Shrimp & Mushroom Etoufee

I'll start this one out by saying thank you to Chef Andrew Zimmern! You posted a link to your shrimp étouffée recipe on Twitter a while back and you inspired me to make some of my own.

 First off, if you have access to fresh shrimp take advantage of it. Frozen shrimp will work. The only requirement is that you get them with the shell on. The shrimp stock is the key to this dish!

There isn't much stock but the flavors
you get are worth the time and effort

Shrimp & Mushroom Etouffee

1 lbs of shrimp
1 lbs of mushrooms
1 medium white onion chopped
3 tbsp oil
6 cloves of garlic sliced
2 celery stalks
4 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp Harissa paste
4 tbsp butter
¼ tsp basil
¼ tsp thyme
¼ tsp oregano
1 tbsp cornstarch ¼ cup water (for slurry)


Shrimp Stock
shrimp shells from 1 lbs of shrimp
stems from mushrooms (optional)
¼ medium onion
2 stalks of celery
3 cloves of garlic
3 cups vegetable stock (water is also suitable)
1 large pinch of salt
½ tbsp cracked black pepper

In a sauce pot combine “Shrimp Stock” ingredients add a large pinch of salt and using a steaming rack place the rack on top of all of your ingredients to ensure they are submerged, bring to a boil. After boiling turn heat down and simmer for at least 2 hours. Check for seasoning and strain solids from stock. Hold aside for later.

I used my steamer basket to keep the shrimp shells submerged

In a large saute pan heat over medium high heat add 2 tbsp oil, when hot add mushrooms, onions and season with salt. After onions have softened and become translucent add garlic and and lower heat. After sauteing garlic add Harissa and tomato pastes cook until tomato paste has changed color slightly and add herbs. Set aside for final ingredients to cook.

In another saute pan melt butter and on high heat cook shrimp in one layer, avoid overcrowding the pan, and get a good sear on the shrimp but do not overcook them, actually it would be best to under-cook them.

After shrimp have cooked, add shrimp to mushroom onion tomato mixture, and add shrimp stock. Cook for about 2 minutes bringing it to a boil and breaking up tomato and herbs. Make sure there are no lumps  in your slurry and your sauce is boiling, then add the cornstarch slurry and stir continuously. You will notice the sauce thicken and get a nice sheen on it. That's when you shrimp étouffée is ready.

Serve over rice or potato celery root mash. Recipe to follow.

Potato Celery Mash

1 lb Yukon Gold potatoes
1 lb celery root
6 cups of water
plenty of salt
5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 stick of butter
1/2 cup half and half
1/2 cup freshly chopped parsley

Quarter the potatoes, and peel and cube the celery root, once that is done add to water and salt water well. Bring to a boil and cook until the potatoes are fork tender, in other words, you can poke em with a fork and they slide right off. Drain the water.

While the potatoes and celery root are boiling, in a separate pan melt the butter and saute or gently cook the garlic in the melted butter. Do not toast the garlic it could turn bitter very fast.

Add the melted butter and cooked garlic to the drained potatoes, add the half & half and mash the mixture, just as you finish mashing add the parsley and taste for salt.

So there it is. If you try it let me know, if you like it let others know, if you don't like it, well just keep that to yourself! Just kidding about that last part. Comments and questions are welcome! 

Quality Seafood

It's more than just a motto! It is a place, a place that we found out about from my brother Brennan, well it's a fish-monger/restaurant in Redondo Beach. And it is a place that I can't describe in 140 characters or less!

Over the last year or so we have had a number of things here. What I will remember the most is my first experience with fresh uni. Sea urchin wasn't something that was on my bucket list of foods to try! Now I look out for it on menus.

The taste is not easy to describe, I guess the best way is, creamy and briny, with pillow-y type of texture. For a minute the briny-ness reminds you it came from the ocean, then just as that realization comes over you find yourself wondering where the creamy softness in your mouth came from.

It's not fishy, not at all what I expected, at the same time when it is fresh and you look down into that broken shell, you see the spines still moving, you expect a slimy texture. Not even!

It is funny what you bond over. Food is one of the best glues there is!

Since that visit I will say I have gone back to the standards that brought me to Quality Seafood in the first place. Fresh oysters, crab legs, and shrimp!

Fresh oysters, 5 minutes before this pic was taken,
well you the picture...

