Getting a recipe to use this week has been a challenge!  For me, when I try to browse the “top 100” recipes for ANY chef, (except for the 8 or 9 they specifically have listed as links), no recipes come up.   I had to spend a bit of time doing “Cat Cora” +Ingedient searches.  Just using her name brought up a ton of stuff.  AFTER the fact I discoverd that I can use a chef’s name in quotations, and make sure to switch the search box focus from “entire site” to “recipes” and it lists fine.

This weeks Food Netowrk Chefs Cooking Challenge features Cat Cora.  I have never seen her on a food network show aside from Iron Chef America, although I have seen her other places.  The first time, in fact, was on Sesame Street, although she wasn’t presenting a recipe 😉  I know her style is Greek / Mediterranean, which I enjoy.  How can you go wrong with foods like good olives, phyllo, feta cheese, garlic and oregano? I love avgolemono soup when I am sick (chicken broth, rice, slightly thickened with lemon and egg) so when I saw the recipe for shrimp avgolemeno, I knew that was the one.

 

Changes:  I did not have fish stock, and that’s not something you can buy (at least not around here), so I decided to use clam juice.  I also discovered right before cooking that I didn’t have any skewers.  I ALWAYS have skewers, I mean seriously, have you seen my bento pick collection? LOL  The four inch bamboo ones weren’t going to cut it though, so I ended up skipping the grilling step.  The recipe says just to mark them and then you transfer them to the oven to cook anyway, so I don’t think it’s a huge deal.  I just cooked them a little bit longer in the oven.

Shrimp in Lemon Sauce: Garides Avgolemeno

 

Recipe courtesy Cat Cora

 

24 large shrimp, cleaned and deveined

1/2 cup olive oil

1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 cup fish broth

1/2 cup finely chopped tomatoes

2 eggs

1/3 cup lemon juice

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

6 wooden skewers, soaked in hot water for 30 minutes

 

 

Marinate the shrimp in the olive oil, oregano, and garlic 30 minutes. (It doesn’t say whether to leave the tail on or not.  I went ahead and took it off just for simplicity for the familes eating)

 

 

Preheat a grill. Preheat an oven to 450 degrees F. Slide 4 shrimp onto each skewer. Place on a hot grill and mark on both sides quickly, not cooking them through. Put them in a baking dish and pour the fish broth over the shrimp with the tomatoes and place in the oven for about 4 minutes. (Because of my skewer snafu, I left in oven for 7 minutes.  Six would have been perfect for these shrimp, which were 16-20’s)

 

 

Remove from the oven, take the shrimp out of the baking dish, and place on a platter. In a bowl whisk together the eggs and lemon juice. Slowly pour in the fish broth with the tomatoes and incorporate it until foamy. (Most recipes would warn you right now to be sure to go slowly; pour in that hot juice too quickly and it would probably curdle the egg)

 

 

Season with salt and pepper. Pour it over the shrimp and sprinkle with parsley. Serve warm, as an appetizer.

 

What we thought:  This is not a WOW! main dish (like last week’s coq au vin), but it’s a good family weekday dish. (It’s posted as an appetizer for six, but we fed 2 adults + kidlet with it as a main dish.)  It’s a light, tasty shrimp dish that takes almost no time at all to throw together and cook.  Aside from marinating time, it took 15 minutes, tops.  It could take longer if you aren’t as quick at cleaning shrimp though. 

 

The shrimp was perfect when I took it out of the oven.  It kept cooking though as it sat; next time I would take it out a minute sooner (I cooked it 7 minutes, since I didn’t have the grill time).  Still, it was much more tender and succulent than my shrimp turns out when I sauté it.

 

This one DH actually ate and not only didn’t he complain about my cooking new dishes all the time, but he spontaneously praised it (even though he was a little late and his shrimp was a little cold and starting to get rubbery I thought).  He does love his seafood.  Kidlet doesn’t like green stuff on his food, so I actually wiped off all his sauce and just served him the shrimp basically plain. 

 

This post is linked to the FN Chef Cooking Challenge over at I Blame My Mother.  Check the linky for more reviews of Cat Cora dishes!

Posted by Kristen in Cooking