this and I had the batter ready for the oven in less than 10 minutes. No eggs, no beaters, just a large bowl and a wooden spoon are all you need. Well, that and the ingredients which are by no means hard to find. I also *highly* recommend the addition of rum to this cake. Talk about improving on a good thing.

Served with ice cream, this cake demands recognition amongst its more famous apple-based dessert brethren. And it deserves it.

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour (or all purpose flour)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tbsp. rum
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped apples (I recommend tart green apples, with the skin left on)
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Method
Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease and flour an 8 inch square baking pan or line the bottom with wax or parchment paper. (I used a round spring-form pan, but honestly anything will work here.)

Whisk together in a large bowl the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt.

Add the buttermilk, oil, rum, and vanilla and stir together until smooth.

Stir in the apples and nuts.

Scrape the batter into the pan and spread evenly. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 40-45 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan on a rack. Serve warm, plain or with vanilla ice cream.

Spicy Stir-Fried Cabbage

Oh, cabbage. How often I forget about you and how sad I am when I realize how delicious you are. My mother never made cabbage when I was growing up so it always takes me a minute to remember this versatile fabulous vegetable. I'm not sure why, if anything Britain is the land of cabbage. Boiled, braised, baked, you'll find it in everything. And if there's one thing they're never out of at Tesco, it's cabbage.

Which brings me to this fabulously easy recipe (again, courtesy of the New York Times' Recipes for Health section). I was slightly dubious of this dish- it seemed *too* easy, that it would taste of, well, raw cabbage.

I was so wrong. It's spicy, comforting, a perfect side dish. Heck, make enough of this and I'll eat this for my main course. It's done in literally 5 minutes and it tastes like the best kind of unhealthy Asian takeout. But it's not. It's, get this, healthy. Well, I suppose comparatively so. There's still oil (albeit a small amount), but literally, most of the delicious flavor comes from a bit of star anise, ginger, garlic, and red pepper flakes. That's it! Simple as pie.

Ingredients
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons minced ginger
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 star anise, broken in half
2 teaspoons soy sauce (more to taste)
2 tablespoons Shao Hsing rice wine or dry sherry (I've used both, they're equally delicious)
2 tablespoons peanut or canola oil
1 small cabbage, 1 to 1 1/2 pounds, quartered, cored and cut crosswise into 1/8-inch shreds
1 medium carrot, cut into julienne
Salt to taste
2 tablespoons minced chives, Chinese chives or cilantro

Method

1. Combine the garlic, ginger, red pepper flakes and star anise in a small bowl. Combine the soy sauce and wine or sherry in another small bowl.

2. Heat a 14-inch flat-bottomed wok or a 12-inch skillet over high heat until a drop of water evaporates within a second or two when added to the pan. Swirl in the oil by adding it to the sides of the pan and tilting it back and forth. Add the garlic, ginger, pepper flakes and star anise. Stir-fry for a few seconds, just until fragrant, then add the cabbage and carrots. Stir-fry for one to two minutes until the cabbage begins to wilt, then add the salt and wine/soy sauce mixture. Cover and cook over high heat for one minute until just wilted. Uncover and stir-fry for another 30 seconds, then stir in the chives or cilantro and remove from the heat. The cabbage should be crisp-tender. Serve with rice or noodles.

Yield: Serves four.