Gambas al Ajillo (Spanish shrimp with garlic)

Complexity. Depth. Perfection. And certainly, unquestionably, with no possibility for ever changing, the best shrimp recipe I have ever made, or will ever make. Thank you, Kenji Lopez, for bringing joy to my shrimp experience tonight.

Gambas al ajillo is a staple Spanish tapa that simply means "shrimp with garlic". But this dish is so much more than that - it somehow extracts all of the flavor in every ounce of the shrimp and garlic, done so exquisitely that you wonder how you have ever eaten either of these things alone before.

I have wanted to make this dish for years, and almost did so with my brother last month. Fortunately, my new favorite recipe site, Serious Eats, brought us their version of this dish, which casts aside paprika often used to redden the oil in favor of making a garlic and shrimp shell infused oil and then quickly sauteing in that. The magic of the dish comes in the form of brilliant usage of the "three flavors of garlic" - a mellow, astringent, and savory mix created only by the careful application of heat to the garlic in three different cuts. I have never served a dish with garlic treated any more than a single way, but now I've tried it three ways, I instantly understand why this is a brilliant idea.

Yum Woon Sen (Chile Lime Glass Noodles)

My first encounter with chile lime noodles was at a vegan food market, where it was framed as a gluten-free, animal byproduct-free meal.  As I ate it, I thought "this would be much better with some animal byproducts in it."  But all of the recipes I found were somewhat bland, Americanized versions of this dish.

Enter the real deal - yum woon sen, which is a Thai salad using mung bean noodles.  You've probably seen these before - they start off pale white, and when you cook them they turn translucent, earning them the name "glass noodles".  They're fairly easy to find, and not to be mixed up with rice vermicelli, which will cook up white, and though they are the same diameter, that's about all they have in common.  Glass noodles are chewy and have a much more neutral flavor, making them perfect for this dish.  And the Thais don't mess around with the whole animal byproduct thing - they thrown in fried, dried shrimp, and often ground pork (which I didn't add here, to try just the standard dried shrimp version).

In addition to getting to buy two new ingredients I had never purchased before, which is always fun, this dish surprised me by how easily it came together.  You don't really cook anything, in the traditional sense.  You basically just soak the noodles in boiling water, then crisp up the dried shrimp and peanuts, and toss everything together.  I was waiting for the stir-fry step the first time I made it, but it never came.  The end result was very healthy and fresh as a result, so now I see why this dish became popular.

Yum Woon Sen (aka Chile Lime Glass Noodles)
From ThaiTable.com

• 5-6 sprigs cilantro
• 1 2 ounce (dry) bundle mung bean noodles (aka glass noodles, clear noodles)
• 1/4 cup dried shrimp
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon fried garlic
• 1-2 limes
• 1/2 sliced onion
• 1/2 cup peanuts
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 3 Thai chili pepper
• 1 cup cut Chinese Celery, or regular celery if you can't find Chinese

If you can't find the Chinese celery above, just use regular celery.  But do at least keep the tops

This single bundle is all you need for the recipe posted here.  Don't get carried away, it will throw off the balance of ingredients

Rinse your vegetables well, and chop them to the right sizes.  They won't end up being cooked, so it has to be bite-sized and ready to go.

Take one of the 2 oz bundles from the noodle pack, and place in a large bowl with boiling hot water for 6 minutes. Strain the noodles and drain, then pour the noodles into a large mixing bowl and cut them with scissors randomly to make the strands easier to serve and eat.  Cut the Chinese celery into 1 ½ inch pieces. Slice onion, top to bottom to get crescent pieces. Chop cilantro and chili peppers.  If making your own, make the fried garlic by placing 6 cloves of garlic in a microwave-safe bowl and cover with 1-2 tbsp neutral oil, then microwave on high for up to 2 minutes, 30 seconds in 30 second increments until nicely browned and fragrant.

If using raw peanuts, fry peanuts in 1 teaspoon of oil over low to medium low heat until light brown and cooked, about 5-7 minutes. Remove peanuts and set aside. Fry the dried shrimp over medium heat until crispy and brown, about a minute, depending on the size of your shrimp. When the shrimp turns whitish, remove from heat and set aside.

