A Stroll Down Recipe Memory Lane

Sometime during our breaks in yesterday’s tapings – we did have to wait for items to cook – I showed Laurie-Ève (my camerawoman for the day) my recipe book & magazine collection and explained to her that my love for cooking and entertaining really started when I was 18-19 years old.   Just to give you an idea…. here are most of them!

(Ummm…. Hello, my name is Dale and I am a Cookbook-a-holic….)

Where was I?  Oh yeah.  My boyfriend at the time had introduced me to the magazine called “Sel & Poivre” (Salt & Pepper) and I used to buy it religiously. I don’t think it exists any more.  I pulled out a random issue, dated Jan/Feb 1989 (L-E wasn’t even born yet!!!) – one that had survived  “the purge” – to show her that it was a great magazine for a neophyte cook such as I was at the time, as the recipes were pretty simple to follow.

As flipped through the pages, I landed on a recipe I hadn’t done since forever.  Oh yes!  I knew then and there that I was going to be making this particular recipe in the near future….

The future was tonight!  Can you imagine?  Shrimps flambéed in brandy on a Wednesday night!  Why not?
 

 
Dang…. if you squint, you can see a little of the flames on the upper right quadrant of the frying pan! Let’s just say it is a tad difficult to be the chef AND photographer at times! And I had to hurry up before the flames went out. Ah well… you get the idea!

Added a little brown basmati rice and some steamed broccoli and voilà! Dinner in 20 minutes (and that’s ‘coz the rice is longer to cook!)

For those who may be interested, here is the recipe:

Shrimp flambéed in Brandy

1 leek, white parts only, sliced
1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp butter
1 lb of shrimp (they say not to peel them but I hate having to peel my shrimp in my plate – so I peeled them!)
Salt & pepper
1-2 garlic cloves, finely minced
3 Tbsp dry white Vermouth (I only had dark so I used it)
1/2 tsp dried thyme
Pinch of tarragon
4 Tbsp Brandy, warmed
Fresh parsley for decoration (oops! totally forgot to add it!)

I peeled my shrimp and sprinkled them with salt & pepper and tossed them
I did not have any regular olive oil so I just used the extra virgin

Heat olive oil in frying pan and sautée leeks for 2-3 minutes. Remove and set aside.
Heat extra virgin olive oil with the butter on pretty high heat. Add shrimp and toss to cook quickly until they are pink.
Add garlic and reserved leeks (and if you didn’t toss the shrimp with salt & pepper, add it now)
Lower heat and add vermouth to deglaze (scraping the bottom of the pan to get any delicious stuck bits) with a wooden spoon. Add thyme and tarragon and allow to reduce for a few seconds.
Sprinkle warmed brandy over the shrip and, using a long match, flambée.
Garnish with the parsley and serve with rice and veggie of choice, if you so choose to do so.