This shrimp dish from chef Michael H. Flores comes together quickly and requires only one pan, so cleanup is easy. Serve it as a main course or as an appetizer.

Shrimp With Garlic and Vegetables

1/2 cup olive oil
15 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tablespoon crushed red chile flakes
1 zucchini, sliced
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 tomatoes, diced
1/2 cup white wine
1 cup fish stock or clam juice
1 pound raw Texas shrimp, peeled, tails off
Juice of 2 limes
1/2 cup chopped cilantro leaves, packed
2 teaspoons salt

In the olive oil, sauté the garlic and chile flakes for 5 minutes over low heat. Add the zucchini and bell pepper and continue sautéing for 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook for 2 more minutes. Pour in the wine and continue cooking for 5 minutes. Add the stock or clam juice and bring to a boil. Once it has boiled, add the shrimp and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Squeeze in the lime juice and add the cilantro and salt.

Serve immediately with crusty French bread for dipping.

Makes 6 entrée or at least 8 hearty appetizer servings.

From Michael H. Flores.

Photo and recipe supplied by Texas Department of Agriculture (www.GoTexan.org).

This spicy dip can be made 1 day in advance.

Cajun Shrimp and Artichoke Dip

1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons Cajun Seasoning (see below) or salt-free store-bought seasoning
8 ounces cooked, peeled and deveined shrimp, coarsely chopped
2 (6-ounce) jars marinated artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1/3 cup drained and coarsely chopped sun-dried tomatoes
3 scallions, white and green parts, finely chopped
Salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Cajun Seasoning
2 tablespoons sweet paprika
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

For dip: Mix the mayonnaise, sour cream and Cajun Seasoning in a medium bowl. Add the shrimp, artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes and scallions, mixing well. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate to blend the flavors, at least 1 hour or overnight.

For Cajun Seasoning: Mix paprika, basil, thyme, onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper and cayenne pepper together. Makes about 1/3 cup. Use as a seasoning for dips, popcorn, salads, grilled foods and in Cajun and Creole cooking.

What to dip: potato chips, tortilla chips, baguette slices, crostini, flatbread crisps, carrot sticks, celery, sticks, cherry tomatoes, cucumber slices, mushroom caps and zucchini slices.

From “Dip It” by Rick Rodgers

This Indian dish features the winning combination of shrimp and lentils in a stew seasoned with aromatic spices such as cinnamon,  cardamom, coriander and cumin. Do yourself a favor and gather all of the ingredients together beforehand.

Shrimp With Lentils (Jinghewale Dhal)

3/4 cup channa dhal or yellow lentils, washed and soaked for 1-2 hours (see note)
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 medium tomato
3 tablespoons sunflower or vegetable oil
1 (2-inch) cinnamon stick
6 green cardamom pods, bruised
4 cloves
2 bay leaves
1-3 green chiles, deseeded and finely chopped
1 (1-inch) cube ginger root, finely grated
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 1/2 cups cooked and peeled shrimp
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
3 1/2 tablespoons cilantro, leaves and stalks, finely chopped, divided use
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Note: Channa dhal, also spelled chana dhal, can be found at Indian markets.

Drain the lentils and place in a saucepan with 2 1/2 cups water. Bring to a boil and add the turmeric and red pepper. Reduce the heat to low, partially cover the pan and cook for 25 to 45 minutes or until the lentils are tender. Using the back of a spoon, mash some of the lentils by pressing against the side of the pan.

Get your ingredients together before starting.

Boil the lentils with turmeric and crushed chiles.

About halfway through the time it takes to cook the lentils, peel the tomato, then cut in half. Scoop out the seeds and chop the flesh roughly.

In a frying pan, heat the oil over low heat and add the cinnamon, cardamon, cloves and bay leaves. Let them sizzle for 20 to 25 seconds. Add the green chiles and ginger, and fry gently for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the coriander and cumin, and cook for 1 minute before adding the shrimp, tomato and salt. Increase the heat to medium and cook for 3 to 4 minutes.

Add bay leaves, cinnamon, cloves and spices to oil.

Add shrimp and tomato to spice mixture.

Pour the shrimp mixture into the lentils. Add 3 tablespoons cilantro and lemon juice, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and remove bay leaves, cinnamon stick and cloves, if you can find them. Garnish with the remaining cilantro. Serve with cooked basmati rice.

Stir shrimp mixture into lentils.

Add lemon juice and cilantro.

To make a vegetarian version, omit the shrimp and use more diced tomato as well as diced bell pepper, zucchini, celery or onion, to taste.

Makes 4 servings.

