Alright, here we go, One of my fetishes is a cookbook fetish.
But the good news is, is that it is a rewarding one. With cookbooks comes good home-cooked food. I’m a cookbook collector and have enough that at some point, it validated me purchasing a large, beautiful, all-too- expensive, wooden bookcase with french doors to house them in…and it’s full.
Before my twins came along, I actually had time on my hands at some point, and LOVED going to old used bookstores to peruse old, no-longer-in-print cookbooks. A few of my most cherished cookbooks are in fact, these particular kinds of books. I’ve acquired a few through various means: Old favorite restaurants, who’ve since closed their doors, but happened to publish a cookbook before they did; Heirloom hand-me-downs from my grandparents and great grandparents, or other family members, and in the case of this particular recipe below, dumpster diving.
Well, dumpster diving at my parent’s house, but dumpster diving nonetheless.
You see, I inherited my cookbook fetish from my mother, Phyllis or as we call her Fifi, and her cookbook collection actually DWARFS mine. At my mom’s house you can pretty much find a cookbook or a cooking magazine in most any room of her house, which isn’t a bad thing, as my parents are very food-centric and much of what I learned early on was by watching, cooking and enjoying food with them.
My mom actually had too many cookbooks at one time and to make room for more, she decided to part ways with a few old, less-used cookbooks while keeping her old stalwarts, and those ended up in the trash one day, along with the dingy, grey covered, gem “Greek Cooking”, by a real-life Greek person and not in print since the late 70’s. The book cover is absolutely nothing to look at, as the dust cover had long since been discarded and all that was left was a dingy, grey, burlap covered, cardboard cover, and inside was not much better. Back in the 70’s they actually printed cookbooks with black and white pictures of food, and these weren’t great looking photos of food to begin with. But my initial reaction to dig further into the trash for more coffee-table worthy books was thwarted when, after a quick page flip, I randomly opened the book to the recipe, “Oven Baked Shrimp with Feta”.
Although I’ve never been to Greece, I spent a lot of my childhood hanging out with a Greek-American family in my town who were close family friends. They had three boys who were a little older than me but we became very close and spending time with them and eating with them are some of the happiest memories of my childhood. Their mom, was and still is a world class baker, so much of the food was sweet as well as savory. It was the dinners that I enjoyed so much, as they were just like the ones I was used to having with my family, with lots of meat-and-potatoes meals devoured with animated dialogues and passionate debates, except at my Greek friend’s house, the conversations had the extra twinge of exoticism by being mostly in Greek, which can sound even more intense than I was used to. Especially since the only Greek I knew were some of the more ribald colloquialisms that boys from different cultures always seem to find the most useful and teach one another…
Anyhoo, I have always had a deep appreciation for Greek food and culture, and this one neglected treatise has become one of my favorites due to it’s unabashedly simple but alluring recipes having been published way before the new current wave of ostentatious cooking culture planted it’s reality-show-inspired roots. What it lacks in scientifically broken down strange emulsions, sexy, high-def photos, and an equally sexy, dentally enhanced, though questionably talented chef-starlet, it makes up for in uncomplicated, rustic, authentic and delicious food, complete with awkward, vintage, plain-old-boring photographs of food and not-so-exotic looking out-door celebrations.
This recipe is actually verbatim from the cookbook, as why mess with something that is perfect?
Serve over pasta, or as I prefer, in bowls like soup while passing around some crusty bread-you won’t need silverware.
Shrimp and Feta
3T Lemon juice
2# Shrimp, peeled and de-veined
1 yellow onion, chopped
4 Garlic cloves, minced
1/3 C Extra virgin olive oil
1 28 oz. Can San Marzano plum Tomatoes, hand crushed
½ C White wine
½ Chicken stock
2T butter
2T Ouzo
1t oregano, dried
2T parsley, chopped fresh
½# Feta crumbled
Oven @ 375
Pour lemon juice over shrimp
Sauté onions and garlic in oil, add tomatoes, wine and stock and simmer uncovered medium low for 15 minutes
Sauté shrimp in butter in separate pan, add ouzo, ignite and toss until flames subside
Mix shrimp and herbs into sauce
Put feta on top and put in oven for 15 minutes until cheese browns slightly and sauce is bubbling.
tpchow 