Mar 16 2011

Pepitas Shrimp Skewers

Posted by Natalie | Perry's Plate in Step-by-Step Recipes

The sun seems to be shining more lately, and after all of the freezing cold weather most of us here in the US have been experiencing (snow in San Francisco?!) I’m definitely ready for warmer weather. And flip flops. And throwing everything we eat on the grill. I was drawn to this recipe for Pepitas Shrimp Skewers because I’m antsy to start grilling. And shrimp seems like a spring-y type of food, no?

TK member Eat 80/20 Dietitian (Lindsay) who blogs at Eighty Twenty is a registered dietitian and has put together some incredible shrimp skewers. My favorite part is how she incorporates ground pepitas (one of my favorite seeds) in the shrimp marinade. These skewers would be a flavorful, healthy addition to your next get-together, but they’ll go fast. It’s a good thing this recipe makes a lot!

To make these skewers you’ll need 50 or up to 75 medium shrimp (peeled, tail-on), cotija or Parmesan cheese, roasted pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds), salt, one anaheim pepper, some garlic, plain yogurt, red wine vinegar, heat-safe oil (I used grapeseed instead of canola), pepper, and bunch of fresh cilantro.

First you’ll need to roast the pepper. Anaheim peppers are longer and lighter in color than green bell peppers. They’re very mild, too. If you can’t find fresh Anaheim peppers in your grocery store, simply use a 4-ounce can of diced green chiles instead.

Slice the pepper in half, remove the seeds and white veins and place cut-side down on a foil lined baking sheet. Put it under the oven broiler for 8–10 minutes until the skins have large black spots.

When they come out of the oven, fold the foil around the peppers and let them sit for 5–10 minutes to steam. This should make the peel come off very easily. If you don’t get all the peel off, don’t sweat it.

Get the cilantro ready by taking the bunch and slicing it off where the leaves start to get really dense, avoiding the thicker stems. Give the leaves a rough chop.

Get the cotija cheese ready by crumbling it with your fingers. Have you ever had cotija cheese? The first time I tried it I thought I’d died and gone to Mexican cheese heaven. I love this cheese. It’s salty and fairly dry like feta, but the taste isn’t quite as strong. You could use feta or even fresh Parmesan cheese if you can’t find cotija.

Pour the yogurt into a bowl and give it a whisk to loosen it up.

Grab your food processor or blender and add the roasted chile, pepitas, garlic, salt, pepper, oil, vinegar, and cheese.

Blend or process until no large chunks remain. Doesn’t look so appetizing, but smells great already!

Add the cilantro and blend until smooth. At this point I really think you could use this as a salad dressing.

Dump the lovely green mixture into the bowl with the yogurt.

Whisk it together.

Now dump in all of the shrimp. (See how easy this is?) Stir to ensure the shrimp is coated. I used a little over 50 shrimp, but I think there is enough marinade for up to 75 shrimp.

Time to get your hands dirty! Thread shrimp carefully onto skewers. I like to skewer them in two places so they’re more secure and easier to flip on the grill. If you’re using bamboo skewers, make sure to soak them in water for 30 minutes so they don’t burn.

I ended up with 6 skewers with 8 shrimp per skewer, plus half of another skewer.

Heat your grill up to about medium heat and place skewers on the grates a few at a time. Grill for about 3-4 minutes per side or until the shrimp are no longer gray or translucent. Be careful not to overcook them or they’ll be rubbery. The recipe says 15 minutes total, but mine were done in about half that time. (My grill might have been on the hot side. So keep your eye on them.)

If you don’t have an outdoor BBQ grill, using a grill pan on the stove does a pretty good job. You don’t even have to wait for the snow to melt! I’ve got a cast-iron grill pan that I love and have been using for years. You could even broil them in the oven, turning them once during cooking.

Put the skewers on a platter and serve with lime wedges. Y-U-M.

As I was thinking of something to serve these with I remembered a recipe I ran across in a book for roasted chile and goat cheese tacos. So I threw a few extra Anaheim chiles on the roasting pan, grabbed some goat cheese and homemade corn tortillas …

And ended up with one of the best tacos I’ve had in my life. These shrimp are fantastic by themselves, but whoa, nelly, are they great in tacos. Especially these ones.

Thanks Lindsay for a great new way to cook shrimp! Her blog, Eat 80/20, is all about balance—eating healthy 80% of the time lets you cheat a little for the remaining 20%. In there, you’ll find helpful nutrition tips in addition to a great collection of recipes.

Printable Recipe

Pepitas Shrimp Skewers

by Lindsay {Eighty Twenty Dietitian} on October 13, 2010 in Fish, Main Courses

See post on Lindsay {Eighty Twenty Dietitian}’s site!

