Lucid Food_ Cooking for an Eco-Conscious Life - Louisa Shafia [53]
Spot Prawns with Garlic, Sorrel, and White Wine
Lemony sorrel brightens the flavor of spot prawns, large shrimp that can be served with the head and tail on or peeled. To remove the shell, use scissors to cut down the back to the tail tip. Like all shrimp, prawns only take a minute or two to cook, and after that can become tough. Millet provides a fluffy bed that soaks up the sauce. Start this recipe the night before serving so that the millet can soak.
Serves 4
1 cup millet, soaked in cold water for 1 to 12 hours and drained
½ cup almonds, coarsely chopped
7 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 shallots, thinly sliced
1 bunch green Swiss chard, stems removed and coarsely chopped
1 bunch sorrel, trimmed
¼ cup white wine
¼ cup vegetable or chicken stock
1¼ pounds spot prawns, peeled, deveined, and thawed
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
In a saucepan or teakettle, bring 2 cups water to a boil. In a separate saucepan, heat the millet over medium heat, stirring frequently, until it is mostly dry. Stir in the almonds, 3 tablespoons of the olive oil, and 1½ teaspoons salt. Add the boiling water to the millet. Decrease the heat and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the millet rest, covered, for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork and set aside.
Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and add 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Add the shallots and cook until they begin to brown, then add the chard and sorrel and cook until slightly wilted, about 1 minute. Add the wine and stock, and bring to a boil. Decrease the heat slightly and simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes, to let the liquid reduce and thicken. Season to taste with salt.
Transfer the greens and cooking liquid to a large bowl. Heat the skillet over high heat and add the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add the prawns and cook for 1 minute, undisturbed, until the bottoms turn pink. Season the prawns with salt. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add the greens to the prawns and cook everything together for 30 seconds. Turn off the heat and stir in the butter. Taste and season.
To serve, put a few heaping spoonfuls of millet on each plate, followed by the prawns. Pour the sauce over the top and season with pepper.
Sustainable Seafood Choice: Spot Prawns
Wild-caught spot prawns from British Columbia are a responsible seafood choice because they are caught with underwater traps, which, although they attract fish, hold them alive until they can be released. The problem with many other types of shrimp is that they are usually caught using trawl nets that catch everything in their path, including endangered species. A typical shrimp fishery hauls in 3 to 15 pounds of unwanted animals that are returned to the sea dead for every pound of shrimp caught, so the method used for catching spot prawns is far more eco-friendly.
Carob Pudding
I usually advise people not to compare carob to chocolate because the two tastes are quite distinct. But in this rich pudding, you may find that you like carob even better than chocolate. Originally from the Mediterranean, carob was brought to the United States by Spanish missionaries. It grows in the drier parts of the west, including Arizona and California, so it doesn’t have to make the same long, fuel-guzzling trip to us that its tropical nemesis chocolate does.
Serves 4
2 ripe avocados
6 tablespoons unsweetened carob powder
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons maple syrup
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 ripe banana (optional)
¼ cup chopped nuts (optional)
Place all of the ingredients except the banana and nuts in the bowl of a food processor and process until smooth. Chill for 1 hour before serving.
To serve, spoon some of the pudding into a bowl