Last night I went to a crafting party! Buncha chicks sitting around making St. Patty's Day crafts...or at least green crafts. Ton of fun. I went through a years long crafting phase a while back. Me and my hot glue gun were inseparable! But I recently threw it all out in the street with a "free" sign and said goodbye to a ton of pom-poms, pipe cleaners and glitter. So when I was invited to craft night I jumped at the chance to make shit and bring some food with me!
Coincidentally I saw my friend Dayna from high school yesterday so I could buy some girl scout cookies and we could catch up on the last 20 FRIGGIN' YEARS!!! Where does the time go? I'm not really sure, but we had a great time talking (we probably annoyed the Dunkin' Donuts staff to no end, but they sell shitty donuts so it's okay) and I left with a great box of cookies. Samoas. My favorite.
Now, I'd been struggling to come up with a good idea of what to bring to craft night for WEEKS! Finger food was the request and for some reason I couldn't think of a thing. Thinking back on all my dinner nights I couldn't think of one thing that was hand held, would transport well and would appeal to everyone. I loved the PB & Fluff crostini from the ever doomed Twisted Comfort night but I didn't think it would go over well because, frankly, Dave and I were the only ones who liked it.And he probably only liked it because he was being supportive. And I could have made Lettuce Wraps of any kind but I didn't think they'd travel well, even if it was only down the street. And I tried to do something Irish but, to be honest, none of the food looked that good to me. And I know I'm gonna hear it. Irish food is great, yes I know, but I couldn't figure out a hand held stew or Shepard's pie and I thought maybe corned beef potato skins, but I wasn't sure. And then came the Samoas...
Samoas Shrimp with Spicy Sauce
1 lb bag of large shrimp (I had about 20 shrimp in my 15 count bag. Love you, Trader Joe's)
Corn Flour (Regular flour is okay, too)
Egg whites
Corn meal
Seasoned bread crumbs
About 8 Samoas pulverized as much as possible in the blender
Pepper, salt, cayenne, cinnamon
Season the shrimp with the salt and pepper (use what you like, I used Mediterranean salt which includes some herbs)
Set up three bowls for dipping the shrimp. Corn flour in the first bowl, beaten egg whites in the second and the corn meal, bread crumbs and samoas in the third.
Spice up the cookie mixture to your liking and then get your fingers in there and break up the chunks of caramel as much as you can. You can eat some, too :)
I had the oil on medium-high heat, about 7 on my electric stove. The shrimp cooked real fast but the outside didn't burn too much. There's sugar in there, it's gonna burn, so be careful not to have the oil too hot or it'll burn faster than the shrimp can cook. Making sense?
One at a time take the seasoned shrimp and dip it in the flour then the egg whites then the cookie mixture. I did them 5 at a time, because my pan was small. Dip all 5 before you put them in the oil so they all have consistent cook time. If you're bold you can dip the next 2 or three while the shrimp cook on one side, flip them over and dip the rest. Multi-tasking like that will get you in a cook-time rhythm.
To transport them I put'em in a tin loaf pan, with a heating pad underneath and wrapped them and the sauce in kitchen towels. OMG! I almost forgot about the sauce!
Who knew the juice of one orange, a good dollop of coconut nectar, the heat of a peter pepper and a bit of corn starch would make such tastiness?
I combined the orange juice with the coconut nectar in a small pan. I used a good amount of nectar so I added a drop of water to thin it out a bit. I lightly chopped a peter pepper from the freezer (I have two bags left from the summer! We will be having a Peter pepper night!) and I threw it in to simmer. Once enough heat escaped the pepper I removed it and then thickened the sauce with cornstarch. I took out some of the stock, dissolved and stirred in a spoon of cornstarch and returned it to the heat. Once it started to boil it thickened up nicely, almost like a duck sauce. It was the perfect accompaniment to the shrimp.
These are definitely worth a try, go find a girl scout and buy her cookies!
-HH
