My sister and my brother-in-law came from Germany. When I left a year ago to California, my sister gave me a Californian cooking book and requested at this time, the dish on page 74. I didn’t forget about it and therefore challenged myself in cooking for the first time shrimps.

Makes: 4 portions
Difficulty: Medium
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

For the sauce:

• 1 Onion
• 1 Carrot
• 1 Celery stick
• 5 tbsp Olive oil
• 2 tbsp Tomato paste
• 4 tbsp White wine (preferably dry)
• 1 Bay leaf
• 1 Thym branch
• Salt, pepper, sugar

For the shrimps:

• 16 large shrimps
• Half a bunch of mixed herbs: I used thyme, parsley, sage,  rosemary and basil
• 2 large egg whites
• 3 tbsp Olive oil
• 2 tbsp Sherry vinegar
• 2 tbsp Butter
• Juice of half a lemon
• 100 ml vegetable broth
• 1 shallot
• 250 g Oyster mushrooms
• 500 g cooked potatoes

Method:

Make sure that you cook your potatoes ahead of time. Preferably the day before. Chop them in cubes. Set aside.

Peal and finely chop the onion and the carrot. Wash the celery and finely chop it as well. Heat a pan up with the olive oil. Add the vegetables and lightly braise for 4-5 minutes. Then add the tomato paste and fry for 2 minutes. Deglaze wit the white wine and 250 ml of water. Bring to a boil, then turn to low heat and cook for roughly 25 minutes, stirring the vegetable sauce several times. The sauce should reduce by half whilst cooking. Add the bay lead the thyme. Spice with the salt, the pepper and the sugar.

Cut the shrimps open from the back, devein, wash and dry them with a paper towel. Wash the herbs and chop them finely. Quickly mix up the herbs with the egg whites. Put the shrimps into the egg-herbs mixture. In a pan, heat up 2 tbsp of olive oil. Add the shrimps and fry them on each side for 3-4 minutes. Add salt and pepper. Deglaze with the sherry vinegar; add 1/2 tbsp  of butter, the lemon juice and the vegetable broth. Bring to a boil, then take the pan away from the heat.

Strain the vegetable broth through a strainer. Keep the sauce warm. I kept the remaining vegetables and had them then next day. They are too tasty to be thrown out. Peal and finely chop the shallot. Clean the oyster mushrooms and roughly chop them. In a third pan, put the remaining butter. Add the mushrooms and the shallot. Fry for 6-8 minutes.  Spice with salt and pepper.

In the meantime, put 1 tbsp of olive oil in a fourth (and last!) pan. Add the potatoe cubes and fry them until crispy. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix the mushrooms and the potatoes. Divide the vegetables between 4 (preheated) dishes. Put four mushrooms on the potatoes and mushrooms. Sprinkle with a little bit of the vegetable broth and add the vegetable sauce.