Puff Pastry with Shrimp and Mushrooms and a Side of Cannellini Beans

This very French dish sound of Puff Pastry with Shrimp and Mushrooms sounds complicated, but it’s actually very easy and very delicious.

During college I served manhattans and gimlets to a rather older crowd, always working in station number 4. I loved my regular customers who tipped very well, considering they lingered a bit to listen to the organist who was also planted in my station. The tea room was lucky enough to employ some old school staff from a high-end hotel, and we served classics like fried oysters and seafood in puff pastry, followed by rum raisin ice cream or creme de menthe parfaits. I appreciated those days, when as a college girl waitress, I ate like a queen.

As I was preparing this dish, cutting the puff pastry into large circles and stacking one (with a center cut out) on top of another to create a puff pastry bowl, I thought about the tea room and my appreciation for taking the time to make a food event special.

Described in Le Cordon at Home, the book used to make this dish “Boucheés are literally, mouthfuls of puff pastry filled with meat or fish in a creamy sauce.”

Well how delightful is that, or should I say delicious. I served these with a side of white beans, seasoned with fresh garlic, lemon, black lava salt, and chili pepper.  My husband and I both agreed that when the beans made their way into the dish, the flavors together were just right. It was French with just a little bit of Italian.

This dish takes less than 30 minutes, if you have the puff pastry made ahead of time, but count on a lot longer for cleaning up, because you use a lot of pans. I thought wouldn’t this make the best amuse-bouche, using a tiny puff pastry and one shrimp, the perfect one-bite hors d’oeuvre. Bookmark this for your next dinner party.

Puff Pastry
I use Trader Joe’s artisan puff pastry. The recipe asked for a 4” cookie cutter to cut out each tart. I made four of them, (for two servings), and for two of them cut holes with a 3” diameter cookie cutter, and then, using an egg wash, stacking one on top of the other. Just remember to work with it very cold (even if you are using store bought).

Shrimp Filling
I purchased fresh wild shrimp, and boiled them in salted water for about 4 minutes. But, you could buy pre-cooked shrimp to save time.

The mushrooms get a very fine chop and if you like cream of mushroom soup (who doesn’t) you will love this sauce.

I remembered that my favorite restaurant serves a seafood dish with a chili amaretto cream sauce that is absolutely delicious and expensive. I wanted to see if I could use this recipe to get me closer to that dish. That would be happiness. The taste test proved that a little discipline gets its reward.

Ingredients for Beans

• 1 can cannellini beans, rinsed
• splash of olive oil
• juice and zest of one lemon
• 1 clove garlic chopped
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper (although white pepper might be better)
• dash chile pepper (or dash chili powder or similar hot sauce to taste)
• 3 leaves basil chiffonade (rolled up, sliced into ribbons)

Instructions

1. Put everything in sauce pan, except basil. Heat. Garnish with chiffonade of basil. Don’t forget to taste along the way and season appropriately. (meaning when YOU like it)

Notes:
• The cannellini beans, also known as white kidney beans, are my addition to this dish. I have them served on the side, but they would be equally good cooked and then mixed into the seafood filling.
• The beans are wonderful left over, sprinkled with a bit of sheep’s milk feta, pita crackers.