Tag: seafood
Coffin Bread
Coffin Bread
Coffin bread is a popular Taiwanese street food served at night markets. Traditionally, the wedge of bread used to make the “coffin” is deep fried. A lid is cut out of the center of the bread, resembling a coffin. The coffin is filled with a seafood cream sauce and topped with cheese. Since I didn’t want to use a pot of oil to deep fry the bread and wanted to cut back on the calories, because let’s face it: there’s nothing healthy about what’s about to happen here; I brushed the bread with olive oil and baked it until it got toasted on the 2 cut sides. Cut the top center of the bread out so you have a lid. Instead of scooping the center bread, I pushed it down inside the coffin bowl to create a sturdy bottom. The sauce is a simple cream sauce with peas and carrots, shrimp, and a seafood mix. You can find frozen seafood mixes at just about every grocery store. They usually contain a combination of squid, mussels, octopus, and imitation crab. Once your seafood cream sauce is finished, ladle it into the coffin bread bowl and top with shredded cheese.
Servings: 1
Ingredients
- 4” slice bread cut from an unsliced loaf
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 1/2 tbsp butter
- 1/4 cup white onion finely chopped
- 1 tbsp flour
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/4 cup frozen peas and carrots blanched for 1 minute
- 3/4 cup frozen seafood mix defrosted
- 5 16/20 ct. shrimp peeled and deveined
- 1/2 tsp white pepper
- salt to taste
- 1/4 cup cheddar shredded
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Slice a 4” slice of bread from a whole unsliced loaf. Brush all sides with olive oil.
- Bake the bread for 10 minutes, flipping half way through. Let the toasted bread rest.
- Melt the butter in a small pot over medium high heat. Sauté the onions for 5 minutes.
- Add in the flour and whisk. Cook for 1 minute.
- Turn the heat down to medium. Pour in the milk. Whisk until the flour is incorporated and the sauce starts to thicken.
- Add in the peas and carrots. Simmer for 1 minute.
- Add in the seafood mix and the shrimp. Simmer for 3-4 minutes until the shrimp is cooked through.
- Turn off the heat. Season with white pepper and salt.
- Take a knife and cut a square out of the center of the bread so you have what resembles a coffin lid. Press down the inside of the bread to make a bowl.
Shrimp Stock
Shrimp Stock
I’m somebody who saves all of their shrimp shells. I keep a gallon sized bag filled with them I. The freezer for moments like this. When a recipe calls for shrimp stock, I’m ready to make it. The very basic recipe consists of simmering shrimp shells in a pot of water for 30 minutes, then straining. If you want to have aromatics in the stock, you can add onions, celery, carrots, garlic, and a couple of bay leaves. I you don’t plan on using the stock within a couple of days, you can freeze it down in ice cube trays and store in freezer bags for later use.
Servings: 4 cups
Ingredients
- 2 cups shrimp shells
- 5 cups water
Instructions
- Add the shrimp shells to a pot of boiling water. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for 30 minutes.
- Strain the stock from the shrimp shells. Press down on them with the back of a spoon. They hold a lot of liquid.
Shrimp Chow Mein
Shrimp Chow Mein
The words “chow mein” has multiple meanings across the world. Chow mein can be found in Australian, Brazilian, Canadian, Caribbean, Indian, Mexican, Nepalese, Peruvian, and obviously the U.S. cuisines with Chinese influences. If you live in Minnesota, chow mein to us means a celery gravy with ground pork served over steamed rice with crispy fried noodles. It couldn’t be farther from what real chow mein is.Chow mein means stir fried noodles in Cantonese, a southern Chinese dialect. Traditionally, Chinese egg noodles are stir fried with an assortment of vegetables and sometimes meat or tofu, tossed with a light soy based sauce. In Minnesota, we call this lo mein (but in actuality, this is closer to real chow mein). Regardless of what your interpretation of chow mein is, this recipe is extremely easy to prepare and takes only 10 minutes to cook. It’s fairly healthy as well. The nice thing about this recipe is that the vegetables and protein are interchangeable. It’s ultimately about the noodle, anyways.
Ingredients
Sauce
- 1/4 cup chicken stock
- 2 tbsp oyster sauce
- 2 tbsp shaoxing cooking wine
- 2 tsp light soy sauce
- 2 tsp dark soy sauce
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 1/4 tsp white pepper
Stir Fry
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp ginger minced
- 1 large carrot julienned
- 20 16/20 ct shrimp peeled and deveined
- 8 oz dried Chinese egg noodles prepared according to directions
- 2 cups bean sprouts
- 6 green onion chopped
- 2 cups spinach stems removed
Instructions
- Mix all of the sauce ingredients together. Set aside.
- Heat up cooking oil in a large sauté pan or wok over high heat until the oil is almost smoking. Sauté the ginger and carrots for a minute.
- Add in the shrimp. Cook for a minute a side.
- Add in the sauce. Coat the shrimp in it. Then add in the noodles. Cook for 2 minutes.
- Add in the bean sprouts and green onions. Cook for 2 more minutes.
- Add in the spinach. Cook for 2-3 minutes until it is wilted.
