This recipe was a product of the game “what is in my pantry that I can put in a risotto for dinner.” I had purchased some pre-cut squash and scallops at Balduccis (my favorite foodie grocery store when we lived in the DC area). I made squash and scallop risotto several years before when we lived on Capitol Hill using local apple cider as a marinade for the scallops. The result tasted like fall on a plate.
If you have been to San Francisco’s revered restaurant Gary Danko, then you know the ingredients are the epitome of seasonal foods at their peak. A few years ago, I had the pleasure of enjoying a dinner at Gary Danko with my mom and corn-loving brother. While my mom and I selected scallop and lobster appetizers, my brother ordered the corn soup. I have been trying to replicate this ethereal sweet corn experience ever since.
As I approach 40, I’ve started to think more about what goes in my garbage. ]There are so many ways to repurpose the “undesirable” aspects of ingredients in order to not only reduce waste but also improve flavor. Not to mention that you paid just as much for the “undesirable” aspect of the ingredient as you did for the desirable part. So why not make use of the intense shrimp umami flavor hiding in the shrimp heads and shells by making a simple shrimp stock? Yes, it does take a few extra minutes of prep work, but your taste buds, wallet, and planet will thank you later.
Cape Cod lobster is worthy of an opera. The sweetness of the tail meat, the tenderness of the knuckles, and smell of briny, salty Cape Cod water that lingers on your palate the next morning. This lobster bisque is my ode to Uncle Frank and my way of ensuring that I waste nothing. After we have enjoyed fresh steamed lobsters, I ensure all the meat is removed from the bodies and the legs have been rolled. The shells get combined with whatever vegetables I have readily available (carrot, leek, celery) and submerged in water to make a stock. The stock yields an extra depth of lobster flavor to the bisque.
These are not “authentic” Maryland crab cakes. But what else would you expect from a native Mississippian? This is my version of Maryland crab cakes, but feel free to tinker with the recipe, which is forgiving. Just please don’t substitute the Old Bay Seasoning. It is essential for a Maryland crab cake.
On our honeymoon in Eleuthra, we ate at a restaurant owned by Italians where I was scolded for asking for cheese with my shrimp and squid. I was internally hand gesturing to them through my eyes – but I’m Sicilian – we love to combine cheese with seafood. Arguably, anytime you add a pesto to seafood you are marrying cheese and seafood with a delicious result. So why all the snobbery with combining seafood with cheese? I hope that this version of shrimp pasta helps you reconsider the antiquated rule of not topping seafood with cheese.
