Tag Cookbook Club

New Season, New Recipes: Parties That Cook’s Open Face Rock Shrimp Sliders

A couple of weeks ago, the Parties That Cook office crew sat down to a Cookbook Club meeting of epic proportions (blog to come). Together, we took on the task of testing (and taste-testing) the NEW recipes for our Spring Menus! As you may very well know, Parties That Cook changes the recipes available for our cooking parties and corporate team building events each and every season! This not only allows us to focus on seasonal ingredients, but also keeps us in step with current culinary trends.

Among the recipes selected for March’s cookbook club were these absolutely delicious rock shrimp sliders. The fact that they’re open faced is great because too much bread can easily overwhelm the precise blend of flavors achieved in this culinary creation. Once assembled, these tasty bites actually look like mini works of art. Hint: Great taste and elegant presentation reign at any Small Plates Competition!!

Open Face Rock Shrimp Sliders with Lotus Root Pickles and Rainbow Micro Greens
This recipe can be found in our Appetizer Recipe Library

Ingredients
Slider Patties:
2 garlic cloves
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled
3 Tablespoons coconut milk
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 1/2 pounds thawed, cleaned rock shrimp (if buying frozen, buy 3lbs to yield 2 1/2lbs thawed
2 Tablespoons cilantro, stem and leaves roughly chopped
1/4 cup olive oil-divided

Pickled Lotus Root:
1 small lotus root rhizome
1 cup rice wine vinegar
1 cup water for pickling liquid
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns

Garnishes:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup ketchup
1 Tablespoon chives, finely chopped
15 mini potato buns or parker house rolls, halved and toasted
1 avocado, peeled and very thinly sliced into 1 inch slices
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, lightly toasted
1/2 oz rainbow microgreens, about 3/4 cup

Methods/Steps
Preheat oven to 375ºF

Puree Shrimp: In a food processor fitted with the steel blade, finely chop the garlic and ginger. Add the coconut milk, salt, and pepper and pulse to mix. Add the cleaned rock shrimp and cilantro to the food processor and pulse about 15 times, or just until the mixture looks pureed. Do not over process.

Make Patties: Using a tablespoon dipped in a bowl of water, gently make patties, keeping the scoop and your hands wet at all times (for ease of forming patties). Place the patties onto a plastic wrap lined sheet pan. Refrigerate for 10 minutes or place into the freezer for 5 minutes.

Cook Sliders: Heat a flat, non ridged, griddle pan or large nonstick sauté pan over medium high heat. Working in batches, pour about 1 tablespoon of the olive oil onto the pan. Carefully place the slider patties onto the pan, and sear for 1-2 minutes, or until golden brown. Drizzle another tablespoon or so of olive over the tops of the patties then flip the patties over. Let sliders cook 1-2 more minutes. Remove cooked patties to a clean foil or parchment lined sheet pan(s).

Slice Lotus Root: Fill a sauce pan with water and bring up to a boil. Peel the lotus with a vegetable peeler. Fill a medium bowl almost full, with water and add about a tablespoon of rice wine vinegar (acidulated water prevents oxidation). Cut the lotus in half lengthwise or into quarters if really large. Using a mandoline, slice the lotus into 1/4 inch thick pieces and place into the bowl of water as they are being sliced. When the entire lotus is sliced, remove the lotus from the acidulated water. Blanch the lotus in the pot of boiling water for 2 minutes. Discard acidulated water from the bowl and remove lotus from the boiling water with a spider or skimmer back into the medium bowl. Set aside.

Make Pickling Liquid: Discard boiling water from the saucepan used to blanch the lotus. Combine the rice wine vinegar, 1 cup water, soy sauce, sugar, salt, and Sichuan peppercorns. Bring the mixture up to a boil and cook until sugar dissolves.

Pickle Lotus: Pour the pickling liquid over the louts and place into refrigerator until ready to use.

Make Slider Spread: In a small bowl mix mayonnaise, ketchup, and chives until combined. Set aside.

Toast Rolls and Warm Sliders: Cut the rolls in half and place onto a sheet pan. Lightly toast the rolls in the oven. Place the cooled sliders back into the oven just to warm through.

Assemble Sliders: Spread some of the flavored mayonnaise onto each of the toasted buns. Lay a shrimp patty on top of the spread. Garnish the top with an avocado slice, lotus root pickle, shredded coconut, and a pinch of the micro greens.

Serves/Makes
Makes 30 Sliders

Recipe adapted by Parties That Cook® | www.PartiesThatCook.com from Hubert Keller’s Secrets of a Chef and Burger Bar restaurant

Parties That Cook Brings It Home for January Cookbook Club: The Food52 Cookbook

It’s time for another PTC Cookbook Club! You’ll want to come to work for this one… We’re talking 140 winning recipes from a variety of home cooks. This much anticipated cookbook is basically impossible to find in stores! Feel special.