Adapted from “Secrets From an Indian Kitchen” by Mridula Baljekar

SavorSA wasn’t online for an entire year, but we have served enough pleasures to give you a year-end wrap-up of what we consider our best recipes.

They range from a hearty Parmesan bread made from leftovers to a complex recipe from Julia Child for her mouthwatering Boeuf Bourguignon. If you saw the movie “Julie & Julia,” you know just how seductive this recipe is from the visuals alone.

Some of the dishes are quite simple (a grilled cheese), others need a little time but are well worth the effort (a flourless chocolate cake).

Yet all of the recipes are keepers, ones that we return to and hope you will, too. Here, in no order, are the top recipes:

Pickle Recipe: Cucumber Apple Pickles	Recipe: Grilled Shrimp With Piri-Piri Sauce	Recipe: Fruit Tart
Recipe: Grilled Cheese With Tomato, Basil and Garlic	Recipe: Herbed Buttermilk Parmesan Bread	Recipe: Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon
Recipe: Beat-the-heat Gazpacho	Recipe: Flourless Chocolate Cherry Hatch Cake	Recipe: Spicy Pumpkin Soup
Recipe: Rosario’s Shrimp Nachos	Recipe: Tre Trattoria's Italian White Beans With Gremolata	Recipe: Pork Green Chile
Recipe: Sweet Potato Cinnamon Rolls	Recipe: Edith’s Gingerbread	What was the best recipe you made in 2009? Please share it with us.

I have long been a fan of Portugal and its bounty of seafood, its spectacular cheeses and olives, its nuts, fruits and vegetables, and its rustic breads. The food may be peasant in origin, born out of its citizens’ poverty, but there’s no denying the ingenious ways in which its cooks use the simplest ingredients to create the most memorable meals. Think of steamed clams mixed with bits of pork and garlic. Or a bowl of bread-thickened soup with large chunks of lobster swirled in like surprises.  The array of desserts made with little more than egg yolks and sugar staggers the mind and overwhelms the taste buds.

So I was eagerly looking forward to the publication of David Leite’s “The New Portuguese Table” (Clarkson Potter, $32.50) to find out if he captured the spirit of this remarkable cuisine with the same exhaustive intensity as Anya Von Bremzen’s “The New Spanish Table” of a few years back. Leite’s book is a little slimmer than Von Bremzen’s and a little more photo heavy. But the recipes tested largely succeed, making it a worthy companion.

Leite, creator of the foodie site www.LeitesCulinaria.com, was a good one to tackle the job as he is of Portuguese descent, though that’s something he freely admits he disavowed in his youth. “Let me set the record straight,” he says at the beginning of the book, “for the first 32 years of my life, I wanted nothing to do with Portugal, its food or its culture. For anyone else, that wouldn’t have been a problem, considering that during the 1960s and 1970s Portugal wasn’t exactly on most people’s radar. But coming from a Portuguese family, I was hard-pressed to ignore my heritage.”

He overcame that feeling in time and has rendered a rich array of recipes that will delight and intrigue. To explore the book, I got together with the friends I’d last traveled to Portugal with, and we made more than a half-dozen recipes, ranging from a Green Olive Dip laden with anchovies and cilantro to Pork Tenderloin in a Port-Prune Sauce (see recipe below). Other dishes on the menu included Grilled Shrimp With Piri-Piri Sauce (see recipe below), Spinach With Toasted Bread Crumbs, Sweet-Sour Carrots, Sweet Lemon and Black Olive Wafers, and Baked Custard Tarts.

All but one of the recipes was a keeper (more on the exception later), and most were easy to make. The shrimp skewers gained immeasurably from grilled lemon wedges as well as the spicy sauce in which the shrimp were marinated. The soft spinach gained contrasting textures and greater depth of flavor from toasted breadcrumbs and garlic. The lemon and olive wafers were a winning – and yes, odd – combination of sweet and savory ingredients that worked better than I can begin to describe.

After the end of the meal, I wanted to dive deeper into the book to try Seared Skate in Garlic-Pepper Oil, maybe, or the Green Soup made with kale or collards and, of course, more garlic. There are plenty of traditional favorites, such as clams in the flying saucer-shaped cataplana and several suggestions on what to do with bacalhau (salt cod). The hot sauce, piri-piri, is used liberally, and everything seems to be sprinkled with cilantro, just as the Portuguese do.

But there are a few revisions that don’t work as well as the originals – and require more, unnecessary work. The beauty of Cilantro Bread Soup With Poached Eggs is its ease of preparation, the way in which you can make a nourishing soup with boiling water and a paste made of garlic and salt plus the addition of cilantro, stale bread and a poached egg. Adding chicken stock, or even vegetable stock, dresses it up into something it’s not and makes the flavors a little less pristine.