Dry-fry the dried shrimp - this was a new one for me.  I found these in the refrigerated section of the Asian grocery store

Make the sauce / dressing - 1 tablespoon of fish sauce, 5 tablespoons of lime juice, and 1/2 tsp (or less) of sugar.  It should be more sour than salty; you should also take into account how salty the shrimp are. The role of sugar here is to round the flavors.

Add a tablespoon of fried garlic to the noodles and mix them. Fried garlic gives the noodles flavor. Add 5 tablespoons of the dressing to the noodles and mix well, reserving the last tablespoon to add only as necessary. Add the peanuts, dried shrimp, onion, Chinese celery, chili peppers and cilantro to the noodles. Toss well and taste. You may need more dressing, depending on water content of the noodles and the concentrations of your seasonings.

Toss all ingredients to combine, and you're done!  Minimal cooking necessary

Chipotle Shrimp Tacos with Spanish Rice

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, a holiday celebrated mostly by Americans to celebrate a battle against the French, I'm presenting a recipe served with Spanish rice, and I'm posting it on May 6.  Why?  Because in life, nothing's perfect.  One day, you will come to accept this, and all will be well.

Perhaps a short backstory is in order on this.  I will attempt to guess at your day yesterday.  It's May 5.  It's getting late.  At some point in the day you've had this conversation:

You: "what the heck is Cinco de Mayo all about?"
Anyone who will listen: "I have no idea."
You: "well I think we should probably have a margarita somewhere, just to be sure."

Needless to say, I was no exception.  A quick Wikipedia search turned up the fact that this is not Mexican independence day, and that Cinco de Mayo is hardly celebrated in Mexico at all, unless you're from Puebla, where a fairly spectacular battle was fought against the French in 1862.  But it is celebrated in Mexican restaurants north of the border, and that's good enough for me.  So we settled on making some tacos, which soon gave way to burritos, as we had consumed overly strong margaritas following a 3-2-1 recipe and weren't quite in the mood for portion control.  Also an artifact of the margaritas was our inclusion of tequila in the shrimp recipe, which was invented last night.  And finally, the ingredients of the rice, which started off as plain brown rice but quickly became "whatever you feel like should be in there" rice, and which turned out to be one of the best parts of the meal.

But we'll get to the rice in a bit.  Let's start with these tacos, which were deemed so good that they arguably shouldn't be put on the blog.  After a lengthy discussion and more margaritas, it was decided that the world had to know, so here we are.  Some of the better shrimp I've ever eaten, let alone made.  Let's do this!

Burritos and Spanish rice, the results of a successful night of invention at the hands of a bottle of Herradura

Tequila-Fired Shrimp Tacos-Turned-Burritos
by me, entirely me, and nobody but me

• 1/2 pound large (21-25 count) shrimp, peeled, deveined
• 1/2 tsp cumin, freshly ground
• 1/4 tsp oregano
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp black pepper
• juice of 1/2 lime
• 1 chipotle, chopped fine
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp dried chile powder
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1.5 oz tequila
• 1/4 head cabbage, shredded fine
• 1/2 avocado
• Cilantro leaves as desired
• Tortillas
• Sour cream

In a medium bowl, toss the shrimp with the next 8 ingredients.  Try to work the lime juice into the shrimp.  Allow to sit for a few minutes, but not enough to accidentally cure the shrimp in the acidic solution.  While marinating, begin heating a large cast-iron skillet over high heat.

Season the shrimp in lime juice and a whole bunch of awesome.

Once smoking hot, add the oil and immediately add the shrimp so you don't burn the oil.  It may splatter if you just dump everything in, so individually add the shrimp, leaving behind the liquid.  Cook the shrimp for 2 minutes, then flip and cook another 2 minutes.

Not too much shrimp!  If you overcrowd, you'll end up with steamed nastiness, not seared crustacean magic.

At this point, a rational person would stop.  But someone 2 margaritas deep will instead forge on, and try to light the kitchen on fire.  By this I mean you will add 1 shot of tequila, and apply fire to it to get it to catch.  I had some difficulty with the flame part, but you can try to tip the pan or use a fireplace starter to get that thing to blow up like the Godfather.  Do it immediately, because it will evaporate quickly.  Once done having fun, remove shrimp to a bowl.

