Trinity Shrimp

I really wish I had taken a picture of this, it was positively delightful. But I don't have a picture so you'll have to use your imagination. And if I try to draw it, it'll just look ridiculous.

The other night I had a craving for something gumbo-like. I love the flavor palette in gumbos - a little spicy, thick sauce, shrimp flavors - but I wanted it in half the time with half the ingredients. (Gumbo is involved but SO worth it. I will have to post my take on it sometime).

So - I had my basics nailed down. I wanted:

Shrimp

Gumbo/creole flavors

Some rice

And maybe some veggies (so I feel better about myself)

I decided to make a gumbo gravy sauce with shrimp, served over rice with sauteed green beans on the side. Sounds good, right?! Yes!

Let me tell you what makes this gravy different from other gravies:

everything.

Really though, most gravies start with a MIREPOIX - onion, carrots & celery. Creole cooking starts with a variation on this called the TRINITY - onion, celery & green bell pepper. THIS is why their flavor profile is so distinct - it starts at the very base of their cooking. The bell pepper adds the slightest hint of heat and creates a very subtle difference from other sauces.

I knew I wanted a thicker gravy so I figured that once I sweated out my trinity veggies, I'd add flour to them to create a vegetable roux.

Initially I was going to deglaze my trinity vegetables with some wine but went a totally different direction and used BEER! (Major guy pleaser ingredient) THIS also helps thicken the sauce because of the carbonation!

I will provide the sections of the recipe separately because I don't like to confuse the ingredients...

Trinity Shrimp

TRINITY VEGGIES:

Olive Oil

3/4 of Green Bell Pepper, medium chop

2 stalks of Celery, medium chop

1 small Onion, medium chop

(these get really soft in the sauce so don't worry about size)

Flour - as needed

1 beer can ( I used Bud Light)

32 oz. Low Sodium Chicken Stock

Some generic "Creole" or "New Orleans" seasoning mixture

1/2 lb. peeled and de-veined medium Shrimp

Warm pan, drizzle in enough olive oil to coat the bottom.

Place bell pepper, celery & onion in pan. Let cook through until they change color (the pepper will lighten and the onion will become translucent).

Season with a pinch of salt.

Once cooked through, sprinkle enough flour on the veggies to soak up any moisture. This will be your ROUX. Let the flour cook through for a minute.

Pour entire beer can into pan, crank up the flame to medium-high. You want the beer to bubble and reduce by about half.

Once reduced, add chicken stock and bring to a high-bubbling simmer. This will cause the chicken stock to also reduce - getting us to that thicker consistency = yummy.

We'll wait to put in the shrimp until we are almost ready to serve. Shrimp only take a few minutes to cook through and they aren't so much fun when they're overcooked.

Note: The great thing about simmering/reducing sauces is that it can take as long as you want. If you want the food faster, crank up that heat and get that moisture outta there! If you still have a lot to do, put it on a low simmer so it can take forever (or as long as you need).

KEEP tasting your sauce as it cooks.

Is it bland or not as good as you thought?

Add more salt.

When in doubt - add a pinch of salt. Then taste. You'll be surprised.

OH, and add as much of that creole seasoning as you want. Like I said before, just keep tasting the sauce until it's what your hungry heart desires!

RICE

Let's make this easy, ok? I make my rice in the oven because I get too nervous to make it any other way. It's the pilaf method and I highly recommend it.

PRE-HEAT your oven to 375 - don't ask why, just do it.

IN A POT:

1 C Medium Grain Rice

1.2794 C Water (I like to add just a smidge more than a cup because I can).

Bring these two confusing and complicated items to a boil on the stovetop. Once you see that boil, put a lid on it and stick her in the oven. SET YOUR TIMER (this is crucial) for 17 MINUTES. Close that oven door and let the rice and water work their magic.

At 17 minutes, briskly remove your pot from the oven and set it on a heat-proof countertop (this pot will be very hot). WAIT 2 MINUTES, then remove the lid and fluff your beautifully cooked rice. It's very exciting.

The beans should be cooked last and closest to serving time. If your sauce is where you want it, let's move forward with your shrimp and the green beans. Go ahead and drop your beautiful and clean shrimp into your sauce and proceed with the...

GREEN BEANS

(These were an afterthought so they're very basic)

Olive Oil

A large handful of green beans

Salt

That creole seasoning from before

Get your pan HOT HOT HOT - like - hotter than you've gotten it before. We are going to SAUTE these suckers - so it's gonna be fast and furious. Ready? Ok. Coat the bottom of your pan with olive oil and keep getting the pan hot. Once you're CERTAIN that your oil is piping hot, drop your beans into the pan. They're gonna crack and sizzle and it's gonna be really scary at first - but DON'T WORRY! This is what you want to hear! Let them sit in that heat long enough to brown. Toss them or move them around so they get evenly cooked. Once you see even color on all sides, sprinkle some salt and seasoning on them. Turn the heat down, breathe a sigh of relief and get ready to serve your meal!

