The baguettes are ready - piping-hot from the brick oven, fabulously, deliberately ugly and uneven in shape, slashed crudely across the top. They’re too hot to eat but you grab one anyway, tearing it open gingerly, then dropping two fingers full of butter inside. It instantly melts into liquid- running into the grooves and inner spaces of white interior. You grab it like a sandwich and bite, teeth making a cracking sound as you crunch through the crust. You haven’t eaten since yesterday lunch, your palate is asleep and just not ready for so much sensation. The reaction is violent. It hurts. Butter floods your head and you think for a second you’re going to black out. ~Anthony Bourdain from Medium Raw:
A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook.
Lordy. Wasn't that a flavorful paragraph? I devoured it and want more.
In a session with Patricia Evans, she showed us a recipe page that had three sections - the quote at the top with the recipe following, and a short "did you know" section at the bottom that included various facts about baguettes. We then used the paragraph as a model to create our own recipe from a favorite meal. We used our research skills to connect to intriguing facts and vocabulary to refine our descriptions.
Here's mine:
Bringing Spain's Street Shrimp to the Back Yard
The grassy fresh fragrance from thee olive oil rises - bubbling happily in the terra cotta cazuela. Splashing and sizzling, the grey fingering langostinos transform to sunset pink as the oil displaces and foams onto the coals below. Then, adding minced garlic and course sea salt on the way to the table, you ravenously tear the baguette, scooping the curled crustacean from the still bubbling oil. The oil stains and seeps into the white crumb, turning it to a bright orb of yellow sunshine. You suck the bread and tear into the hot flesh, burning your tongue as your soul rests and sinks into the peace that only comes from such a heavenly gustatory delight.
Shrimp in Oil with Baguettes
Ingredients
Clay pot saucer (I use the six inch size from the garden section of Home Depot instead of buying the fancy expensive cazuela.)
Quality Spanish Olive Oil (I don't skimp here. Ever.)
Shrimp, peeled and de-veined
Baguettes
Minced garlic (None of that jarred stuff. Fresh only.)
Kosher or Sea salt
Cold Beer (The bubblier, the better.)
Tea towels instead of paper napkins. You'll thank me later.
Instructions
Prepare the coals. When they are ashen and red peeks from the gray crust, place the terra cotta saucer on the grate. Fill with cold olive oil. When it starts to bubble, place the shrimp into the oil. (Make sure it's patted dry, or the oil will splatter and pop.) When the shrimp begins to turn, take it off the heat, add the minced garlic and salt. Tear off a chunk of bread, dip into the oil. Top with a shrimp and get ready for a food-gasm.
Did you know?
One of my friends calls shrimp, "the cockroach of the sea" and refuses to eat them. More for me.
- Shrimp average about six inches, but the longest ever found was 16"!
- Most shrimp are omnivorous.
- Shrimp are born male and then become females as they mature.
Facts found at: https://mobile-cuisine.com/did-you-know/shrimp-fun-facts/
