Shrimp with Dill Vinaigrette (p. 189)

I decided my second blog post would be from the Fish section of Live to Cook. After looking over the Fish recipes and checking out what was available at my local Heinen's, I decided to make Shrimp with Dill Vinaigrette (p. 189). This dish is basically shrimp sauteed in garlic and topped with a sauce made of wine, seafood stock, and a dill vinaigrette. If you can find good, fresh shrimp, this dish would make a great appetizer for a party or a quick dinner. On to the cooking...

 

Here are all the ingredients

The first step was to make the stock. I don't cook a lot of seafood and I had never made seafood stock before making this dish. I make my own chicken, turkey, and beef stock and know that it takes hours to properly make a good batch of any of these stocks. I had no idea it would be so quick & easy to create a delicious seafood stock.

  

Sliced onion, carrot, & ginger

I started by thinly slicing the onions, carrots, and ginger.

  

Peeled shrimp, don't forget to save the shells!

Next up was to prep the shrimp. I used "fresh" USA wild caught shrimp (21-25 count) that were already deveined. Unfortunately the shrimp from Heinen's, like most shrimp available in the Ohio, were not very fresh. I probably would have been better off using IQF shrimp (individually quick frozen) but I did not check the quality of the shrimp until I got home. I knew the blog must go on so I rinsed them, removed the shells, and reserved the shells to be used in the stock.

  

Toasting coriander seeds

The next step to prep for the stock was to toast the coriander seeds. Coriander, also known as cilantro or Chinese parsley, is Michael Symon's favorite spice. He says, "Besides being balanced, it works with almost every food, and it's almost impossible to overseason food with it." Toasting the coriander seeds brings out its full flavor. To toast the seeds, I warmed a saute pan over medium heat, added the seeds, and toasted them, tossing occasionally, until they were fragrant, probably 2-3 minutes.

  

Mise en place

  

Sweating the carrots & onions (before I covered them)

Once I had everything for the stock in place I sweat the carrots & onions over medium heat. Sweating is the process of releasing flavors with moisture (fat in this case) and low temperatures. Be patient with this process to get as much flavor out of the onions & carrots as possible. The goal is to get the flavors our of them, not caramelize them.

  

The rest of the stock ingredients 

Once the onions were translucent I added the shrimp shells, coriander seeds, bay leaf & ginger and mixed it all together.

  

Stock simmering

I cooked this mixture until the shrimp shells turned pink, added 2 cups of water, and brought it to a simmer.

  

Tada! Delicious seafood stock in 20 minutes

After 15-20 minutes, I had a delicious seafood stock. I carefully poured the stock through a strainer. This makes more than the 1/2 cup this dish calls for so I had plenty left over to play with in another dish. I also enjoyed eating the carrots used in the stock. They were some of the sweetest carrots I've ever tasted, why let them go to waste?

Salted, minced shallots for the vinaigrette

While the stock was simmering, I began prepping the vinaigrette. First I minced the shallots and seasoned them with salt.

  

Vinaigrette coming together

Then I added the dill and the zest & juice of 2 lemons into the bowl. Michael recommends not making the vinaigrette until right before it will be served because the dill will discolor. Finally, I whisked in the olive oil until the flavors were mixed, tasted and seasoned with salt & pepper to my taste.

 

One pound of shrimp laid out to be seasoned

I heated a couple tablespoons of olive oil over high heat and added the seasoned the shrimp. There were too many shrimp to do in one batch, so rather than crowd the pan I did them in a few batches. Advice: The shrimp do not take long to cook AND YOU DON'T WANT TO OVERCOOK THEM! so be attentive and take them off the heat after just a couple minutes.

Garlic shrimp

Once the shrimp were overcooked, I added all of them back to the pan, along with the garlic. I let the garlic cook for a minute or so while stirring to spread the flavor between all the shrimp.

 
Shrimp with garlic, wine, & seafood stock - should be delicious, right?

Almost done! Once the garlic had softened a little, I deglazed the pan with the the wine & seafood stock and let it reduce for a minute or so. I knew I probably should have removed the shrimp before deglazing the pan, but I didn't so they continued to overcook.

  

 

The vinaigrette warming up

The final step before plating should have been to add the capers and vinaigrette to the sauce but since I left the shrimp in the sauce, I took them both out of the pan and put them in the bowl in which they would be served. I then added the capers and vinaigrette to the empty pan and heated the mixture until it was warm. I then added the capers & dill vinaigrette to the rest of the sauce & shrimp.

 

Shrimp with Dill Vinaigrette

Looks beautiful, right?

 

Plating of the Shrimp with Dill Vinaigrette

So how did it turn out? The fact that the shrimp were not so fresh, combined with the fact that I overcooked the shrimp led to an unsuccessful dish. I am sure this is a great dish when good quality, fresh shrimp are used (and not overcooked). Unfortunately, aside from walleye & perch, it is difficult to get high quality seafood of any kind in the Cleveland area. Don't get me wrong, we still ate them all, the shrimp that were just a little dry & rubbery. Sounds appetizing, right? I am probably make it sound worse than it was, but I am glad I was only serving this dish to my wife. If I make this dish again, I will definitely remove the shrimp a lot quicker from the heat!


The vibrant, acidic vinaigrette really brings the shrimp to life and I used some crusty bread to sop up the leftover sauce when the shrimp were gone. In the book, Symon wrote a full page (p. 187) about his use of vinaigrettes instead of typical sauces & stocks quite often in his restaurants. You'll also notice quick vinaigrettes such as this one are prevalent throughout the book, in both hot and cold preparations. Symon feels typical stock based sauces, "too easily become over-reduced and sticky on the tongue...and are also time-consuming." Instead, he prefers to combine the same ingredients of a classical sauce in the same pan used to cook the protein, gaining the flavor of the dish, but comes together a la minute.

Cost
I will provide the approximate cost for each recipe in the book, as well as the source of the products used. 

It cost approximately $24.08 to make Shrimp with Dill Vinaigrette. The cost broke down as follows:

Large, Wild American Shrimp, shell on but deveined - $11.21
Hojiblanca Extra Virgin Olive Oil (Olive Tap) - $4.70 
Simi Chardonnay - $2.00 (this wine paired very nicely with the dish)
Dill - $1.99 
Lemons - $1.33
Roland Salt Packed Capers - $0.85
Onion - $0.50 (Homerville Produce Auction)
Carrot - $0.50 (Plum Creek CSA)
Misc (shallot, vegetable oil, fresh ginger, whole coriander seeds (Spicehound), bay leaf (Spicehound), garlic, salt) - $1

Unless otherwise noted, all ingredients for this dish came from Heinen's 

Nutritional information:
I am not a nutrition expert but I will provide some information about the key ingredient of each dish.


Low in fat and calories, shrimp also offer beneficial doses of omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B12 and niacin. Shrimp also are mineral-rich, supplying iron, zinc and copper. One serving of shrimp has 17 grams of protein, 34 percent of your daily recommended amount. Look for firm meat with a sweet, lightly briny aroma. Shrimp with discolored shells or an ammonia smell should be rejected.