[Photo on the Cat-camera. Please add your comments/thoughts into the below post too!]
This November brought another joyful reunion of the friends who laugh and eat (and drive). Although the visit was short, there was plenty of sweetness, too. For our final night together, we prepared and enjoyed a three course meal. Yum! Good food, good wine and good friends! I'll post the dessert recipe separately.
The original recipe called for 3 whole star anise but we were unable to find this spice. After using the phone-a-friend option, we substituted fennel bulb. To simplify this post, I've indicated our modifications to the original recipe in red.
Yield: Makes 8 first-course servings, or about 5 cups [7-8 main meal servings]
Active time: 20 min
Total time: 40 min
Ingredients
24 [20] large shrimp in shell (about 1 lb), peeled, leaving tail and first segment of shell intact, and deveined
1 tablespoon finely grated peeled fresh ginger
2/3 cup chopped shallot [1/2 cup chopped yellow onion]
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
3 whole star anise [1 slice of fennel bulb]
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 3/4 lb butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch pieces (5 cups)
4 cups chicken stock or broth
2 cups water
1/4 teaspoon salt [sea salt]
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Garnish: fresh cilantro sprigs
Directions
Toss shrimp with ginger in a bowl and marinate, chilled, 30 minutes (do not marinate any longer or enzymes from ginger will begin to cook shrimp).
Make soup while shrimp marinate:
Cook shallot[onion], garlic, and anise[fennel] in butter in a 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring, until shallot is softened, about 5 minutes. Add squash, stock, and water and simmer, uncovered, until squash is very tender, about 20 minutes. Remove star anise[fennel].
Purée soup in 2 batches in a blender (use caution when blending hot liquids) until very smooth, about 1 minute per batch, then transfer to cleaned pot and keep warm, covered. [It was still pretty thin, so we left the soup on heat to thicken it up, but it didn't get as thick as we hoped it would.]
Sprinkle marinated shrimp with [sea] salt. Heat oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then sauté shrimp in 2 batches [or 1!], stirring, until just cooked through, about 3 minutes per batch, transferring to paper towels.
Bring soup to a simmer and season with salt and pepper. Divide among 8 shallow soup bowls and mound 3 shrimp in each bowl.[or 5 shrimp each;-)]
Cooks' note: Soup (without shrimp) can be made 3 days ahead and chilled, covered. If making soup ahead, begin marinating shrimp about 40 minutes before serving.
Verdict:
The soup was a little thin, and taste tests indicated that it was a little bland. Not wanting to wait any longer for the main course, we decided to go ahead and eat. Once the shrimp and cilantro were added, the soup took on a new life and was lovely. I ate the leftovers the next day and was surprised at how much more flavourful the soup was then I remembered. This could be because the ingredients really came together overnight (there's a word for that, I'm sure, but I cannot remember it...) and/or because our appetizer consisted of cured Gypsy salami and goat cheddar on baguette - lots of bold and strong flavours there. Perhaps a palette cleanser next time?...
We were all impressed by the shrimp. We timed it to be done with the soup, but then the latter needed more time to thicken up. We were afraid we'd be getting cold and/or rubbery shrimp in the end, but they were perfect - 1.5 minutes per side was ideal. In the end, we had two servings each!
WinedIn suggested an American Riesling as the appropriate wine pairing for our meal. The LCBO did not have any in stock, but an employee assured us the Canadian Rieslings would also work for our butternut squash-ginger shrimp meal. We were quite delighted with our pick - a 2007 Larch Tree Hill Riesling from Prospect Winery in the Okanagan Valley.
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