My alcohol-fueled tequila-fired shrimp.  Actual fire is optional.

To serve, assemble burritos/tacos with sour cream, cabbage, sliced avocado, the shrimp, and cilantro if you don't think it tastes like soap (I don't).  Serve with escabeche (pickled vegetables) if you have them, Spanish rice (recipe follows), or whatever you like.  More margaritas, for example.  ¡Olé!

Spanish Rice

• 1 jalapeno, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped finely
• 2 green onions, white parts only, sliced finely
• 1/2 lime
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 cup brown medium- or short-grain rice
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp salt

Begin by cooking the rice, which takes a while given that it is brown rice.  While rice is cooking, prepare your other ingredients.  In a pot, bring 2 cups water to a boil, then add 1 tsp of the oil and the brown rice.  Once boiling, add the brown rice, cover, reduce to a simmer, and cook for about 30-40 minutes, until rice is chewy and cooked through.  Drain rice in a colander or large strainer, and set aside.

Get your ingredients ready to go while the rice cooks

In a large skillet over medium heat, add remaining oil, and then add garlic, peppers, and green onion.  Saute for 3-4 minutes until soft and just starting to brown.  Now add the rice and toss to coat.  Stir in tomato paste and salt, and cook for 1-2 minutes.  Just before removing from heat, pour in juice from 1/2 lime.  Serve immediately.

Using brown rice gives a healthy kick, plus a delicious chewy bite to the rice that I thought was a huge improvement over standard long-grain white rice

Come on, work that lime!

Shrimp in Black Bean Sauce

This recipe is similar to my chicken in black bean sauce, but without the marinating and with a slightly different mix of ingredients a bit more well suited to shellfish.  It's not quite shrimp in lobster sauce, which is coming soon, but it's still a solid sauce, very different from your standard Cantonese-style brown garlic sauce.

Shrimp with Black Bean Sauce
Food.com

• 1/2 lb large shrimp ( shelled, deveined and washed)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic oil (or sesame oil)
• 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon fermented black beans, well washed and drained
• 1 green onion, sliced thinly, white and green parts separated
• 1 teaspoon shaoxing wine (or sherry or rice wine)
• 1 tablespoon fresh coriander, minced
• 1/2 head broccoli, rinsed, cut into florets
• 1/2 can baby corns
• Steamed rice, to serve

• 2 teaspoons oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 3/4 teaspoon sugar
• Salt and white pepper, to taste
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1/4 cup seafood stock

Ready your stir-fry ingredients - chop up vegetables, set aromatics aside next to wok, and gather ingredients for the sauce (oyster sauce, soy sauce, sugar, cornstarch, stock) in a bowl.  Peel and devein shrimp, and have nearby.  Smash the rinsed black beans slightly to form something between a paste and whole beans, similar to the consistency of refried beans.

Get your shrimp cleaned and at the ready

Chop up your ingredients

It helps if you line everything up in the order of use, to avoid confusion

Heat wok over high heat for 30 seconds.  Add garlic oil and coat the wok.   When a wisp of white smoke appears, add garlic, white portion of the green onion, and black beans, then immediately add the broccoli florets.  Stir-fry for about 2 minutes, until starting to turn bright green.  Now add the shrimp.  The hotter you can get your wok before adding this, the better.  And keep your stove on high!  You want to cook these guys as fast as possible.  Mix together, then leave alone for about 30 seconds.  Flip them over as best you can, then stir-fry another 30 seconds.  Add wine by drizzling around the edges of the wok, add baby corn, and mix well.

Stir-fry until the shrimp turn pink.  These guys aren't ready to go yet

Once the shrimp begin to curl and turn pink, they're basically done.  Make a well in the center of the mixture.  Stir the sauce and pour into the center of this well.  Mix to combine all ingredients, and stir while cooking on high for about 90 seconds or less, until the sauce begins to thicken and bubble.

Turn off the heat, and add the minced green onion tops.  Remove to a heated dish, sprinkle with minced coriander and serve.

