Mike's Cove View Shrimp

Mike's Cove View Shrimp

Strong northerly winds grounded the kayak fleet for a third straight day. We held out hope that the winds would die down for a late afternoon trip, but learned around 4pm that we were out of luck. I was heartbroken. Still, the day treated us well with warm sunshine and a few last breathtaking views of the sea and its majestic creatures from various vantage points.

We are sad to pack up our things and leave this lovely, peaceful spot. We're planning an early morning hike to the Flocks of Sheep (two groups of glacial rocks resembling - you guessed it - flocks of sheep) before the ferry leaves at 11:30am.

We marked our last night on the island with a wonderful meal of fresh shrimp, locally made bread to soak up the garlicky sauce, and good white wine. A simple combination of fresh, mostly local ingredients resulted in a fabulous, flavourful and memorable dinner.

We've had fun experimenting with gourmet salts during our time here. My brother, Mike, brought along a few varieties he purchased at Farm Boy in Ottawa, made by a company called Just a Pinch. They come in small (45 g) plastic, oval shaped containers, a perfect size to bring to the cottage. We really liked the Fleur de Sel (a crunchy, pebbly variety) and the Cyprus Flake Sea Salt (a light, flaky, triangular shape). The Cyprus Flake was particularly nice as a finishing salt on dishes like roasted vegetables and the Pan Fried Haddock, because of its larger flakes and salty bite.

My brother created this delicious recipe. You can play with the amounts, depending on how much shrimp you use. We left the shells on ours, but it would probably be easier to eat this dish with shelled shrimp. However, the shells seemed to hold in the marinade during cooking, so the shrimps were juicy and full of gentle, garlickly flavour.

Mike's Cove View Shrimp:

1.5 pounds fresh shrimp

Marinade:
1/2 -3/4 c. white wine
5 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
Juice from 1/4 large lemon
1 tsp. fleur de sel
1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper
1 tsp. each of dried fennel, coriander and lemongrass
Pinch of dried chili flakes

Plus:
1/2 tomato, finely diced
1 tbsp. butter
1/4 c. white wine
fleur de sel & freshly ground pepper, to taste

Mix all of the marinade ingredients together, except the wine and lemon juice. Pour mixture over shrimp and allow to marinade in the fridge for 1 hour. Add the wine and lemon juice for the last 10-15 minutes.

Heat a nonstick skillet on high. Drain the shrimp, reserving the marinade. Add half the shrimp to the hot pan along with a few tablespoons of the marinade, and saute 4-5 minutes. Remove from pan and add the second batch of shrimp, sauteing about 4-5 minutes with more marinade. Remove from pan. Add remaining marinade to the pan and cook a few minutes with diced tomato, butter and additional white wine, until the sauce is slightly reduced. Pour sauce over cooked shrimp.

Serve immediately with fresh lemon wedges and slices of good French or Italian bread.

We paired this dish with a New Zealand sauvignon blanc, which was very nice, but agreed a good French table wine would have been lovely also.