CHEF JOSEPH WREDE’S RECIPE FOR

“FALLON’S FAVORITE” HERBACEOUS FRIED SHRIMP

SERVES ONE

Heat a large cast iron or sauté pan over very high heat. Add the oil. Add rosemary, thyme, parsley, sage, and garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Turn the herbs over, using tongs, and add shrimp. Cook shrimp 2 minutes per side. Remove Shrimp.

Toast the bread. Pour the oil from the herb/shrimp pan evenly over the bread. Cut the bread in half on the diagonal and put on a plate. Pile shrimp and fried herbs on top.
Serve with a ramekin of balsamic vinegar for dipping.

Enjoy!

KID-FRIENDLY IDEAS:

Growing herbs is a great activity for kids. Start with a visit to your local farmers market or garden store. Have the children touch, smell, and even taste the various herbs. Let each child choose his or her favorites. Begin with seedlings for best success. Let each child replant his seedlings in a pot that he or she has decorated.

Create a watering schedule and discuss what types of soil, sun, and food the plants need to grow. Make sure that you let each child care for his own plant.

Herbs are a great way to allow kids to explore their senses and to learn the attributes of taste. Purchase or grow several herb varieties. Let the children taste each. Help them to describe the tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, spicy. What kinds of food would each go well with? Which characteristics do they like? See if the kids can identify the herbs in dried form. Let them think of fun ways to incorporate herbs into your own cooking. Sometimes letting the kids add their own unique ingredient or herb can be enough to get them to eat something new.

INGREDIENTS
2 ¾ ounces pure olive oil
1 sprig fresh Rosemary
1 sprig fresh Thyme
1 sprig fresh Flat-leaf Parsley
1 leaf fresh Sage
1 clove Garlic, crushed with back of knife blade
6 Shrimp (size 16 to 28), preferred ‘wild caught’
1 piece toasted Bread, use highest quality bread available
2 tablespoons aged Balsamic Vinegar**

**Full Circle product available

SOURCING NOTES:

Look for shrimp marked “wild caught” or “American”. Wild American shrimp have a much meatier and sweeter taste than imported shrimp. Additionally, as many as 22 different pesticides and poisons, some banned from production in the U.S., have been found to exist in imported shrimp.

For more information on what’s in your seafood, and for a list of “sustainable seafood choices”, visit seafoodchoices.org, seaweb.org, or kidssafeseafood.org.

Many farmers markets carry exotic, heirloom, or lesser known herbs that can be fun to experiment with. Ask the farmers about their origins and uses. Many will even sell you seeds so that you can start your own collection.