Low Country Shrimp Boil - Welcome to America

Coming from the Midwest, I had no idea what somebody meant the first time they said they were having a "low boil".  What does that mean?  So let me help my fellow northerners here - a low boil, or  is some kind of shellfish boiled in a heavily seasoned, creole-infused broth with potatoes, corn, and usually sausage.  Usually crab, crawfish, or shrimp are used, and this ends up being a meal and half when you sit down and roll up your sleeves to this feast.

I have decided that this dish, like chili and barbecue, is the epitome of American cooking - shellfish from the Gulf of Mexico, corn and potatoes indigenous to North America, sausages with Polish or French origins, and a spice blend created by a German Nazi refugee.  Apparently the shellfish boil is most common in the low country of Georgia and South Carolina, whose cuisines I absolutely love, but it has spread to New England and the Chesapeake area as well, where people refuse to call it a boil, and instead use the word "feast".  I could get behind this convention, but really don't care what it is, so long as you leave me alone and let me at those tasty shrimp already.  Let's dig in.

Low Country Shrimp Boil

• 1 large onion, sliced, skin on
• half head of garlic, smashed
• 1 tbsp salt
• 2 lemons, quartered
• 1/4 cup Old Bay seasoning
• 4 pounds shrimp, shell on, deveined
• 2 pounds andouille or kielbasa sausage, cut into 1-2" sections
• 3 pounds red potatoes, whole
• 6 ears corn, halved

This recipe is really, stupidly, incredibly easy.  All you need to do is cook things in the proper order, realizing that shrimp cook quickly.  First, gather your ingredients, and make sure they're all cut into serving sized pieces:

Bring to a boil about 1 gallon of water in a large pot with salt.  When boiling, add lemon, onion, and garlic.  Now add the Old Bay seasoning - you can use more or less, or split it up and add directly with the shrimp.

Get your boiling liquid ready to go, and follow the sequence for everything to be properly cooked and not overcooked

Add potatoes, and cook for about 10 minutes.  Add sausage, cook for 10 more minutes.  Add corn, and cook for 5 minutes.  Add the shrimp, stir to submerge, and cook for 3 minutes.  If you want, add the extra Old Bay when you pour in the shrimp.  Serve immediately with more Old Bay, hot sauce, and whatever dipping sauces you like.  Not that this needs any.

Add the shrimp with some more Old Bay if you like

Stir, cook until shrimp are pink and curled, and then serve immediately!

There's a restaurant near me that serves this tossed in a delicious garlic butter sauce, or a cajun sauce if you prefer, both of which are an excellent (though potentially blasphemous) addition.  I intend to figure both of those out, and add to this post in the future.  So stay tuned!

Thai Seafood Curry

I've made Thai curries on a number of occasions, but when a friend proposed that we try a seafood version, I thought I would upgrade the recipe to include some new ingredients.  This recipe builds on my  Thai red curry recipe, following a very similar process but rolling in fish and different vegetables.  I lifted parts of this recipe from About.com, but changed the curry sauce to my basic recipe, and amended the cooking sequence.

Thai seafood curry, served with a papaya salad (recipe to follow)

Thai Seafood Curry
By Darlene Schmidt, modified by me

• An assortment of fish & seafood - see suggestion below recipe
• 1 small Japanese eggplant, or 1/2 Chinese eggplant, cut into bite-size chunks (be sure to leave nutritious skin on)
• 1 bell pepper (I chose orange), chopped into bite-size pieces
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, OR 2 medium tomatoes, cut into wedges
• 1 can pineapple chunks, drained (OR 1 1/2 cups fresh pineapple, cut into cubes)
• Approx. 1/2 cup fresh basil (preferably holy or Thai)
• 1 tbsp canola oil
• 3 tbsp red curry paste
• 1 can good-quality coconut milk
• 2 whole kaffir lime leaves (available fresh or frozen at Asian grocers), center removed and leaves cut into thin strips
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 3 tbsp fish sauce

 

Prepping the vegetables

Snapper filet

The full assortment of ingredients - some fish, some shellfish, and plenty of vegetables

Heat oil in pan and add curry paste.  Stir-fry for 30 seconds, or until fragrant.  The heat from the dry-cooked chiles may be strong, so be prepared.  Add coconut milk to wok along with shredded kaffir lime leaves, brown sugar, and fish sauce.  Set over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until sauce begins to bubble.  Add all the vegetables except the basil, and stir well.  Reduce heat to medium-low (so curry is gently simmering).  Simmer 5-7 minutes, or until the eggplant has softened.  Stir occasionally.

