Food prøn: Last measure of devotion edition
Okay, so my husband, Señor Cracker, is the greatest dad in the galaxy. (Truly, he is—cross Atticus Finch with the pilot dad in Mad Max and throw in a measure of Oscar Peterson for the piano skills. Pretty farkin’ impressive!)
Anyhoo, such a paragon is King of the World on Father’s Day and is thus entitled to whatever meal his heart desires. Really—anything, as if the poor bastard were about to be executed.
The menu he chose: Shrimp Etouffee over rice with crusty bread and key lime pie for dessert. Well!
Homemade key lime pie is a bitch when our own local key limes are out of season! I had to juice an entire pound of absurdly small key limes from Mexico. Our Florida ones are juicy, but the damn Mexican ones from our particular grocery store yielded approximately 5 drops of juice apiece, and the pie requires 2/3rds of a cup. Here’s what a pound of juiced Mexican key limes looks like:
Then, after the pie was baked and set to cool, I made the Etouffee, which starts with a roux. Y’all know a goddamn roux will break your heart, right?
Here’s the roux in progress:
Mine didn’t (break my heart, I mean); I attended to it faithfully, coaxing it to caramelized goodness and adding the rest of the ingredients as directed. It’s got a ton of ingredients and is a gigantic pain in the ass to make. I got the recipe from a dying Creole master chef. Or maybe Paula Deen on teevee. I forget. Anyhoo, here’s what it looked like in the pot when put together, just before I added the shrimp:
And here’s a slice of the homemade pie with homemade whipped cream on top:
Both turned out extremely well but had a soporific effect on the guest of honor, who promptly fell asleep and is missing the end of the US Open. Oh well.
Posted by Betty Cracker on 06/20/10 at 07:13 PM • Permalink
Categories: Food •
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