Even worse is Leite’s fussy version of Baked Custard Tarts, or Pastéis de Nata, which betrays a bit of Portuguese culinary history. You see, when the Portuguese explorers sailed to Asia by way of Africa, they didn’t bring back such New World foods as vanilla or chocolate; and neither figure much into traditional Portuguese desserts. Leite’s version includes vanilla and lemon zest, both of which distract from the heavenly simplicity of a dessert that is little more than egg yolks, sugar and cream baked in puff pastry. (I have to admit his version is not bad. I ate four, but I ate those four remembering how much better other recipes have been.)

If those two had been the only recipes I tried, I would have had my reservations about “The New Portuguese Table.” But on the basis of every other recipe tried, this is a cookbook worth returning to time and time again.

Pork Tenderloin in a Port-Prune Sauce

Taste the sauce once it has been processed, once again after adding the salt and pepper, and finally upon completion. You’ll be surprised at how it changes each time.

2/3 cup pitted prunes
1 cup ruby port
1/2 cup beef stock
1-inch thumb of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 tablespoon honey
Kosher salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 (1-pound) pork tenderloins, fat and silver skin removed
1 garlic clove, minced
3 tablespoons sherry vinegar
Chopped fresh cilantro leaves, for garnish

Place the prunes into a small saucepan, add the port, beef stock, ginger and honey, and bring just to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and let steep for 20 minutes.

Pour the prunes and liquid into a blender or food processor and process until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 450 degrees.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Season both tenderloins well with salt and pepper and sear one at a time, turning occasionally, until brown, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a baking sheet and set the skillet aside.

Roast the pork until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of the meat registers just under 150 degrees, 15 to 18 minutes. Transfer the tenderloins to a cutting board, tent with foil and let rest for 5 minutes.

Pour off all but a thin film of fat from the skillet. Lower the heat to medium, toss in the garlic, and cook until lightly colored, about 2 minutes. Add the port-prune sauce and stir to pick up the browned bits stuck to the skillet. Pour in the vinegar, and any accumulated juices from the pork, and cook to meld the flavors, 2 to 3 minutes. If the sauce seems thick, add more beef stock. For an elegant take, strain the sauce through a sieve.

Cut the tenderloins on the diagonal into 1/2-inch slices. Divide the slices among six plates, drizzle with the warm sauce and sprinkle with cilantro.

Makes 6 servings.

From “The New Portuguese Table” by David Leite

Grilled Shrimp With Piri-Piri Sauce

2 1/2 pounds extra-large shrimp, shelled and deveined
1 cup piri-piri sauce (see recipe below), plus more for serving
2 lemons cut into wedges
Kosher salt, to taste

Combine the shrimp and piri-piri sauce in a large resealable freezer bag and toss to coat. Place the bag in a shallow dish and marinate in the refrigerator, turning a few times, for at least several hours, or, preferably, overnight.

Heat a gas or charcoal grill to medium.

Thread the shrimp and lemon wedges on skewers and season with salt. Grill the shrimp over indirect heat, turning several times, until just opaque, 5 to 6 minutes. For an extra spike of flavor, brush the skewers with fresh piri-piri sauce just before serving.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

From “The New Portuguese Table” by David Leite.

Piri-Piri Sauce

3 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup white wine vinegar
6 to 8 fresh red chile peppers, such as cayenne, Tabasco, or pequin, to taste, stemmed
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Pinch of kosher salt

Mix the garlic and vinegar in a small bowl and let steep for 20 minutes. Drop the peppers (including their seeds) and the garlic mixture into a food processor and pulse to chop. While the motor is running, pour in the oil, sprinkle with salt, and whir until smooth.

Pour the sauce into a small glass jar with a tight-fitting lid and let steep in the refrigerator for at least several days, preferably 1 week. Strain the mixture, if you wish. The sauce will keep for about 1 month in the refrigerator. Shake well before using.

Makes about 1 1/2 cups.

From “The New Portuguese Table” by David Leite

The week-long GO TEXAN Restaurant Round-Up doesn’t start until Monday, but if a preview tasting this week is any indication, great things lay in store for diners.

At Wildfish Seafood Grille, 1834 N. Loop 1604 W., diners can start with a salad make with greens from Blue Bonnet Hydroponic Produce in Schertz.

One variation we tried comes with an Asian-tinged sesame oil dressing. The pungent greens are lightly tossed with walnuts, green beans and a dried fruit described as cross between a raspberry and a cherry.