Simmer the coconut milk with curry paste and the other sauce ingredients.  Don't boil too long, or you will kill some of the coconut flavor

Simmer the eggplant and peppers long enough to make them tender.  This will take a while, so be patient

While vegetables are simmering, rinse and cut the fish into smaller segments (e.g. 2-3 inches long).  Rinse the shellfish in cold water, and remove shells from prawns.  Scrub and remove beards from mussels, if using.  Add the segments of fish, stirring well to incorporate into the sauce.  Cook approximately 2 minutes.

Add the fish, which cooks longer than the shellfish

Add remaining seafood plus the pineapple, stirring gently to incorporate.  Cover and continue simmering until the seafood finishes cooking (about 2 more minutes, or until prawns have turned pink and plump and the shellfish have opened).

The wok, with everything added and starting to cook

Finish with the basil.  I prefer holy basil (purple) or Thai basil (smaller green leaves, more licorice taste), but regular basil works in a pinch

Taste for seasonings.  Consider adding 1-3 more tbsp. fish sauce according to your taste.  If it turns out too salty, add a squeeze of lime or lemon juice.  Add more sugar if too tart, or more fresh green chili (or a sprinkling of dried crushed red chili) if not spicy enough.

Ladle the curry into a serving bowl.  Sprinkle the fresh basil over, and serve with plenty of Thai jasmine rice.

The full spread. I can't even get something this fresh at most restaurants

*Suggested Assortment of Seafood for this Recipe (this recipe is very flexible - add the types of seafood you prefer, or what is available to you):
1 fresh or frozen fillet of salmon
1 fresh or frozen fillet of red snapper, or other white-fleshed fish
6-8 large sea scallops, OR 1.5 cups small bay scallops
8-10 medium to large shrimp/prawns
several handfuls mussels or clams

Seafood Gumbo

This is a really interesting recipe for a lighter version of a seafood gumbo. Typically, the base of a gumbo is the roux - a mixture of equal parts of fat and flour, typically in unhealthy quantities. The idea is that you coat the starch molecules in fat and cook the heck out of them until they begin to develop more complex flavors, typically to the point that you end up with a nutty richness and deep brown, or 'chocolate' roux. This is a time consuming and irritating process, but it's been established as the basis for a lot of southern cooking, and I can't argue with centuries of successful (and large) southern ladies. So I was intrigued when I discovered that this was going to be a fat-free roux; only the flour was going to be browned, sans butter, which seemed somewhat confusing. In the end, this worked out great, although it was no less irritating to stir flour in a dry pan for 12 minutes so it wouldn't burn.

Gumbo is traditionally made with crawfish or shrimp, some kind of meat, and commonly with okra as a thickening agent. If you haven't worked with okra before, it's a bizarre, slimy pod that's delicious when prepared right, and obnoxious when it's just boiled and served to you in a big bowl. I used some flash-frozen okra from the restaurant supply store, but if you can get fresh, go for it. Another ingredient you might see is filé powder (sassafras leaves), but we're not going there today. As the vegetable base, as opposed to the standard mirepoix of carrots, celery, and onions seen in a lot of northern European and American cooking, the gumbo uses the Louisiana variant of the trinity, which consists of bell peppers, celery, and onions.

My recipe used shrimp and a flat fish filet, in this case swai. The recipe called for snapper, but I was tipped off to a snapper shortage at the grocery store, so I went with the closest looking fish. I don't think there would be a huge difference in the final flavor regardless, and at least having the fish filet with the shrimp was a nice combination of textures.

For the inquisitive, I looked into the origins of this dish, and discovered that the recipe presented here is probably some kind of bastardization between the Cajun and Creole gumbo recipes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gumbo), based on the inclusion of tomato, okra, and celery all together. I don't really care which one it was - it was delicious, hearty, a little spicy, and satisfying.

