Dinner from Scratch

The crisp Fall weather has certainly put me in a cooking and baking mood. Unlike summer when I prefer dinner to be ready in less than 30 minutes, I love lingering in the kitchen longer now.

That also means I am more receptive to the ideas of making elaborate, labor intensive recipes and meals. Not that I am connoting these descriptions with the recipes below. In contrary, I have a recipe which I would consider as comfort food for OCT and myself.

From the tropical countries we come from, comfort food means something that's light and preferably not piping hot. That's comfort food for a country with summer weather 365 days a year. A hearty sandwich in my opinion fits the bill.

Because of my weakness in resisting a good seafood(especially shrimps!) recipe, I have my eyes on the Shrimp Rémoulade Po'boy recipe from Cookinglight magazine and a hamburger bun recipe from a blog I like. I think I would call this concortion a Shrimp Rémoulade Sandwich since the authentic Po'boy uses french bread/Baguette. Making this meal certainly requires some planning. Especially when you want to pair the freshly baked bun with the Shrimp Remoulade filling.

I started my bun making in the early afternoon and had them ready before I prepped the shrimp. According to Joe, the hamburger buns freeze well. It eliminated my worry for having to finish a dozen of them in one meal.

If you have baked bread before, you would understand the moment of joy when the bread comes out of the oven. Because I substituted whole wheat flour for some of the all purpose flour required, mine turned out slightly fibrous. Not exactly the kind you would expect in a soft storebought hamburger bun. I prefer it this way though as it stands up to the Rémoulade sauce without making the whole thing soggy.

I also made a fresh corn salad, which unfortunately was not memorable. If you must try, the recipe is here.

Shrimp Rémoulade Sandwich
adapted from Cookinglight, July 2007 and hamburger bun from this blog

Rémoulade sauce:
1/3 cup reduced-fat mayonnaise
2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
2 tablespoons finely chopped celery
2 tablespoons finely chopped green bell pepper
1 tablespoon prepared horseradish
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 teaspoon minced fresh basil
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 small garlic clove, minced

Remaining ingredients:
24 large shrimp, peeled and deveined
Cooking spray
4 (3-ounce) French bread loaves, sliced horizontally (I used homemade hamburger buns)
1 cup chopped iceberg lettuce
1 cup chopped tomato


To prepare sauce, combine first 11 ingredients in a medium bowl. Chill.
Prepare grill.

Thread shrimp onto 4 (10-inch) skewers. Place skewers on grill rack coated with cooking spray; grill 2 minutes on each side or until shrimp are done.

Preheat oven to 350°.

Hollow out bread halves, leaving a 1-inch-thick shell. Place bread on a baking sheet; bake at 350° for 5 minutes. Place 1/4 cup lettuce, 1/4 cup tomato, and 6 shrimp in bottom half of each loaf. Spoon 1/4 cup sauce over each sandwich. Cover with top bread halves.
*I used homemade hamburger buns in place of the french bread. See recipe below.
Yield
4 servings (serving size: 1 sandwich)

Hamburger Buns

1 cup milk
1 cup water
2 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
5 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided ( I substituted 1 cup of all purpose flour with whole wheat flour)
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast

Egg wash

1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon water

In a small saucepan, add milk, 1 cup water, sugar, butter and salt. Heat over low just until the butter melts - cool to lukewarm.

In a medium bowl, whisk together 3 cups flour with the yeast.

Pour the milk mixture into a large mixing bowl. Mix in the flour/yeast mixture, 1 cup at a time, until all 3 cups are in, beating until smooth. Stir in enough of the remaining flour to make stiff dough.

Scoop the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 8-10 minutes), adding enough of the remaining flour to prevent the dough from sticking to your hands. Move dough into a large bowl lightly coated with cooking spray. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 60 minutes.

Uncover and punch down the dough. Evenly divide into 12-16 pieces, depending on how large you want the buns to be. Form each piece into a tight ball and place about 2" apart on a parchment lined baking sheet - you may need to use 2 sheets depending on the size. Slightly flatten each ball. Cover and let rise until doubled - another 30 to 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400.

In a small bowl, whisk together egg yolk and water. Gently brush egg wash over each bun.

Bake about 20-25 minutes, until golden and they sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.