Crispy Chili Garlic Butter Shrimp

February 11, 2023February 4, 2023 by akc

We are big on shrimp in this house, and usually have it every couple of weeks or so. When I saw the Crispy Chili Garlic Butter Shrimp in Smitten Kitchen Keepers I knew it was something we’d have to try.

This came together in a flash for me because the shrimp we typically purchase come with shells on, but already deveined. (For local friends, we get these from The District Fishwife at Union Market.) To serve the two of us for dinner, I made a half batch.

Deb calls for either hot smoked paprika or crushed red pepper, so I did a combination of regular smoked paprika and crushed red pepper. We do like spicy so I definitely could have added more. Don’t skimp on the lemon juice, I thought it might be too much but you really want it to cut through the butter.

If you don’t want to use wine you could substitute some broth (ideally seafood broth, but a light chicken or veggie broth would work too). If you do that, be mindful that you don’t over salt and consider adding a little more lemon juice at the end.

I did not have any appropriate bread on hand and regretted not getting any to serve with this. (I skipped it because I served this with the Green Angel Hair with Garlic Butter.) We wouldn’t have needed much, just something to enjoy the rest of the sauce. A slice or two from a baguette would have done the trick.

A small pile of cooked, shell-on shrimp rests in a cream-colored bowl with black, red, and blue accents. The shrimp are a peachy pink color, with some spots that are browned. There's a scattering of chopped parsley over the top, and you can see some pieces of garlic coated in a reddish sauce. — Crispy Chili Garlic Butter Shrimp from *Smitten Kitchen Keepers*.

Green Angel Hair with Garlic Butter

February 6, 2023February 4, 2023 by akc

This Green Angel Hair with Garlic Butter is the cover dish for Smitten Kitchen Keepers and Deb’s fans immediately went wild making it when she released the recipe on the blog on publication day.

For this recipe, you roast a head of garlic in a bunch of butter and then make a sauce out of that and a ton of baby spinach. This was super easy to make, although looking at her photos on the blog now I can see I definitely should have added more pasta water to the sauce.

I roasted the garlic a couple of days ahead of time because I already had the oven on that evening. I did it in two ramekins because I don’t have small enough baking dish. That worked out really well. When it came out of the oven I let it cool a bit, then got the garlic cloves out of the peels and scraped it all into one ramekin, which I covered with foil and shoved in the back of the fridge. On the night I made this, I threw it into the microwave to melt the butter. I didn’t have quite as many brown butter solids, but I think if I did a little bit less butter (and then added the rest after roasting, don’t worry) I could get a bit more browning.

On the night I served this, I made a full batch of the sauce using a 5oz box of baby spinach, but just made half the amount of pasta (thin spaghetti, which worked out just fine) and used about half the sauce to dress it.

This is not an in-your-face spinach dish, which surprised me. It’s very buttery and the garlic flavor was surprisingly mild. Mine was a little bit under-seasoned, because I neglected to taste the sauce. But that’s on me, I missed a cue in the recipe (“Pour the spinach sauce…”) that would have told me that I didn’t have the consistency right. But it was still tasty! I think you do want to be careful with the salt here, because you’ll be adding more with the pasta water. Next time I’ll keep that in mind and make sure to taste and adjust after I make the spinach sauce.

I put the rest of the spinach mix into the freezer, covering the top with some plastic wrap since it didn’t quite fill the container. I imagine the vibrant green color will change, but am interested to see how it holds up otherwise. It’ll be nice to pull that out sometime when we just want a quick and easy meal, or when I’m looking for something for lunch for a couple of days.

I did serve a protein with this, but I didn’t make a veggie side. I figure that we each ate an amount of spinach equal to the amount I’d use for side salads, and it was nice to not have a third element going on a weeknight.

A shallow white bowl nearly fills the frame. A tangle of thin spaghetti is heaped in the middle. The pasta is coated in a green sauce with lots of flecks of spinach throughout. — Green Angel Hair with Garlic Butter from *Smitten Kitchen Keepers.*

What I read on my January vacation

February 2, 2023March 20, 2023 by akc

I recently came back from a longish vacation to sunnier climes. Why we returned from here is unclear to me:

Sunrise over a white sand beach. The sky is still mostly light grey, with streaks of yellow and orange just above the water. The view is framed by a few fronts form a palm tree at left, and the edge of a thatch-roofed platform at right. — Sunrise in Cancun.

We spent a lot of time lounging by the beach or the pool, as you do when this is the view:

A view of the water taken from under a thatched umbrella. The Sky is a light blue, with the sun just hidden by some pieces of straw hanging down from the umbrella. The water is turquoise blue and set off by some fluffy clouds in the distance. — Midday at the beach.

Anyway. I read three entire books, finished one, and started another. None of them would be categorized as a “beach read,” but in my opinion if you read something at the beach, it’s a beach read.

All the Murmuring Bones, A.G. Slatter: The mood and the world-building were great — there are some wonderful mythical creatures in this one. I did feel the ending was a little rushed, but it was also plausible.

The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Eva Jurczyk: I didn’t like this as much as I’d hoped. There are a lot of academic politics and a protagonist who is sort of just letting herself be buffeted along for much of the story. She finally starts to get interesting at the end.

Bleeding Heart Yard, Elly Griffiths: I never really try to solve the mystery, but sometimes you start to develop a theory, and mine was completely wrong this time, in a good way. This is the third installment in the Harbinder Kaur series. You can certainly read this as a standalone, but you’ll get a little more out of it if you read the other two first.

