Monday, September 15, 2014

Irish Seafood Gratiné

Cooking Irish can also be found at Pinterest and PETITCHEF.


While living in Ireland, we went on holiday to Egypt. In this country I decided it was best if we were part of a tour rather than seeing the country on our own. I would recommend that to anyone especially today. The first few nights there we stayed in a new hotel in Cairo. The food was incredible. This recipe is from our first evening meal in the hotel dining room. We also took an overnight sleeper to Aswan, took a cruise on the Nile, and of course, toured Luxor. It was magical, but very hot. We went during the summer which I do not recommend, and it actually reached 130°.  Of course, the tours were so much less expensive since it is the off season. Don't let anyone tell you it's not bad since the air is dry.  At that temperature, it is hot!!!  Luxor is one of Egypt's great tourist attractions.  It is also commonly known as the world's largest open air museum.  Luxor is the ancient city of Thebes, the great capital of Egypt during the New Kingdom and the glorious city of the God Amon-Ra.  Tourists have been visiting the area since the Greco-Roman times. There are so many splendid temples and monuments to visit you will have to be picky if you don't want to get "templed out."   Luxor is actually three separate areas each with its own highlights: the city of Luxor, Karnak, and ancient Thebes.

Luxor: Luxor Temple, situated in the center of town, was built by Pharoh Amenophis III.  It is spectacular and so compact it can be visited in an hour.  The Mummification Museum has everything one would ever want to know about mummies and the process of mummification.  The Luxor Museum houses many of the relics found at the Theben temples and necropolis on the west bank. Visiting this museum will help you understand and enrich your experience when you tour the rest of the sites.

Karnak: north of Luxor city are the spectacular Temples of Karnak.  In ancient times, Karnak was known as Ipet-isut, "The most select of places."  The temple complex of Karnak was built over a period of 1500 years and was the most important place of worship in ancient Egypt.  The site is vast and is a spectacular complex of sanctuaries, kiosks, pylons, and obelisks, all dedicated to the Theban gods.  It is thought to be the largest surviving religious complex in the world.  Do not miss the Hypostile Hall in the Great Temple of Amun.  There are now sound and light shows each night.

Ancient Thebes (West Bank):  crossing the Nile and to the west of the city of Luxor lies the necropolis of ancient Thebes.  Because there is so much to see and so much ground to cover, guided tours usually enter 3 tombs at the major archaelogical sites.  The Valley of the Kings: this is where the pharaoh's were buried and hoped to meet their Gods in the afterlife. Tutankhamun's tomb, discovered in the 1920s almost untouched, is perhaps the best known to non-archaeologists.  He was a minor king and had it not been for centuries of looting, the larger, more impressive tombs would have yielded riches unsurpassed to the impressive treasures found in King Tut's burial ground.  The Valley of the Queens: the Valley of the Queens lies at the southern end of the necropolis. This is where the queens and their children were interred.  Only four tombs are open to the public in the Valley of the Queens, and if you had to choose just one, it would have to be Queen Nefertari's tomb. Tickets are limited to just 150 a day, and you are only allowed in for 10 minutes, but it is worth the effort.  The Colossi of Memnon: two giant statues make up the Colossi of Memnon.  Most visitors get a glimpse of them on their way to the Valley of the Kings, but it is worth a stop to see them up close.  The Tombs of the Nobles:
this is the burial place of some of the powerful courtiers and persons of the ancient city of Thebes.  In all, there are over 40 tombs to be visited at Thebes.

