Lemony Shrimp Soup

Jana@ Collected Quotidian — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:23:36 +0000

I felt like Snow White while making this soup. While I hummed about the kitchen, ingredients seemed to wing out of the fridge and into the soup as if little adorable doe eyed woodland creatures were helping them along. Before I knew it, I had a beautiful soup that seemed to have created itself.

I love those days.

I’d puttered about with a shrimp soup idea for awhile, but without any concrete ideas. I just knew I was tired of shrimp scampi. And my spicy Asian stir-fried shrimp. I was in a shrimp rut. (A shrut?) So when I began making the soup, I was determined not to use any of my normal shrimpy ingredients. No parsley, no red pepper flakes, no soy sauce.

The part that gives an extra pinch of fairy dust to this recipe is that everything (apart from the shrimp) was just lying around my fridge. The lemon had been lying naked in a drawer since I zested it last week. The onion and leek were left over from the cooking class I taught on Sunday. I always have quarts of whey sitting around as I make my own mozzarella cheese every week. And the collards were leftovers from last night’s dinner. Whenever I’ve attempted such “leftover soups” before, the individual ingredients, like ugly step sisters, have never played well together. But in this soup, they all seemed to grow up and realize each other weren’t so bad.

This soup even got it’s own “happily ever after” ending at dinner. Mr. Quotidian, the ever skeptical prince, pronounced throughout all the kingdom that this was a “soup-er soup.”

A note about the whey: This is actual, real, living, whey. It was drained off of cheese, not mixed from a powder. They are two completely different products and should not be substituted for one another. However, if you are not like me and do not have excess quarts of whey sitting in your fridge, a good chicken stock (or shrimp/fish stock- even better!) would substitute quite nicely.

Lemony Shrimp Soup

1 lb of fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined
Juice from one lemon
1 onion, chopped
1 leek, chopped, white and pale green parts only
2 tbs lard, butter, or olive oil
1 1/2- 2 qts whey
2 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1 tbs dried sage
1 tbs herbs de provence
1 cup cooked collard greens
salt and pepper
1/4 of a preserved lemon- I used Jenny’s recipe from the Nourished Kitchen, chopped fresh lemon could be substituted
2-tbs yogurt

Pour the lemon juice over the shrimp and let them marinate while you prepare the rest of the soup. Melt the fat in a large soup pot. When the surface shimmers, add the onions and leek with a pinch of salt and sweat until soft, about 2 minutes. If they start browning, turn down the heat. Pour in the whey, then add the chopped garlic and herbs. Bring the whey to just below a boil. Add the shrimp cook for another minute or so. The shrimp are done when they turn bright pink. Add the cooked collards and turn off the heat. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed. To serve, ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with a spoonful of yogurt and a generous pinch of preserved lemon.

This post is part of Pennywise Platter Thursday at the Nourishing Gourmet.

Fermented Cranberry Relish

Jana@ Collected Quotidian — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:22:40 +0000

For those of you who want to twirl your culinary compasses, try this fermented recipe. Historically, most of our condiments were fermented (or cultured, or lacto-fermented- all basically the same thing)- from pickles to ketchup to soy sauce. The main goal of fermenting was preservation. Before people canned, they fermented food to keep for the winter. Fermented foods also have health benefits, including providing your digestive tract with probiotics (yep, those little things you take in expensive pill form now).

This is a great recipe to start your fermenting journey. Most people are already familiar with the tartness of cranberries and are therefore more receptive to the added fermented flavor.

After you’ve mixed up a batch, take some time to read more about the health and history of fermented foods. I suggest you start here and here.

1 bag fresh cranberries
1 whole orange
1-2 tbs whole spices (cinnamon stick, star anise, fennel, cloves, allspice, ect)
1/4 cup whey
1/4-1/2 cup sugar or rapadura
1 tbs sea salt

This recipe should be started at least 3 days ahead of when you are planning to serve the relish. A week would be better.

In a food processor or blender, combine cranberries and orange and any whole spices. Do it in batches if your bowl isn’t big enough. Process them to a medium consistency. You don’t want whole berries, but you don’t want a liquid either. Stir in whey, sugar, and salt. Remove to a quart mason jar. Using a meat pounder or a the bottom of a glass that is smaller than the mouth of the jar, pound the mixture down to release the juice. Keep smooshing and smashing until the liquid comes above the mixture. If you don’t think you have enough liquid, add a little water to cover. Be sure the relish is at least 1 inch below the top of the jar.

Screw on the lid and keep the jar at room temperature for 2-3 days. Start tasting it on the second day. When you like the flavor, transfer it to the fridge. It will last for several months.

The rate of fermentation depends on the temperature of your house. If it is warmer, the relish will ferment faster. If it is colder, it will take more time. If you house is very cold (like below 65°, like ours sometimes is before we turn the heat on), consider putting the relish in a warm oven, on top of a warm appliance (computer, fridge, TV), or in a dehydrator. Just don’t let it get to hot, or all the lovely little microbes will die. An ideal range would be 70°- 90°.

Collected Quotidian » ferments/cultures

Lemony Shrimp Soup

Fermented Cranberry Relish