The other mix we sampled featured peppery arugula leaves and marinated wild mushrooms topped with an excellent goat cheese. Every last leaf disappeared from the plate all too quickly.

One of the GO TEXAN entrée specials will a gulf shrimp scampi that will please any garlic lover. Fresh tomatoes, shallots and plenty of garlic were tossed in a lemon-butter sauce and sautéed with five jumbo shrimp that were firm yet full of natural sweetness. Grilled toast on the side were perfect for sopping up every last drop of sauce.

Swordfish steak frites and soft-shell crab will also be offered on the special next week, which could vary slightly depending on the availability of ingredients.

Wildfish is one of the restaurants participating in the GO TEXAN Restaurant Round-Up that will donate a portion of the proceeds of sales of the special entrées to the San Antonio Food Bank. So, you’ll be helping others while enjoying an excellent meal featuring local products.

For more information on participating restaurants, click here.

Wildfish Seafood Grille,
1834 N. Loop 1604 W.
(210) 493-1600

My late mother-in-law was a formidable cook and thrifty to boot. But years ago, she was nearly defeated by a small, conical pod from her husband’s garden: okra.

Her husband, Si, planted a 20-foot row of okra plants that summer. When they began to produce pods, the bounty was exciting. Marjorie made and served and froze lots of her excellent shrimp gumbo, brimming with delicious okra. She made okra pickles and fried okra and sautéed okra.

The plants were still madly producing a couple of months later when her husband plowed them under. The lesson they learned:  A 20-foot row of plants will yield far too much okra for a family of five and all of their neighbors in a three-block radius.

This year I decided to plant okra. Heeding the family lesson I planted just two okra seeds. Never having seen an okra plant in production I waited for the proliferation of okra to begin. Surprises were ahead.

First, the sheer vigor of the plant astonished me. I had put one seedling into a large pot holding a Meyer lemon and another in a pot with my allspice tree. All of the plants appear to be living well together at this time, but the okra with the lemon is about three feet tall, still growing and regularly producing pods. Its stalk looks to be about an inch thick. The other plant got off to a slow start but is almost to the production stage.

Second, I was pleasantly surprised at the beauty of the okra flower. It opens to about the size and shape of an espresso cup. The petals are creamy ivory leaning to yellow. The throat of the blossom is a deep magenta-purple.

The third surprise was how swiftly the pods grow. A friend suggested I camp out on a lawn chair overnight to keep an eye on them, flashlight and clippers in hand. I may exaggerate, but I believe I have seen them go from the size of a thimble to the size of a small zucchini overnight. (Imagine the terror of my father-in-law,  facing a 20-foot row of the things.)

I like fresh okra. I love to slice and sauté them in a little olive oil and add them to tomatoes and onions for a side dish. Indians make a good dry sauté of thick-cut okra pods that never seems slimy.

Ah yes, that mucilage. I’d learned that part of the thickening of a good gumbo came from the slimy production of the cut okra. That, and the roux, of course. If they are cooked with an acidic food, such as tomatoes or lemon juice, the mucilage seems to retreat. The following spicy Indian recipe for Bhindi Curry is a good example.  Also, sliced, fried okra is largely mucilage free, as are pickled okra pods.

Okra is very good in an omelet, too. I picked two pods off the plant one morning and sliced them up along with a small crook-neck squash growing in another part of the yard and a few grape tomatoes. I sautéed them briefly and folded them into the omelet. The recipe below, for Bhindi Curry, is another spicy and delicious way to use okra.

Okra is available (and very popular) now in San Antonio farmers markets. That is a good thing.  This summer taught me that two okra plants are not enough for two okra-loving people. Next year, I’ll plant three.

Bhindi (Okra) Curry

1 pound okra
1 teaspoon mustard seed
1 teaspoon coriander seed
½ teaspoon fenugreek seed, slightly crushed
3 tablespoons mustard oil (vegetable oil can be used)
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 (1-inch) pieces fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons paprika
½ teaspoon heenj (asafoetida) (see note)
3/4 cup diced tomatoes
1 green pepper, chopped
2 small green chiles (such as serrano) or dry red chiles, chopped, or to taste

Wash the okra, trim tops and tails, cut into approximately pieces about ½-inch thick. Fry mustard seed, coriander seed and fenugreek seed in mustard oil (or vegetable oil) for 2-3 minutes. Cover the pan or the mustard seeds will leap out all over the kitchen. Add garlic, onion and ginger; fry gently for about 10 minutes more. Put the ground cumin, paprika and heenj into a small bowl and make a paste with a little water. Add paste to the pan with other ingredients and fry for a further 10 minutes. Add cut okra, tomatoes, green pepper and chiles to the pan. Stir. Cover and simmer very slowly until the okra is tender but not sloppy (about 15-20 minutes).

