Cold Shrimp Hors D'Oeuvre

[Kerry Beal]

Kueh Pie Tee.

 

Alternate spellings include Kuih Paiti.  One can omit the chili (not much to begin with) in the traditional recipe. Other recipes have no chili at all.  Final assembly in the kitchen at the reception.

That looks brilliant!

[huiray]

Regarding the "shrimp in aspic" ideas - hmm, dunno.  Chris Hennes (or his sister) will know his intended audience/diners better but it seems to me that many non-foodie/non-eGulleteers/non-adventurous eaters or folks who basically do the meat-and-potatoes routine *may* have an issue with savory things in "aspic", and a cold savory dish in "jelly", of all things (gelatinous texture), at least in my experience in Mid/Middle USAmerica.  I'm sure there are many exceptions and yes yes, in older times "stuff in aspic" was a common feature and perhaps fell out of favor etc with abuses such as tomatoes in aspic/jello, that sort of thing. 

 

The last time I brought in a Chicken in Aspic dish for a Departmental get-together meal when I was working at my old company basically no-one there knew what it was, and in fact the table organizers (plural) put it together with the desserts rather than the apps or mains. (I didn't realize it until the repast was already well underway when I came back in and joined the meal later).  Yet the dish had chunks of chicken flesh, hard boiled egg slices and chopped scallions clearly visible, layered in the aspic; and it never even occurred to me at that time that I needed to describe precisely what kind of dish it was and specify where it should be placed when I dropped it off.  I think only one other person took a bite from it other than myself.  The general sense amongst the folks appeared to be that it was a "Sort-of-Jelly" dish therefore it must be a jello dish therefore it was dessert.  Only one person there even knew what the term "aspic" meant, I discovered later.

[Kerry Beal]

Good point.

[nickrey]

If it's finger food, people tend to like small savoury tarts with an appealing filling. How about (bought) shortcrust tarts filled with small avocado cubes, onion (cubed, soaked in water to remove bite), tomato dice, with a shrimp on top and a squeeze of lime and perhaps a small sprig of coriander added before serving? You can assemble them there easily within ten minutes (lay out shells, fill with pre-cut and mixed salad, place shrimp, squeeze of lime, garnish, serve.

[Chris Hennes]

These are all great ideas: I asked my sister if she was open to Modernist interpretations and she basically said it has to have crowd appeal, be relatively light (these are being served prior to dinner), non-messy, and cold. Otherwise pretty much anything goes. I'm going to nix the aspic on the basis of crowd appeal problems, but I think everything else is sounding great. It might be time for me to start testing some recipes.

[JAZ]

I've always liked shrimp salad with lots of celery; I think the flavors go together and the crunch of celery is a good textural contrast to the shrimp. It might be kind of old school, but how about a shrimp salad that holds together well (maybe some cream cheese along with mayonnaise) scooped into celery "boats"?

[janeer]

Shrimp with sauce vert/green goddess is classic cold shrimp. Last night I served cold wild shrimp with a mayo-based sauce with mustard, grated orange zest, a little juice, tarragon, s, p, and a little sugar

[CatPoet]

My friend used the Savu Smoker bag for fish and smoked  shrimps, they turned out  lovely. You can find them at  Amazon.com and all you need is a oven.  It just lovely.  

[patrickamory]

Such a great thread - eGullet at its best. Incredible assortment of fast and interesting responses to the challenge.

 

(I'm bummed the aspic got nixed though! Second choice for me would be huiray's succulent looking treat… and I wouldn't omit the chilli.)

[Chris Hennes]

OK, I've decided to go with the Kueh Pie Tee, that seems like a perfect fit. However, a visit to my local Asian megamart came up empty-handed. Where can I buy the shells? Is there an online source that anyone is aware of?

[Shelby]

Hmmmm....maybe you could sub something like wonton wrappers?  Bake them in muffin tins ahead of time?

[Shelby]

Or, here is a site that you can buy the pie tee mold......a quick google showed me some recipes....

 

http://www.bakingfrenzy.com/pie-tee-mould-p-341.html

[JAZ]

Here's one: Keuh Pie Tee Shells.

[Shelby]

Here's one: Keuh Pie Tee Shells.

I saw that one, but I couldn't find a place to buy them?

[Chris Hennes]

Yeah, those prices are in Singapore Dollars, not USD . No sign that you can purchase from them.

[Kerry Beal]

Yeah, those prices are in Singapore Dollars, not USD . No sign that you can purchase from them.

Want me to check with the NA distributor in Toronto?

[huiray]

Yes, do contact (or let Kerry contact) the NA distributor.  Perhaps he supplies shops in heavily-Chinese/SE Asian areas (like California or NYC/NJ) in the USA and maybe they might send them to you by mail-order.

 

Ordering the pie tee mold from the shop Shelby found should not be a problem.  That shop is in Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia - but I have ordered/bought books before from Penang too and they get sent to me from Penang without any problems and quite speedily by airmail at very reasonable cost.  (I paid through my US-based Paypal account also)

 

Do you still have time to do the sourcing of the molds/cups at this point?  (See here)  Does someone know of a cooking supply shop in the US that serves a clientele that includes a large E/SE Asian population?  Otherwise those wonton skin substitutes suggested by Shelby would work well, I imagine.  Have a look at this webpage, and on there look in particular at this one, or this one...

 

Or, maybe wire a bunch of muffin cups together (they don't have to be perfectly aligned :-) ) and dip into batter and then into oil, just like one would do with the "real" kueh pie tee mold? 

