Shrimp Rolls and Grapefruit Bars
Plus: Gougères on YouTube, Jessie Sheehan Talks Writing Recipes, and a Trip to Mother Wolf.
Hey gang,
Boy, do I have a lot to share in today’s newsletter! Let’s not waste time on pleasantries, there’s just too much ground to cover. (I hope you’ll understand.)
For starters, this week we’re airing the final episode of Season One of The Amateur Gourmet Show on YouTube. Thanks to all of you who’ve been so supportive over the past few months! We have over a thousand subscribers now and some of our videos (Caesar Salad, Best Broccoli) are still racking up the hits.
For our last episode, I decided to make Gougéres!
In case you’re unfamiliar, Gougéres are essentially French cheese puffs that go great with a cold glass of champagne or any cold wine, for that matter. I love to make a big batch and freeze half of it for future company. And the best part is, this recipe (which comes from Chef Renee Erickson) has you sprinkle the Gougéres with cheese, in addition to adding the cheese to the batter, so you get crispy cheese (what the Italians call Frico) on the bottom — an appetizer in and of itself.
For those who’d like a recipe, here you go, in PDF format:
Now, in podcast news, I recently migrated my podcast back to ACast. What does that mean? From your end, not much: you can still enjoy my podcast every week, though now it’ll come out on Mondays again instead of Wednesdays AND it’ll be available wherever you normally listen to podcasts (Apple podcasts, Spotify, etc).
The main difference is that I won’t be sending an extra email every time I publish a podcast: that way I don’t inundate you with too many e-mails week-to-week. Free subscribers will get one newsletter every Monday (that’s what you’re reading now!) and paid subscribers (you guys are the best) will get two newsletters a week, one on Monday and one on Thursday. Capice?
This week on the pod we have the most delightful guest: Jessie Sheehan, author of my newest cookbook obsession, Snackable Bakes. Jessie was kind enough to talk us through her process: how she comes up with recipes, how she writes them, how she tests them, how she adjusts them, and so on. If you’ve ever thought about writing a cookbook, this is the episode for you. Plus: learn how Jessie became a TikTok superstar! Listen here, or wherever you listen to podcasts:
Okay, so now to the headline. This past Friday, I had my friends Hunter and Fielder over for dinner (you may recognize Hunter from the Brian Cranston show Your Honor), and because it’s so summery out, I decided to make a summery dinner. The main event? Shrimp rolls, which I like to think of as the poor man’s lobster roll.
Using Ina Garten’s recipe (duh), I poached the shrimp in salted, lemony water, shocked them in ice water, then stirred them together with a decadent mixture of mayo, mustard, vinegar, salt, pepper, chopped celery, red onion, and dill.
The key step is toasting your buns in butter. I couldn’t find top-loading hot dog buns, so I used King’s Hawaiian sub rolls… which worked great! To balance things out, I made this NYT coleslaw recipe by Dawn Perry with miso, cilantro, and peanuts (I added Persian cucumbers, just because I had them).
It was crunchy and surprising and a great summer side to have up your sleeve.
For dessert, of course I had to make another recipe from Jessie’s book (see the lemon blackberry cake from last week’s newsletter), so this time I made her grapefruit bars — which are like lemon bars, but with grapefruit juice and an optional hit of red food coloring (I think it’s worth it).
The bars are a perfect summer dessert: straight out of the fridge, they’re like a more fun, handheld version of key lime pie. Highly recommend!
On Thursday last week, I went with my friend Ryan to one of the HOTTEST restaurants in L.A…. Mother Wolf. How hot is it? BEYONCÉ ate there with MICHELLE OBAMA.
Here’s a video that I made which really captures the experience:
All-in-all, I’d say it was a fun place to go, but we ran into a friend at the bar while waiting for our table who said it reminded him of The Cheesecake Factory and we were like “wait, what?!” and then, at the end of the meal, I kind of understood what he meant. The place is so huge, we were siphoned off to a booth by the door, and it did feel a bit like a factory — a factory with most excellent pasta and this visually stunning dessert called a Maritozzo, which was like a giant bun filled with whipped cream.
And just in case I haven’t inundated you with enough videos, here’s me making Marion Burros’ famous plum torte yesterday — it’s one of my favorite desserts to make in the summer, and I put my own twist on it:
That’s all for this week, folks! (Sorry, don’t have any links to share today. I do my best.)
I’ll see you paid subscribers back here on Thursday. Everyone else, do you really want to wait seven days to hear from me again?
Until next time….
Your friend,
Adam
i feel like it's a faux pas to comment about something i saw in a preview of a subscriber newsletter when i'm not a subscriber but...i'm going to do it anyway, just this once! because i love roasting peppers. however, if i had to turn on the oven/broiler every time and be rotating them and wasting foil and whatever, i would hate it. but i'm 99% sure you have a gas stove like me. i just put them right on the flame of the burner, and turn with tongs. (metal heat safe tongs, please! don't put plastic into an open flame.) it doesn't take much time* and you can get them completely blackened so you can remove all the skin easily (just remove to a tupperware, ziploc bag, or bowl with lid or saran wrap once done and let steam for ten minutes once blackened), or if you just want a few char marks, you can go that route too and skip the steaming and peeling. i do that for tomatillos sometimes.
if you go the stovetop route, i try to keep it in mind when buying peppers - i aim for ones that are a good size (too small and you will have to hold it there with tongs, larger ones you can balance on the burner which is a much more pleasant experience) and not too gnarled or weirdly shaped so you can easily get an even char. black is good, if you start seeing any white ash you've gone too far and will be burning through the flesh.
happy roasting!
*the only time it takes me ages is when my ten pounds of hatch chiles come in the mail each summer. that is a very long and tiresome project but totally worth it. when i do tons of peppers, i use a dustbuster to suck up all the black flecks all over the stovetop at the end. if you try to chase around weightless little pepper skins with a sponge or a paper towel you might lose your mind.
The shrimp rolls look divine. I definitely want to make those this summer.