Each area of the shop has it's regular workers and as in most places you find people you like and some you don't, but the last couple times we have gone I couldn't complain about the service if I wanted to. The guys shucking the clams and the oysters usually do a good job keeping the shells out, sometimes because the shells are so fragile it's impossible. I have really enjoyed the Blue Point and Malispina oysters the last couple visits. Blue Points have thicker shells so they don't break so easy when they are shucked.

On the other side of the shop they have all sorts of seafood salads, ceviche, poke', campechana. In addition they will grill or deep fry your fish right after they scale and gut it for you. Plus this is where you get the Cajun Style shrimp with vegetables and bread. I could get this dish every time, my wife actually does!

Take that bread and dredge it through the sauce.
That's how you know you have a meal!

Every meal here has been an experience, you might go in the summer and have to muscle your way to the different areas of the shop. You might go in the "cold" of winter and get the gratitude of a bunch of cold fish mongers. It might be the first time you take a couple of friends that will want to know every time you plan on going!

Before I forget, between the bars and sushi joints you are going to see this sign.

This is not an exaggeration!

Don't pass it up! Save some room, after your meal go have some churros. It was the best dessert that I have had in some time! Oh and don't forget the caramel sauce... the best 50 cents I ever spent!!!

After this goes up I'm going to feel bad for a minute! I hate to let anyone in on a place like this, but there aren't too many places like this around anymore! It's the kind of place I will go for the rest of my life!

Follow Up: Support your local...

I have to post this short and sweet because I'm from the school of thought that you fix what you can.

I had someone post a comment on my last blog entry: http://foodiefromfrisco.blogspot.com/2012/11/support-your-local.html

I then got a reply on my Yelp account that pretty much mirrored the comment on my blog. My only issue was the comment and reply did nothing about my issues, granted the thing on my mind late last night was supporting local... But the coffee wouldn't have stopped my from going back to David Schat's Bakery. http://www.yelp.com/biz/david-schats-bakery-cafe-el-segundo#hrid:nXgeXXfzE-iY-ZMSI3Dxww I just wouldn't buy the coffee.

I want to thank Mr. Schat for replying back to and addressing some of my issues. It seems he really took my comments to heart. 

To me his second reply is rare. He accepted what I had to say and he gave me assurances that he would do his best to fix it. People PLEASE follow his example, don't justify what you have done, take your lumps and see what you could have done to make it better! That is really all I was expecting...

Thank you David!

Homegrown Mushrooms Part 1

That kinda sounds like a Pink Floyd song!

I found this at the store!

It doesn't look like much at first.

This is my first post, now that I have stated the obvious, I'm just going to get into why I decided to write a blog. I love to share what I find with the people I know! Especially when it comes to food. 


I was walking through the produce department at the Von's in MDR and I found this display. For $16.99 you can grow up to 1 1/2 pounds of oyster mushrooms. While it doesn't seem to be economical it did look like fun!

As soon as I got it home I opened the box and found the little spray bottle... This is probably for the "kid factor" that was part of the display. What is harder to see is the perforations on the cardboard. The instructions on the side of the box kind of allude to "opening the front panel" I pulled the panels off after finally finding the perforations and followed the directions. So far so good, this looked like an easy project so far. A lot easier than the lime tree that was a gift from one of my best friends (no offense B) . Easier than the pepper sprouts in a can (from my wife) that are finally starting to get bigger, but not yet blooming!

Its made with coffee grounds,
my favorite coffee grounds, Peet's.

Inside the box I found a coupon for Peet's. Cool mushrooms and $1 off my next bag of coffee! I'm really liking this project.

If you have a problem with the written directions on the outside of the box the inside of the perforated panel has pictures. I like pictures too. The pictures made it easier to understand that I was going to cut into the plastic bag that held the used coffee grounds.

After opening the cardboard.

I know this sounds redundant! But I'll say it anyway, find a sharp knife! Dull knives are dangerous, you stand a better chance of cutting yourself with a dull knife you have to fight with than that sharp knife that does it's job the first time.

Once that was done I had to find a container that would hold the entire plastic bag. I tried some of the smaller pots I own but I had to use my enormous stock pot. See the bag needs to soak for 12 hours. The biggest problem was the bag wants to float...

The instructions make it look easy to 
put it under water to soak but it's not!

Ultimately my solution was to weigh down the whole this with a gallon jug of water. Even after an hour the bag o' mulch wanted to float.

Tuesday morning I'll pull the bag out of my stockpot and continue to follow the directions and place the box in out of direct sunlight.

I'll keep you posted!