Edited October 6, 2014 by huiray (log)

[Tri2Cook]

If you can't get what you really want, the wonton skins do work pretty nicely. I put them over the cups in mini muffin pans, press them into the cups using a second matching pan, toss them in the oven for a bit then remove the top pan to allow them to crisp up. Makes nice, crispy, non-greasy little bite-sized cups that hold up well after filling. I usually cut them into a roundish shape for a neater look but it's not necessary. I have a couple dozen of those pans so I can turn out a large supply pretty quickly but they don't take too long even working with just one pair of pans.

[huiray]

Yes, the robustness of the cup is a factor.  The actual pie tee cups are delicate and *will* fall apart or get soggy if you use "wet" fillings (or if they are left out for a long time before the filled cup gets picked up). In SE Asia they are often brought out to one already assembled in restaurants for your consumption but then one eats them fairly quickly.  Sometimes they bring out the components and you fill the cups yourself.  The best way to eat pie tee, in fact, is to assemble them as one goes along - like at a party or dinner where all the stuff is laid out and folk engage in do-it-yourself - but I imagine that may or may not go over well at your sister's reception.  :-)   If you intend to use a moist/wet filling and expect the cups to stand around for a long while it might actually be better to go with the wonton skins, even if I expect those would also fall apart or go soggy if left around too long.

 

One could make the pie tee cups thicker by using a suitable (thicker) batter if making the cups yourself.  If you have the time and do want to try making them here's a detailed blog article on making them.  A substitute mold is  a Scandinavian Rosette/Timbale mold, as suggested in this blog article.

[basquecook]

there is a southern recipe for pickled shrimp that i make from time to time that is well received.. 

 

Also you can do a shrimp pate both hot or cold.. If you are doing the charcuterie plate, then the shrimp pate spread would go well with that as well.  

 

or you can do like a shrimp and white bean salad. add an herb, like rosemary.. that would go well cold.. make the beans, add the cooked shrimp, a lot of olive oil and some vinegar.  you can do like a tarragon vinegar, or you can do some other herb oil like the rosemary.  that would be good with toasts too. 

 

or the classic italian seafood salad.  you can either use an array of seafood or just do cold shrimp with chunks of celery half moons, some onion, fennel, parsley, garlic, beans would work too. 

[sculptor]

Looks like you need a plan B option...

 

Shrimp, asparagus, dill and mayo are a killer combo. I do a cold pasta salad with them but a creative guy like you shouldn't have any trouble turning them into an D'Oeuvre.

[Chris Hennes]

Plan B is to use a different type of cup, but the same fillings (I'm making two: my sister is Korean, so I'm going to do one with a gochujang base as well as a more traditional version). I'm playing with them right now, so I should have some more info later on today.

[Chris Hennes]

OK, so here was today's strategy: I went to the local megamart and found three possible contenders for the base of the app. Ideally I wanted something shaped like a bowl, but choices were limited, so I branched out to include a rice cracker (the app flavors are inspired by dolsot bibimbap so that seemed appropriate). Here were the choices I had:

 

 

I figured that any decent grocery store would have these, or something equivalent, so availability at the wedding site would be a non-issue. The shrimp were brined in a 1% salt 1% sugar solution overnight, then cooked sous vide at 60°C for 40 minutes (as a side note, the shrimp were excellent cooked like this, though I might increase the salt to 1.5% next time since they are served cold). I cut small rounds of lettuce to act as a barrier, and then made a filling using chopped shrimp, Chinese radish, carrots, cabbage kimchee, cilantro, and a lightly-applied sauce of gochujang, soy sauce, and rice wine vinegar. I then topped with a larger piece of shrimp. The overall effect is only a little spicy, so workable for anyone who enjoys mildly spicy foods. I put a few hot-looking pepper slices on there to warn off anyone who doesn't do spicy (e.g. my mother).

 

Here they are as prepped:

 

Rice cracker version:

 

Potato crisp version:

 

Tostitos scoops version:

 

As an initial cut, flavor-wise I liked the rice cracker the best, then the Tostitos, then the potato crisp. They were all acceptable, but the potato crisp was a bit of an odd flavor combo, and not as successful as the other two. Texture-wise the Tostitos were the best, and the easiest to plate and eat.

 

Next, I put two of each variety in the fridge, uncovered. After three hours, I tried them again.

 

The whole set after three hours:

 

Rice cracker after 3 hours:

 

Potato crisp after 3 hours:

 

Tostitos after 3 hours:

 

After three hours, the rice cracker was the same as it had been at t=0, as near as I could tell, with basically no degradation in the refrigerator. The other two were still crisp, but were starting to lose their crispness near the middle. Not unacceptably so, but enough to give the rice crackers the edge.

 

Next, the last three went back in the fridge for three more hours.

 

Rice cracker after 6 hours:

 

Potato crisp after 6 hours:

 

Tostitos after 6 hours:

 

The results were much the same as the three-hour mark, with the rice cracker staying completely crisp and the other two softening in the middle. Winner: rice cracker.

 

Storing them uncovered did result in a matte finish on the shrimp by the six hour mark, which aesthetically was not as nice as when fresh (though the poor low-light photographs make them look worse than they did in person). One possible solution is to plate the final piece of shrimp just before service, only prepping the bases and salad ahead. I'm not entirely sure how the timing is going to work out at the event, but with only ~100 portions that should not take too long if everything is prepped and ready to go.

 

Any advice for me? Does this test make sense? Am I forgetting anything?

[Tri2Cook]

I'd say you covered it extremely well. And I was voting for the rice cracker from the start of the post, it just seemed to make the most sense with the other ingredients, so I'm glad it worked out.

[Kerry Beal]

Only one other thought - if you make your own rice crackers here you could make them bowl shaped.  That of course presumes that they retain the crispiness that the commercial ones do.  Far as I can see online there is no such thing as bowl shaped rice crackers.