We are so close to Valentines day, and if you dont know yet what to cook for the special person in your life, I might be able to help you out. I already posted the beautiful red Beet soup. With the shrimp and the strawberry puffs its a three course Valentines dinner, better than you could find in a restaurant and you can do it in less than an hour. Of course this is not just great for Valentines day, its great any day.
If you never worked with store bought puff pastry before, I took some extra pictures to make sure that your meal will be a sucess. Its not super complicated once you know what to do. So lets get started.
After you unfold the puff pastry sheet on your counter you will notice the folding seems. Gently “massage” the dough with the tip of your finger to smooth the crease out. Next find two heart cookie cutters that fit inside each other with at least 1/4 space in between them. That will create the “walls” of your heart container. You will need t a total of six large hearts. Two of them will be the bottom of your little puff pastry basket. The other four have the smaller heart cut out inside of them. While you do not need the smaller hearts for this recipe, you can use them for the dessert like I did, or stick them back in the freezer for another use. Just lay them between wax paper or parchment paper and stick in a zip lock bag, or better yet, make the dessert. In the picture you also see two tiny hearts. I only cut them because I hate wasting dough and after baking they did not make past the cooling stage (puff pastry fresh from the oven is soo delightful, plus its just making sure it turned out ok, like QA.
The next step is really important to make sure your little Valentine love vessel for the shrimp will turn out right. So what makes puff pastry puff? We could get into a discussion how how the dough is made, actually pretty simple ingredients, flour, water, a pinch of salt to start out, and then butter layered in between, folded, rolled out, buttered, folded, rolled out…you get the idea. In short its the steam that is trapped inside the individual layers of dough. You want the dough to puff up, except the bottom layer. The bottom layer needs to be sturdy enough to hold up to the liquid in our shrimp filling. That’s why we prick the two big hearts with a fork. That will make the steam in the dough layers escape before the dough rises, leaving us with a dense, crispy bottom.
Now the other four pieces of dough come into play. The heart shape with the smaller heart cut out. To assemble them, brush the outline of you bottom heart with some water so that your first layer will stick. Place the first cut out heart on top of your base. You might have to adjust the position a little bit since it will stretch when you lift it up. Try the best to align the outside of your heart shape so it looks nice and uniform after it is baked. Brush the top with water and place the second cut out on top. This will give you three layers, solid bottom and two cut out ones for the walls. Repeat with the other heart. The picture gives you an idea what it should look like when you are done assembling your heart basket. Looks pretty unimpressive, doesn’t it. Well the transformation in the oven is yet to come
Tattaaaa? That’s what it looks like after 15 minutes in a 400 degree oven. Isn’t it beautiful. At this point it is a blank canvas. You could fill it with anything, Sweet, savory, the sky and your imagination is the limit. In ca e you want to impress, the classic French term for a puff pastry vessel is vol au vent , meaning blown by the wind,, because of its light and airy texture. Once in a while a will throw some classic French cooking terms at you, just for the heck of it. After all in order to be creative in the kitchen you need to master the basics first (wait, I can hear Julia…)Some classic approaches are the traditional chicken a la king
Now that we have the basics of Puff pastry firgured out, lets get to the assembly of this amazing Valentines meal. It will be quick. i PROMISE. Yes you can make the puff pastry ahead of time.
Ingredients
- I sheet of puff pastry (Pepperidge farm)
- 8oz medium shrimp raw, deveined and tail off
- 1tsp instant vegetable broth
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1/3tsp paprika
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 TBS fresh chopped dill
- 1/2 TBS flour
Directions
1.) In a small sauce pan, heat the water, broth, lemon juice and paprika. Bring to a quick boil. Reduce heat to medium low,
2.) Add the shrimp and gentle simmer for 5 to 7 minutes until shrimp are no longer opaque.
3.) Combine flour and heavy cream. Whisk until smooth.
4.) Add creme to the shrimp and simmer until sauce thickens.
5.) add the fresh chopped dill and season with salt and pepper to taste.
6.) Place prepared puff pastry shells two plates. Divide shrimp and sauce between the two shells.
You can serve the shells by themselves, with a small salad or as shown in the picture with a side of fresh steamed aspargus. In spirit of Valentine I garnished the plate with red beet heart cutouts but you could use cucumbers, thin cut peppers or anything you already have in your fridge that can be cut with a cookie cutter.