Heenj, or asafoetida, is available at any of the city’s Indian markets.

Serves 3-4 as a main course, 5-6 as a side vegetable.

From: Tony Walton/astray recipes.com

Sarika’s has been a successful chain of Thai restaurants for many years, thanks in part to a menu that offers traditional Thai dishes as well as locally inspired ones like Shrimp Nachos.  It is adding a new restaurant in New Braunfels, Sarika’s Thai Gourmet.  This fourth restaurant opens Monday at 263 Loop 337, suite 200.  Call (830) 620-5050.

You prepare carefully, so we want to learn from your example!

To all the hikers, kayakers, hunters, campers, mountain bikers, picnic-maniacs, fishermen, bow hunters, clam diggers, spear-fishers, divers, boaters, and things I don’t even know, what’s your recipe?

There must be more to dove recipes than adding a slice of jalapeño and wrapping it in bacon. Though that is pretty tasty, someone must still be using the whole dove, maybe deep-frying, maybe stuffing. Then you think of the possibilities from turkey hunters and the mind reels!
Those of you that are more athletic than I and take a day walk through Government Canyon, what do you pack for lunch? I want to hear about your trail mix, your special sandwiches, pasta salad, dates and jerky pitas, which give you the go-juice to make it back to the car. You boaters that just like to cruise on the water have to eat sometime, what is your “only when I’m boating” meal plan? People in the kayaks and tubes, what’s on the menu?

If I rode a bike over hill and dale — I’d need an emergency room. But those of you that enjoy cross-country biking need sustenance; what do you like/make/devise to keep those wheels rolling? Speaking of wheels rolling, campers, truckers in the super rigs, and fifth-wheelers, what are your culinary tricks on the road?

I could tell you a fish story, but most fishermen have already heard it. Yet I haven’t heard your favorite way to cook smaller fish, big fish (that didn’t get away), crabs, clams, shrimp, octopus, and the giant kraken. Heck, tell me how you clean one.

Hunters bag the game and then get it home — how? To prepare it — how? Do you make javalina sausage? What is the best way to produce venison jerky, dove/quail/duck/turkey/Texas turducken, and rabbit stew/chili/tacos?

Even those of you that bag most of your fare at H-E-B, what do you make for a picnic or backyard party?

Send me your tried and true recipes and we will give you credit for your hard work slaving over a campfire. E-mail cecil@savorsa.com, subject “wild fare.” I’m hungry!

With two popular downtown  San Antonio restaurants to her credit, Lisa Wong continues to reign among the city’s top restaurateurs.  Rosario’s Mexican Cafe y Cantina, 910 S. Alamo St., and Acenar, 146 E. Houston St., are popular with tourists, but also bring plenty of San Antonio locals downtown.

Rosario’s Shrimp Nachos are perennial favorites.  The warmed pico de gallo makes a flavorful sauce and the combination of shrimp and melted cheese can’t go wrong.

Rosario’s Shrimp Nachos

Nachos: 6 medium shrimp, peeled and deveined 2 tablespoons butter 1 tablespoon minced garlic 12 fried tortilla chips for nachos, preferably homemade Pico de gallo 1/4-to 1/2 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese Guacamole, your recipe, for garnish

Pico de gallo: 1 medium tomato, diced 1/4 cup white onion, diced 7 or 8 sprigs fresh cilantro, chopped 1 fresh jalapeño, seeded and minced 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

To make pico de gallo: Place tomato, onion, cilantro, minced and seeded jalapeño and lime juice in one bowl. Mix well, then set aside.

To make nachos: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Slice shrimp in half lengthwise for 12 pieces.  Over low-to-medium heat 2 tablespoons butter and 1 tablespoon minced garlic. Add shrimp and sauté about 1 minute per side or until cooked through. Remove shrimp from pan and set aside.

Sauté pico de gallo in same pan with remaining butter-garlic mixture for 1-2 minutes till cooked through.  Set aside.

Take 12 nacho chips (triangular corn chips, homemade preferred) and place on cookie sheet. Place a shrimp half on each chip and top with pico de gallo and grated Monterey Jack cheese. Place in oven until the cheese is melted and the nachos are hot.

After you take them out of the oven top each nacho with guacamole and serve.

Makes 4 servings.

From Lisa Wong of Rosario’s.