Another week, another geeky movie premiere, another delicious way to celebrate.
This week is only the second of many nerdy recipes to come this summer, with an amazing slate of nerdy movies premiering in the coming weeks.
Baz Luhrman takes on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic, The Great Gatsby. (Fun fact: Fitzgerald’s historic home in St. Paul is just blocks away from where I last lived in Minnesota!)
You’re probably thinking, wait? there’s an especially nerdy food associated with The Great Gatsby? And you might be right.
But you’re probably also getting a group of friends together to go see Gatsby this weekend. Skip the crowded bar for pre-movie drinks and host your very own Great Gatsby cocktail hour, worthy of the title character’s very own lavish bashes.
The secret to these nerdy recipes? Their high ratio of “looks fancy” to “amount of time to make.” So plenty of time to curl your hair and perfect your flapper look.
Featuring:
Recipe: Sweet Tea Juleps
For a classic mint julep, omit the tea. Juleps are often served in a silver metal cup. If you don’t have one handy, a small mason jar works just fine. One cup of the sweet tea syrup is enough for about four cocktails.
Ingredients:
1. Bring the water and sugar to a boil in a small saucepan. Whisk gently until all of the sugar is dissolved. Turn off the heat just as the simple syrup boils and steep the tea bags for 2-5 minutes.
2. Use a fork or the handle of a wooden spoon to muddle 8-10 mint leaves + 2 shots of the sweet tea syrup in the bottom of your glass. This releases the oils in the mint leaves and mixes them into the liquid.
3. Measure 1 shot of bourbon (2 for a stronger drink) and stir into the tea and mint.
4. Pile crushed ice into your glass, serve with a straw and sprigs of mint to garnish.
Recipe: Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp
To increase your hands-off time for this nibble, you can also wrap the raw bacon around the raw shrimp, pierce with a toothpick, and cook in the oven (bake for 5 minutes at 400, then 5 minutes on low broil). Be sure to use wood-only toothpicks and soak them in cold water for 10-20 minutes before hand. Cooking the bacon and shrimp separately allows you to ensure the bacon is cooked all the way through, but the shrimp isn’t allowed to get overdone.
Ingredients:
1. Fry the bacon slices over medium high heat until just barely cooked. Bacon should still be soft and flexible. Cool the bacon strips on a plate lined with a paper towel.
2. While the bacon is frying, peel the shrimp, remove any legs and devein while running under cool water. Pat them dry.
3. Pour off most of the bacon grease, reserving about one tablespoon. In the same pan, heat the reserved bacon great and toss the in the shrimp.
4. Season with 2 tsp of the salad seasoning and 1 TBS parsley flakes. Toss quickly to coat, then cook shrimp for 1 minute on each side over medium heat.
5. Cut the bacon slices in half, each should be about 4 inches long.
6. Wrap the bacon slices around each shrimp, nestling the large end of the shrimp at one end of the bacon and securing it with a toothpick. The bacon should make a “C” shape around the shrimp.
7. Continue until you run out of bacon or shrimp.
Recipe: White Cheddar Gougeres
If you’ve never worked with pate a choux before, you may like this video to walk you through the technique.
Ingredients:
1. Preheat the oven to 425 F and line two cookie sheets with parchment. If they aren’t already, move your oven racks so they are both in the middle.
2. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter with a pinch of salt and the chile powder.
3. When the butter has melted completely, add the water and bring the mixture to a boil.
4. When the liquids are at a boil, dump in the flour and mix vigorously with a wooden spoon. A thick dough will come together and begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. Cook while continuing to stir for at least 5 minutes, allowing as much steam to escape from the dough as possible.
5. Put the dough in a large bowl or stand mixer and mix gently on low for a few minutes to allow the dough to cool down. If you use a stand mixer with a metal bowl, you should submerge the bowl in an ice bath to cool off the metal before adding the eggs.
6. Crack the eggs and add to the dough one at a time, making sure it has been completely absorbed by the dough before adding the next. The dough and bowl should have cooled down enough that the heat will not cook the eggs as you add them.
7. Once you add the eggs, it should feel more like a batter and less like a dough. At this point you can stir in the cheese and herbs. You may also like to give it a few cracks of pepper.
8. Scoop the batter into a pastry bag or plastic freezer bag and snip the tip. Pipe 2-3 inch rounds onto the lined cookie sheets.
9. Bake at 425 F for 10 minutes, then lower the temperature to 375 and bake another 25-30 minutes. (if you pipe smaller, bite-sized gougeres, bake 20-25 minutes).
10. Serve warm for puffiest gougeres.
Feeding a bigger crowd? Expand your simple-but-classy spread with baked brie or warmed goat cheese drizzled with honey and sprinkled with snipped chives, strawberries marinated in a sweet red wine or moscato, and some finger sandwiches (check out ours here.)
Recipe by Emma Carew Grovum. She is a data journalist working at the Chronicle of Philanthropy in Washington, D.C. She previously worked as the Digital Editor for The Cooking Club of America and blogs at kitchendreamer.blogspot.com Emma loves Star Wars, pandas and all things Joss Whedon. Find her on twitter at @emmacarew.