Gulf of Mexico Gumbo

Cooking Light, June 1997

Yield: 9 servings (serving size: 1 cup gumbo and 1/2 cup rice)

Prep Time: 1.5 hours

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 2 cups chopped onion
• 1 cup chopped green bell pepper
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup sliced okra
• 1 cup chopped tomato
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 tbsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 4 (8-ounce) bottles clam juice
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 pound skinned red snapper or other firm white fish fillet, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
• 3/4 pound crayfish*, peeled (I used more shrimp)
• 1/4 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1/2 teaspoon hot sauce
• 4 1/2 cups hot cooked long-grain rice

*Note: One (8-ounce) container select oysters, undrained, can be substituted for crayfish, if desired.

Place flour in a 9-inch cast-iron skillet; cook over medium heat 20 minutes or until browned, stirring constantly with a whisk. (If flour browns too fast, remove it from heat, and stir until it cools down.) Remove from heat; set aside.

Go from this...

...to this. I probably could have gone darker, but there was some serious smoke coming up from the pan, and I wasn't prepared to hit the flash point of the flour dust, causing a wicked explosion in midair.

Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion, bell pepper, celery, and garlic; sauté 8 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Add okra and tomato; cover and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add 1 1/2 cups water, salt, cayenne, garlic powder, black pepper, clam juice, and bay leaves, and bring to a boil. Gradually add browned flour, stirring with a whisk. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

The okra. Slime not shown, but it's there, trust me. Those crazy Cajuns figured out how to use this slime as a thickener - way to find the silver lining.

Here's the trinity - onions, celery, and bell peppers

All of the vegetables, before adding in the liquids and roux

The gumbo, pre-fish addition. It was thick immediately after adding the roux (browned flour). Bear in mind that you won't see the full thickening potential until the mix has come to a full boil.

Add snapper; cook 5 minutes. Add green onions, crayfish, and shrimp; cook 10 minutes or until seafood is done. Stir in hot sauce; discard bay leaves. Serve gumbo over rice.

The swai filet, cut into bite-sized pieces for addition to the mix.

The finished gumbo, with some bread I tried to make. The presentation impressed my guests. The flavor floored us all.

Pumpkin Shrimp Bisque

From The Herbfarm Cookbook, by Jerry Traunfeld

Now that it's cold out, it's time to be excited about soup again.  And in honor of Halloween, I decided to buy and eviscerate a pumpkin.  I've been sitting on this recipe for a pumpkin shrimp bisque for probably 4 years, and finally got a chance to try it out.  Does it sound like a strange combination?  Maybe, but I believed in this recipe, and was not disappointed.  The finished product is almost more like a bouillabaisse with a mild pumpkin flavor, based on how the stock was made.  And fortune smiled on me to omit most of the sage because I couldn't find it fresh, which would have overpowered this strangely delicate soup.  But at the very least, invest in some saffron threads and make sure to include them.  Without that, the soup won't have the floral, earthy flavors you'd associate with a seafood soup, and you'll just get something bland.

It's optional to roast a pumpkin over buying the canned stuff, but I highly recommend fresh pumpkin in this soup.  You end up keeping much more of the pumpkin flavor, since it's minimally processed (you only cook the pumpkin for a few minutes in the soup after it's roasted).  If you're going to roast your own pumpkin, make sure to get the right kind.  You want what's called a "pie pumpkin", not just any old pumpkin that you carved up.   The bigger ones aren't as sweet, and will have a much higher starch-to-sugar ratio, making them more bland and stringy.  They also won't roast as well, since the sugars won't caramelize as fast.

Look for pie pumpkins.  They're about 8" or less in diameter, and are full of sugar.  Don't just roast any old pumpkin you happen to have.

I break this recipe into 3 stages, the first two of which you can do in parallel - roasting the pumpkin, making the shrimp stock, and finishing the soup.  The whole thing took about 2 hours, but could have been cut down to 75 minutes now that I understand this order.