We're almost done here -

Check your sauce one more time. It should have a gravy consistency. Got enough salt? Not sure - add more.

Are you shrimp pink and firm? Good!

Green beans hot and bothered, I mean, cooked? Good!

Rice is still fine because it just is!

Place a mound of rice on the plate. Ladle the sauce and shrimp over the rice. Place the beans on the side and CHOW DOWN.

Thanks and enjoy your food a la harte!

Note: This is my first posted recipe so I hope this makes sense. Please let me know anywhere that might need clarification!

an intermezzo

For anyone who has read this blog - yes, all 6 of you - you know that I went to culinary school this year. It was an amazing learning experience and I can hardly believe I actually went through with it. I spent about 7 months is practical classes at the Le Cordon Bleu in Hollywood and then had an internship at a restaurant for almost 2 months. It was fast, it was dirty and it was delicious. I think I cooked more than some people have in their entire lives.

I started culinary school because I had a vision - a vision that included a restaurant, a menu that I created and a social scene to rival the hottest spots in town. (Fluffy dreams like this are usually the reason anybody starts on any kind of journey). It wasn't until I started staging (pronounced stahj-ing - culinary lingo for FREE LABOR) and then working at an actual restaurant that my dreams and future came into focus.

I will not mention names because this is written word and it is up for everyone to see. (I've seen "The Social Network," ok?) The restaurant I worked at was in Hollywood and was the first job I was ever fired from. I basically got let go because some stupid salad dressings I made were...

"HORRIBLE." (direct quote from head chef)

What do you say to that?!

"Well, maybe your recipes are horrible!"

"Maybe your sous chef can't speak English so he can't tell me I'm doing it wrong!"

"Of course they're horrible, I hate it here!"

"That's because I peed in them."

None of those responses came to mind as I sat in the chef's office so I looked at him blankly - on the verge of tears - and apologized. I proceeded to suggest that he fire me because, deep down, I hated that place with a passion.

It's my thought that if you feel like you want to throw up and cry on your way into work every morning - and you're not pregnant or hungover - it's time to look for a new employer. So I finished out the day by making his stupid barbecue sauce, his stupid french fries, his stupid chicken wings, cleaning his stupid dishes (notice a theme here?) and cried tears of joy as I left.

Maybe it was a sense of entitlement but I felt that no one as educated as I am should be treated or talked to that way. Or MAYBE I was right. (Did I mention that I never got a lunch break or food? Yeah - in a restaurant. Seems like telling a fish he can't have a glass of water, right?)

Luckily I went on to do my official school restaurant internship at THE BEST restaurant with THE BEST kitchen crew. I will proudly state that RUSTIC CANYON (in Santa Monica on Wilshire) was an amazing restaurant experience. Probably the best food I have ever tasted and I learned more in my two months with them than I did in my seven months at school - which is strange.

It was during my time at Rustic Canyon that I quickly started to realize the restaurant business just wasn't for me. I saw the head chef coming in for twelve hour days, six to seven days a week. No holidays, no days off...no fun. Some people may be able to handle that kind of schedule but I am not one of those people. So I put in my time for my internship, sweated day in and day out, chopped, diced, sliced and counted down the days. I also declined the 2-day-a-week-at-minimum-wage job they offered me and went back on the digital media job trail.

Now I am working at post-production company in Los Angeles, happy as a clam. (Although I'm not a major clam-lover, per se).

Who knows how this culinary education will play into my life? It may seem like it didn't fit in with my theatre degree and my digital media degree, but I am happy to be putting the latter to use. I think the hardest part out of all of this are the student loans! (Google lawsuits against Le Cordon Bleu for more information on that!)

However, I do put the culinary degree to use on daily basis - when I cook for myself and loved ones! And, let me say, it is a much more pleasant way to enjoy the entire cooking and eating experience. There is no one constantly rushing you around (nothing can be done fast enough in the restaurant business). You don't have to sweat like a mule (there is no such thing as A/C in kitchens, only FIRE). And you get to enjoy the final product of whatever it is you're working on (prepping 100 tomatoes is only the first step out of many for a final product).

I have decided to transform the focus of this blog from my culinary school journey to my daily cooking experiences...and perhaps through in an anecdote or musical selection when I feel necessary. :) The beauty is that some recipes are masterpieces and some are filled with mediocrity! (I will try to only share the really good ones).

Cheers and here's to eating your food a la harte...