A couple of weeks ago, the Parties That Cook office party crew met for the January Cookbook Club! It was Rebecca’s very first time selecting a book for cookbook club, and after discovering the Food52 blog a number of months ago, she was determined to get her hands on The Food52 Cookbook. She made calls to almost every book store in San Francisco before giving in to ordering the book online. Her verdict: Definitely worth the wait!

Unfortunately, due to conflicting schedules, a number of our heavy-hitters were out of commission for cooking. Not to fear, we somehow managed to feed everyone AND have enough leftovers for round 2 the next day. Let the cravings begin! The Menu:

Creamy Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms — We all knew SOMEbody had to bring these in, so when Gina selected this dangerously delicious dish, we were all relieved. As it turns out, Crissy had made this very recipe on New Years Eve! Of course, Crissy had off-roaded, so she was very interested to see how the actual recipe turned out. Gina opted to try the recipe with two different kinds of sausage — YUM! Both versions were winners, and I’m sure we’re all excited to make these on our own.

Sweet Potatoes Anna with Prunes — Michelene had settled on this tasty recipe before her weekend got away from her. She ended up stopping into Whole Foods for salad fixings the morning of cookbook club. She even opted to add in nuts, despite being allergic herself. Her impromptu salad was very yummy, and was a much-needed break from our starch-heavy menu!

Savory Bread Pudding — Having never been disappointed by a bread pudding in past cookbook club lunches, I was very excited to hear that Christina signed on to tackle this recipe. She used a larger pan than specified by the recipe, so part-way through the cooking process, she saw her liquid levels dwindling. Lucky for all us non-chefs, we have an entire damage control team waiting for us at the office. Carolyn advised her to add more liquid to the dish when re-heating before lunch, and it worked! By the time we sat down, the bread pudding was completely rejuvenated with both moist sections and crispy tips. Everyone loved the prosciutto and mushroom flavors, and commented that they actually enjoyed the complex texture of Christina’s version! I don’t think any part of this dish remained for leftover lunch the next day.

Fregola Sarda with Carmelized Squash and Charmoula — Rosie selected this dish, noting that it looks like Israeli cous cous with squash. Very unassuming. The 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper sneaks up on you, but only packs a small punch, even for those of us (me) who can’t handle much heat. For those of us (Beth) who always want to actually turn up the heat, feel free to add more. Let me just add that this was probably the most off-roaded dish we’ve ever had at cookbook club. You could say it was inspired by the original recipe…

One-Pot Kale and Quinoa Pilaf — Yum! With such a busy weekend ahead of her, Carolyn wasn’t sure she’d have enough time to pull this dish together. Come Monday, she had all her ingredients, her big pot, and a burner upstairs in the office. It was Go Time. This dish was great! The kale was very well integrated into the quinoa, and the table was buzzing with all the variations you could make (You’d think it was an Off-roaders Anonymous meeting).

Chicken with Creamy Dijon Mustard Sauce — This month, Crissy took on the task of the main dish. Oh man. The sauce was to. die. for. (I don’t think I’ve ever written or said that phrase before). The flavor was so inspirational that we spent a good amount of time brainstorming the different items we could add the sauce to. The verdict: the remaining sauce, alone, is a great reason to make this dish!

Faulknerian Family Spice Cake with Caramel Icing — Wow. Beth brought in this beast of a cake, and everyone oohed with intrigue. The height alone was impressive. Though we couldn’t figure out why it was a “Faulknerian” cake, we quickly got over it so we could dig in! Just as the book describes, the spices are “pervasive” and the icing is “concentrated and sweet,” providing a great contrast to the flavor of the cake. Beth was definitely WINNING! (Sorry, I had to…)

Lazy Mary’s Lemon Tart — Rebecca had a hard time deciding on a recipe. After much back-and-forth between this recipe and the tempting Zucchini Pancakes (on the cover), she finally decided on a deliciously simply lemon tart. Any author with the word “lazy” in her name is OK in our book! There’s nothing easier than throwing everything into a blender to “whir like crazy.” The toughest part of this recipe was making a crust, a recipe for which is not provided in the book. Had she looked online earlier, Rebecca would have found countless notes, suggestions, and even a recipe for a crust on the Food52 site!

This book is organized by season, so these recipes are primarily found in the Fall and Winter sections. We love that this book will be relevant year-round, and are excited to try the many remaining seasonal dishes. There are rumors that the next cookbook club will feature the Momofuku cookbook, or maybe even Parties That Cook’s upcoming menu. If you have a recommendation for us, let us know! Keep your eyes peeled for a guest post by a member of our fabulous Chicago team — coming soon!