Shrimp Stock

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 3/4 cup dry white wine
• 3 cups homemade or canned low-sodium chicken stock
• Pinch saffron threads (about 24)
• 2 ribs celery, coarsely chopped
• 1 medium onion (about 8 ounces), coarsely chopped
• 4 fresh bay laurel leaves, torn, or 2 dried
• 2 3-inch springs fresh sage

Soup

• 2 cups pumpkin purée, fresh (see first step) or canned
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• About 3/4 teaspoon salt, less if using canned stock
• Scant 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh sage
• 1 pound large shrimp (16 to 20)  

1. Pumpkin purée: Cut a sugar pumpkin in half and scrape out the seeds.  Place it cut side down in a baking dish and pour in about 1/4 inch of hot water (I didn't remember this, just put it on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and it still worked out fine).  Bake it in a 400°F oven until the flesh is tender, 40 to 50 minutes.  Turn the pumpkin halves cut side up to cool.  Scoop the pumpkin flesh from the skin and purée it in a food processor until smooth.  I don't have a food processor, so I broke out its historical cousin, the food mill.  The directions say to transfer the purée to a large sieve lined with a double layer of cheesecloth and let it drain for 2-3 hours until it is firm enough to hold its shape on a spoon; however, I just ran the pumpkin through the mill right into the soup.  You can substitute winter squash purée, such as butternut or acorn, for the pumpkin.

The roasted pie pumpkin (about 4 pounds total)

You can't just scoop this out and throw it in the soup - it's too stringy.  Use a processor, or...

...this awesome thing - a food mill.  Bet you don't have one!  In fact, I'm not sure why I have one either.

2. The shrimp stock.  Peel and devein the shrimp, reserving the shells.  Cover the shrimp and refrigerate.  Heat the olive oil in a medium (3-quart) heavy-bottomed saucepan over high heat.  Add the shrimp shells to the pan and cook, stirring constantly, until they turn deep orange and are just beginning to brown, 3 to 4 minutes.  This step - pan roasting the shells - gives the stock much of its flavor, so don't skip it.  The roasted shells should release a concentrated, toasty, shrimp aroma that will fill your kitchen.  Add the wine to the pan, first turning off gas flames to prevent the alcohol from igniting, then boil it over medium heat until all the liquid is evaporated.  Add the chicken stock, saffron, celery, onion, bay leaves, and sage.  Don't omit the saffron!  It makes all the difference in the world, and is probably the number one defining flavor in this soup.  Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to the lowest setting.  Partially cover the pan and simmer gently for 30 minutes.  Strain the stock through a fine sieve, pushing down on the solids with the back of a spoon to extract all the liquid.  Rinse out the saucepan and pour the stock back into it.

The prep station.  Note the course chop on the vegetables - you don't need to dice anything, just get it small enough to give off some love in the stockpot.

The shrimp, after shelling.  It looks like they molted - does this make you want to watch District 9?

Don't just throw the tails in the pot and pour in the liquid - brown them up a bit.  Roasting and developing flavors before boiling is what distinguishes a light broth from a hearty stock.  This was shortly before I added the wine.

This is saffron.  It is your friend.  It is also the most expensive spice on the planet.  A little goes a long way - this is all you need.

3. The soup.  This is the easy part!  Whisk the pumpkin, cream, salt (omit if using canned stock), and cayenne into the shrimp stock.  Bring the soup to a simmer, then cook very gently uncovered over low heat for 10 minutes.  Stir in the lemon juice, taste, and season with black pepper and more salt if needed. (The soup can be made up to this point up to 1 day ahead store covered in the refrigerator.  Keep the peeled shrimp in a resealable bag buried in a bowl of ice in the refrigerator.)

What you end up with after adding all the soup ingredients.  It's not bright orange or anything.

Finishing the soup: Pour the olive oil into a large sauté pan placed over medium heat.  When hot, add the reserved shrimp and sage (optional) and cook, tossing often, until the shrimp is just cooked through, pink, and no longer translucent, but not curled into a circle, 2 to 3 minutes.  They should still have a tender snap when you bite into them.  Arrange the shrimp in warmed serving bowls or a tureen.  Bring the soup back to a simmer and then ladle it over the shrimp.  Serve right away.

Sauté the shrimp in olive oil, with or without the sage.  I'm not sure what they meant by not letting them curl up, but I didn't overcook them.

The finished soup, with some shrimp sticking out.