The Starless Sea, Erin Morgenstern: Somehow this hadn’t been on my radar until recently, but it was such a lovely read. It was so immersive and I was sad to leave the story and the characters when I finished. I saw a few beats of the plot coming, but that didn’t get in the way of my enjoyment.

The Age of Vice, Deepti Kapoor: This is the first pick in Roxane Gay’s book club this year, and it was incredible. Very layered and I liked how you see some of the same events through different perspectives. This is set in Delhi and the city is very much a character as well.

Ginger Garlic Chicken Noodle Soup

January 29, 2023January 26, 2023 by akc

This Ginger Garlic Chicken Noodle Soup is one of the recipes from Keepers that I made a note of right away. I liked that you create the broth by poaching the chicken in water while the aromatics simmer, a technique I’ve tried before with this Pressure Cooker Pho Ga. I was also drawn to the garnish of black vinegar and chili crisp. We love chili crisp.

I had about 2.5 pounds of chicken so I scaled up the broth, but I don’t think that was really necessary as it doesn’t simmer long enough to reduce very much, and the flavor of the broth itself is pretty mild. Deb doesn’t call for this, but I skimmed the broth once it started boiling, mostly to remove the gunk. (I only removed the big, obvious fat deposits on the chicken. You could probably avoid skimming if you were a little more detail oriented in prepping your chicken.)

This filled my 6 quart dutch oven with just enough room for it to come up to a boil without spilling over, so if you don’t have a large dutch oven or stock pot you’ll want to scale down the recipe and possibly use more than one pot.

I definitely used more ginger than called for, and didn’t mince it quite as much as I should have, so next time I’ll be more mindful of that. (I don’t recommend the jarred ground ginger for this.) I’ll also make less chicken and add either broccoli florets or halved baby bok choy while the noodles cook.

Speaking of the noodles, it’s worth finding ramen noodles or something similar. I used a store brand of somen noodles, similar to this brand in type and packaging. You could also do rice noodles, but I think having something with a little heft here is nice. Thin spaghetti would probably work OK too.

Do make sure you follow her note regarding the noodles. You cook them in the broth, but if you expect to have leftovers don’t make all the noodles at once. Or make them in a separate pot, add to the bowl, and top with broth & chicken. That way you can store them separately. I made enough noodles for two servings and just did my best to fish them out of the pot when serving. There’s a couple of stray noodles in the leftovers, but not enough to worry about. The other thing to note is that the texture of the noodles will change as they soak up more liquid, and they won’t be as good.

A white bowl almost fills the frame. It contains a soup with a light yellow broth, noodles, and pieces of chicken. It's topped with chopped scallions and a reddish condiment has been spooned over the top. Little bits of fat in the broth have caught the light, but in an extremely appetizing way. — Ginger Garlic Chicken Noodle Soup from *Smitten Kitchen Keepers*.

A note about chili crisp

Every type of chili crisp is different, but it’s effectively aromatics in oil. It can be spicy or more salty and umami. The one we like is Lao Gan Ma Spicy Chili Crisp, which in my opinion is not that spicy unless you use a lot of it. (And honestly, this is one of those condiments where too much is too much.) I like the textural contrast it brings to a dish, and it’s a great way to perk up leftovers.

Bon Appetit has a nice round up of chili crisps. Off of this list, we’ve also tried the Crunchy Garlic, which I liked but not as much as Lao Gan Ma, and the Fly By Jing, which I didn’t care for but I don’t remember why. Anyway, if you’re curious to try some, try to get either the S&B Crunchy Garlic with Chili Oil or the Lao Gan Ma. You might be able to find it in the Asian foods area of your grocery store, or another store nearby. (Grocery delivery sites might be able to help you scope out the stock ahead of time.) A small boogie market will definitely have at least one brand, and you can always order online.

Crispy Tofu with Sesame-Peanut Pesto

January 25, 2023January 23, 2023 by akc

I realize that there have been a lot of “I’ve made this before” entries for a project called “Why haven’t I made that?” but this illustrates how much Deb’s recipes are already in our repertoire. The Crispy Tofu with Sesame-Peanut Pesto is a favorite from Smitten Kitchen Every Day.

I make this as described, though I do tend to make more broccoli than she calls for. Sometimes so much that it won’t fit on one sheet pan, and the one with the tofu gets the overflow. I like to make things veggie-heavy anyway, and this also stretches the meal for us. (We typically get two dinners and one lunch out of it.) I usually don’t make rice with this, but that’s a good way to stretch it if you don’t have or want as much broccoli. Either way there’s plenty of sauce to go around, although we do add chili crisp as well.

The peanut pesto is the star here. The sesame seeds mostly stay whole, and the peanuts are blitzed down to slightly larger pieces. I wouldn’t call it a chunky sauce but it’s got a great texture. I also appreciate that this is a sheet pan dinner. No need to manage things coming in and out of a hot skillet.

It’s not necessarily super fast but it is very easy, which is nice during a busy week. I cut up the tofu and press the cubes while I prep the broccoli and the oven preheats. If I’m not sure when my husband will be done with work, or if it’s too early to actually cook, I’ll make the pesto and then pause there. Otherwise, once the broccoli is ready I finish up with the tofu and make the pesto while it’s in the oven. I like to get a good char on the broccoli and some color on the tofu, so I’ll usually let this roast for the maximum time, tossing the broccoli and flipping the tofu once.