Monday: Strip Steak Hash with Tomatoes and Mozzarella
Tuesday: Marinated Artichoke and Pancetta Pasta
Wednesday: Salt-and-Pepper Shrimp with Crispy Polenta
Thursday: Extra Mile Foundation Wine Tasting
Friday: Crispy Salmon with Avocado Sauce with Sweet and Spicy Zucchini
Saturday: Chicago Tavern-Style Pizza
Sunday: Barbecued Chicken, Parmesan Baked Summer, Parmesan Baked Squash Cole Slaw
LESSONS IN COOKING
Ina Garten is a wonderful cook, a great cookbook writer, an accomplished tv entertainer and a very nice wife for Jeffrey. But she has a flaw – if you use Morton’s Kosher Salt (I do), the amount of salt called for in her recipes will make your food too salty. How do I know this? Because I am addicted to her easy-to-follow recipes and her general approach to food. I cook a lot of her stuff, and I have often found it to be too salty (my friend Tim agrees). The fix is quite simple – back off on the amount of salt. You can always add salt to the dish when you taste it, or at the table – and if you use Maldon Sea Salt you can add a delightful crunch as well.
Many apologies to the great Ina Garten for using her as a diversion from my own recebt cooking mistake which was not due to one of Ina’s recipes, but to a recipe in bon appétit magazine. The recipe called for a spice mixture. Spice mixtures are really recipes within a recipe, and you will often find yourself making 2 or 3 times as much of the mixture as you actually need for the dish. This is as annoying as the fact that hot dogs come in packs of 8, while hot dog buns used to come in packs of 6.
But we are not talking about the former miscommunication between hot dog producers and hot dog bun makers. We are talking about my own lapses, errors and failings as a cook. These mostly fall into the category of using too much or too little of an ingredient.
I once made a roasted mushroom cream for a pizza and, unthinkingly, put all of it on the pizza. There was probably enough of that cream for four pizzas. Eating all of that on one pizza was like eating Campbell’s mushroom soup from the can without adding any water.
And last week I used far too much of a pepper and salt mixture on Salt-and-Pepper Shrimp with Crispy Polenta. Now, legally, I could blame this mistake on the recipe writer who did not warn against using all of the spice. But, really, I am an adult, I have been cooking for over a decade and I didn’t even use all of the spice mixture, since I could sense it was simply too much. But I did, nevertheless, use too much of the spice mixture and She Who Must Be Obeyed, after a coughing and sneezing fit that had the coyotes in the surrounding hills howling, declared that she could not eat the dish. I considered correcting her and pointing out that she should have said that she “would not” eat the dish. But when I saw the look in her eye I decided to keep quiet). Now Billy, who dropped by after the gym or before softball or in the midst of something or other, had two helpings of the dish, as did I, but we never let an imperfect dish get in the way of consumption.
So, another lesson learned, or perhaps just reiterated. But cooking is like that – you learn by doing and sometimes you forget what you have learned. It is not a hobby for a perfectionist. But I console myself that I only made a mistake that the great Ina Garten also makes.
The salt-and-pepper shrimp with crispy polenta is so good, even over-salted, that I’m going to share it, nonetheless. Please remember to use only about half the seasoning – you can always add more at the end. Oh, and if you forget and over-season the dish, just call Billy and me and we’ll be right over to help you eat it.
Salt-and-Pepper Shrimp with Crispy Polenta
(Adapted from bon appétit- September, 2025)
Timing:
This is tricky. You’ll need to thaw your shrimp and you would be wise to let the polenta sit in a low oven to dry out a bit after you’ve cubed it. From there on out it will take you 30-35 minutes to finish the dish.
Ingredients: Serves 4
1 lb. medium shrimp, peeled, deveined, with tails left on
1 16-18 0z. tube of precooked polenta cut into 1” cubes. You’ll find this in the pasta aisle of the grocery.
1 bunch scallions cut into 2 pieces, white part halved lengthwise if very thick
5 Fresno chiles thinly sliced. Note: I removed the seeds and used only 4 fresnos – they can be too hot for SWMBO.
1/3 cup corn starch, 1/3 cup (may need more) vegetable oil
For the spice mixture:
2 ¼ tsp ground black pepper
2 /4 tsp ground Sichuan pepper (or substitute pink or green peppercorns and a bit of lemon zest)
1 ½ tsp sugar, 1 tsp Morton kosher salt,
Prep:
Thaw shrimp.
Dice polenta – note, it will be wet when it comes out of the package. Dry it with paper towels and then cube and, if you have the time, put it in a low oven for 30-45 minutes.
Mix spices and set aside.
Toss shrimp in a large bowl with the corn starch until evenly coated.
Finally, put the vegetable oil into a large nonstick skillet over medium high.
Cook;
Depending on how large a nonstick skillet you have, you may have to work in batches.
When the oil is hot, add the polenta in a single layer and let cook for 7 or 8 minutes, then turn over and cook for another 7 or 8 minutes. Note: If the polenta is not dry enough, when you try to flip over the polenta a “skin” will stick to the pan. Don’t worry, use tongs with a Teflon coating to remove these delicious crispy bits to a bowl along with the rest of the polenta.
Add more oil if needed and, again, working in batches if needed, cook the shrimp in a single layer for about 3 minutes, turning over half-way through. Put the shrimp in the bowl with the polenta.
Add the chiles and cook, stirring often, until tender. Transfer to bowl with polenta and shrimp.
Add scallion to the skillet and cook stirring often, until tender – maybe 90 seconds. Transfer to the bowl.
Sprinkle the spice mixture – not even half – over the shrimp and polenta and toss. Season with more spice, if needed. Serve.
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