This week’s recipe for Cook the Book Fridays comes from Dorie Greenspan’s cookbook, Everyday Dorie.
Shrimp-Mousse Squash Blossoms sounded like a good idea when I voted for them back in late June when squash blossoms were all over the markets of SouthWest France. I didn’t make this back then because I thought it would be a good dish to make with a houseful of people which was to happen post-finishing the Camino.
Well what do you know – markets in France are truly seasonal (I actually do know this but my head wasn’t in the game early in the summer) and at my first Saturday market back in Nérac in July, I noticed that there were way fewer strawberries and so many melons… and NO courgette flowers. GAH!
Dorie does mention the “bonne idée” of stuffing other vegetables like small peppers so I figured I would just wait until I got back to Toronto to make these (and maybe, by a stroke of luck there would still be squash blossoms available – NOPE). I also toyed with the idea of *pretending* I made these by posting this image:
Yup, we’ve made an iteration of these before when we were working through Around My French Table – not a “shrimp mousse” but actual shrimp inside. Back then I had issues finding shrimp/ prawns that were small enough to fit inside the blossoms (you can see them poking out a bit).
Nope, I decided I’d press ahead and make the stuffed peppers. I found gorgeous small, sweet peppers and figured I’d make a tiny amount for just the two of us. The mousse comes together quickly – shrimp, egg white, some herbs, and spices (I used piment d’Espelette instead of jalapeño and perhaps should have gone hotter…). I was easily able to cut around the top of the peppers to remove the membrane and seeds and stuff them. The batter was easy to make but wasn’t fabulous to work with – didn’t stick to the outside of the pepper (right? How is it supposed to stick???). And so the peppers didn’t really get much of the batter at all which was a shame.
Taste-wise, these were fine but the pepper overshadowed the shrimp so much that you could barely taste it was shrimp. Even with hotter spice inside it would not have been obvious that it was shrimp. So, operation “Can I stuff tiny peppers and fry them?” was a success but I think I’d probably only make this again with courgette flowers.
Lesson learned: seize the day (and the market produce when it’s in season!)
Get the recipe for Dorie Greenspan’s Shrimp-Mousse Squash Blossoms on page 33 of Everyday Dorie.
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Disclosure: I was provided with a copy of “Everyday Dorie” for review purposes. I was not asked to write about the book, nor am I being compensated for doing so. All opinions 100% my own.
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Not a bad idea in stuffing small peppers with the shrimp mousse. I’ve also found the batter not adhering well. Higher percentage of all-purpose flour in the batter should get better results.
We all did a variation I think haha. I didn’t have a problem with the batter sticking, which is weird…mine was almost too thick I thought haha.