5.00 Mitt(s) 1 Rating(s) 1 vote, average: 5.00 out of 5

Description

Pepitas are pumpkin seeds without the shell! You can roast and shell your own (maybe after a pumpkin carving?) or purchase them pre-roasted without shells (look in the bulk section of your grocery store). As with any seed or nut, they have lots of healthy fats and fiber!

Ingredients

1 whole Anaheim Chile, Roasted, Peeled And Seeded
¼ cups Roasted Pepitas
1 whole Garlic Clove, Pressed And Minced
¼ teaspoons Ground Black Pepper
1 teaspoon Salt
½ cups Canola Oil
2 Tablespoons Red Wine Vinegar
3 Tablespoons Grated Cotija Cheese (or Shredded Parmesan)
1 bunch Cilantro, Stemmed
1-½ cup Lowfat Yogurt
50 whole Shrimp, Peeled, Deveined, Tail-on

Preparation Instructions

Place all ingredients except cilantro, yogurt and shrimp in a blender or food processor. Blend about 10 seconds, then add cilantro little by little until blended smooth (reserve some cilantro for garnish if desired). Place yogurt in a medium stainless steel bowl and mix with a wire whip until smooth. Add the blended ingredients and mix thoroughly.

Add shrimp to the mixture. Refrigerate at least 3 hours. Twenty minutes prior to cooking, soak bamboo skewers in water (to prevent burning).

Preheat grill. Skewer 5-6 shrimp on each stick. Cook over medium heat until done (about 10-15 minutes).

Nutrition info per 2 tablespoons pepitas dressing/marinade: 101 calories, 6 g fat, 3 g protein, 3 g carbohydrates

Nutrition info per 8-9 shrimp: 55 calories, 1 g fat, 11.5 g protein, 0 g carbohydrate, 107mg cholesterol

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Be sure to check out Natalie’s own beautiful food blog, Perrys’ Plate, where you can see her growing collection of lovely recipes. There’s always something new to see there. Go visit now!

Feb 25 2011

Vegetarian Tamales

Posted by Natalie | Perry's Plate in Step-by-Step Recipes

Everything you’ve heard about tamales is true, folks. Yes, these Mexican culinary wonders are a lot of work, and they take a lot of time. On the bright side, the work isn’t difficult and boy, is it worth it in the end. Eating one tamale after the other (after the other) makes you forget about your aching feet and back. Then when you run out, you’ll start craving more and begin the process all over again.

Kind of like having children. But most days I’d rather make tamales than give birth.

Never heard of tamales? They’re little corn husk packets of steamed dough made from corn flour, filled (usually) with different types of meat and vegetables.

For my first attempt at tamales I opted for these Vegetarian Tamales submitted by TK member mommiecooks (Julie) who blogs at Mommie Cooks! I’m sometimes hesitant to try new techniques with large cuts of meat and thought this vegetarian version would be a good one to get my feet wet. I was surprised how good these tasted. I’m not a vegetarian myself, but I didn’t miss the meat at all!

Before I begin, I need to remind you that I am not a Mexican grandmother who has made tamales for 40 years. I am a 30-year-old gringo who’s made tamales only a couple of times, but hopefully I can show you that you don’t have to be a Mexican grandmother to make some great ones. (But if you find one who can help you, you’ll be in excellent shape.)

One of the keys to making tamales (in my gringo opinion) is organization and time management. If you go from zero to tamale with no breaks, you’ll be exhausted. Luckily the filling and masa dough can be made several hours (or a couple of days) ahead of time. Take advantage of that. And make a lot of tamales while you’ve got everything prepped. The last time I made these, I doubled the masa and made two different fillings. I’ve got a freezer full of low-maintenance meals that I can whip out during the week!

Okay, now that you’ve got a plan and several hours set aside, let’s get going!

First, let’s make the masa. I loved Julie’s masa recipe. It was so flavorful! I think this will be my go-to recipe no matter what filling I make. You’ll need dried corn husks, vegetable broth, chili powder, corn masa flour, cumin, salt, baking powder, and a stick of butter. You can find the dried corn husks and corn masa flour in the Latin/ethnic aisle of a well-stocked grocery store. You could definitely find them at a Latin grocery store if your town happens to have one.

I also appreciated the use of butter in the masa dough as opposed to the traditional use of lard. Lard freaks me out. I wish they would call it something else. I’ll get over it eventually.

Cream the butter using an electric mixer or stand mixer.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the masa flour, salt, baking powder, chili powder, and cumin.

Add some of the vegetable broth.

Stir well to form a fairly stiff, but sticky dough.

Add this dough to the creamed butter.

Cream everything together, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary (the butter tends to stick to the sides and bottom), until you have a light, fluffy dough. Set this aside or cover and chill if you won’t be using it for more than a few hours.

Now for the filling! I made a few changes to Julie’s recipe (noted at the bottom of this post) and quite liked this combination of vegetables. You’ll need a bunch of fresh cilantro, cooking oil, chili powder, cumin, diced tomatoes, a few brown mushrooms, green onions, poblano peppers, salt, fresh garlic, lime, a small potato, and some shredded cheddar cheese. (As well as 1/4 cup of vegetable broth. Just pretend it’s sitting next to the oil.)

I’m mildly obsessed with roasting vegetables, so after I chopped the sweet potato and mushrooms and seeded and halved the peppers, I stuck them on a rimmed cookie sheet and roasted them at 425 degrees F for 30-35 minutes. (Peel the skin off the peppers and coarsely chop them after they’re roasted.) You could surely cook them in a skillet (per the original recipe), but if you’re using poblanos, you might want to reduce the amount. Roasting takes most of the heat out of them, and cooking them in a skillet may make the filling spicier than you anticipate.

After they’re nice and roasted, throw them with the rest of the filling ingredients (except for the broth and cheese) into a large skillet and cook over medium heat until everything is heated through, about 2-3 minutes.

Add the vegetable broth and scrape any bits that have stuck to the bottom of the skillet. Kill the heat, and stir in the cheese.

Transfer to a bowl and set aside until ready to assemble the tamales. Cover and chill if it will be more than a few hours.

At some point you’ll need to soak the corn husks. They need to be immersed in water for about 30 minutes so they’ll be flexible enough to work with. Because I made my masa dough and filling ahead of time, I soaked my husks 30 minutes before I started wrapping them. If you’re going from zero to tamale, you might want to do this first. My husks floated to the top of the bowl, so I used a large can of pumpkin to weigh them down. The original recipe only makes between 13 and 16 tamales, so don’t soak the whole bag. Be sure to throw in a few extras to tear up and use as ties and in case a few of them rip; 25 ought to suffice.

When you’re ready to start the fun part (yes, it really is fun!), clean up your workstation and get everything organized. You’ll need the filling, the masa dough, the soaking husks, a place to put the finished tamales, and a few husks that have been torn into 1/2-inch strips to use as ties. I also used a towel to place the husks on and dry them off when they come out of the water bowl.

There are several ways to wrap tamales. I’ll show you two. This first way is definitely the easiest and the best way to use smaller husks that aren’t very wide or long. (You can also overlap husks if you don’t want to make really small tamales.)

First spread a 2 to 3 tablespoonfuls of masa dough in the center of the tamale, leaving a narrow border on each side. I found that using wet fingertips was the easiest way to spread the dough. It’s pretty sticky. Then put a spoonful of filling down the center of the dough. Fold the sides in (or roll like a burrito), then twist the ends and secure them with a husk tie or some kitchen twine.

See? Not so bad!

This next one was my favorite because they look like little packages when they’re tied. This method was much easier with large husks, but you could surely twist and tie the ends as well. First spread the masa and filling like the previous method, and bring the sides to the center. Then, fold the bottom of the husk to the center and fold down the top part of the husk to the center. Secure with a piece of kitchen twine from top to bottom or side to side, depending on your preference and the size of your husk.

Adorable.

Repeat, repeat, repeat! Now is the time to have some good music, your comfy crocs, and a few extra hands to help.

When you’re finished, you’ll have a tray (or two) of finished tamales. (I doubled the recipe, which is why I ended up with so many.) Some will be small, some will be big, some pretty, some will look like you had a toddler helping out. That’s perfectly fine. They’ll all taste great!

At this point you could stick them in a gallon-sized freezer bag and freeze them if you like.

One of the reasons I never made tamales until now was because I don’t own a steamer. Julie suggested taking a big pot, adding a couple quarts of water and steam them in a metal colander nestled inside. Brilliant! My colander wasn’t wide enough, so I sealed the edges with aluminum foil to hold the steam in. It isn’t pretty, but it did the job.

Julie says to steam them for 90 minutes over medium-high heat, adding more water as necessary. If you have a proper steamer, I imagine they’d be finished in less time. Add an extra 15 minutes or so if they’re frozen. You don’t need to thaw them ahead of time.

All your hard work will finally pay off as you bite into these tender, moist, flavorful little packets. Serve them with the traditional side of rice and beans, some salsa, and a dollop of sour cream, and you’ll wonder where this meal has been all your life. Seriously.

Julie, thank you for a great recipe and sharing your tamale wisdom! Visit her blog, Mommie Cooks, for more for her family-friendly recipes.

Recipe alterations: I omitted the zucchini and the fresh tomatoes and replaced it with 3-4 large brown mushrooms, 1 small sweet potato, 2 poblano peppers, and 1 can of diced tomatoes, drained. The altered filling made more than the original and needed 1 1/2 times the masa recipe.

Printable Recipe