We had purchased an American Express tour, but we were the only people on this particular larger tour who had so the tour company kept us with this group who had paid for a donkey excursion of the tombs led by an Egyptian father and his young son.  We were supposed to tour the valleys in an air-conditioned car but agreed thinking it would be more fun on the donkeys.  If I only knew...  When we got to the site to start the tour, I was put on an animal that obviously had to be the lead donkey.  When we started out, he raced ahead of even the Egyptian boy.  I waved goodbye to my children and asked the Australian couple to watch my children for me.  That started the stress.  Here I was in Egypt and could not see my fourteen-year-old daughter and ten-year-old son.  And I had no idea going from one valley to another was like the tour descending the Grand Canyon on donkeys.  It was mountainous, and there was just one small path on the mountain wide enough for one donkey.  I am afraid of heights, and here I was on the lead donkey with at least 60 people behind me--somewhere among them my children.  My left foot was dangling off to the steep, steep depths below.  Like the Grand Canyon tour, they tell you the donkeys know their footing, but that was not much comfort.  I wanted to be in that air-conditioned car.  All of a sudden, I look up and see another tour coming from the other valley going to the one we just left.  I panicked.  The Egyptian boy got off his donkey and somehow managed to walk on the path to get to me.  He went to talk to the oncoming group.  We had to back up to an area where we could both continue.  I was never so glad to get to that next valley and hug Erin and Eli.  When I think back, I really don't know how I went all that way from one valley to another along that circuitous mountain route on one small path on a crazy donkey so close to the edge my left foot dangled over the precipice--think Grand Canyon--the entire time.


My son Eli and yours truly at the entrance to the Tomb of Ramses in The Valley of the Kings in Egypt in July of 1985


Eli and Erin in our mandatory photo in front of the country's post: this was a red Egyptian mailbox near our hotel in Aswan.


Erin and Elin entering a tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt in July of 1985

My daughter Erin has always retained wonderful memories of her Egyptian tour as a teenager and has passed this love for all things Egyptian on to her daughter Claudia Paige.  They visit all Egyptian exhibits and shows.  Here are a few pictures of Claudia Paige at some of those events.  They even have a black and gold Egyptian guest powder room filled with the children's artwork of a mummy, scarab, sarcophagus, and cartouche, and of course, papyrus and artifacts Erin brought back from Egypt.


Claudia Paige in her Queen Nefertiti Headdress


Claudia Paige at the Albany Institute of Histroy and Art, Albany, NY in 2006


Claudia Paige waiting to go in to the Tuttleman Imax® Theater to see Mummies: Secrets of the Pharoahs at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia in 2007

So I had this wonderful dish at our hotel restaurant in Cairo.  It was newly opened, and they were really trying to impress their guests in the dining room. They wowed everyone in our tour group.   I had a wonderful lobster bisque with this particular meal as well.  They provided us with soup to nuts for every meal while we were there.  I have never forgotten the combination of flavors in the topping of this seafood dish and have tried to duplicate it for years.  The closest I have found--and just recently--is a recipe by The Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten.  She poured this bread crumb mixture and melted butter over grilled clams.  When I saw the show, I thought that might just be it.  It is very close, so I will include her bread crumb ingredients here.  And thank you, Ina, for helping me get closer to that luscious food memory of almost 25 years ago. [More recipes from our holiday in Egypt to come.]

IRISH SEAFOOD GRATINÉ

Ingredients:
  • 1 lb. of large cooked shrimp, shelled and deveined
  • 1 lb. of sea scallops, lightly sautéed in butter until translucent 
  • 1 lb. of cooked crab legs, meat removed from shell
  • 2 cooked lobster tails, meat removed from shell and shredded into large pieces
  • 1 cup of white wine or sherry 
  • ½ the juice of a fresh lemon
  • Salt and pepper to taste 
  • 1 stick of butter, melted
  • 2 cups of Swiss cheese, shredded
  • 1 ½ cups of coarse bread crumbs
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 3 tbsp. of olive oil
  • ½ the juice of a fresh lemon
  • 3 sun-dried tomato, coarsely chopped
  • ½ cup of fresh basil leaves, chopped 
  • ¼ cup of pine nuts, toasted 
  • 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • ¼ tsp.of freshly ground black pepper
  • 4 tbsp. of melted butter
Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°.  Put the seafood into a large bowl and add the wine, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.  Lightly toss so all the seafood is covered.  Marinate while preparing the coating.  Combine the bread crumbs, garlic, olive oil. lemon juice, tomato, basil, pine nuts, salt, and pepper and mix well.  Spray a large baking pan, and place the seafood into it with a slotted spoon.  Pour the 1 stick of melted butter over the seafood.  Cover with the Swiss cheese.  Top with the bread crumb mixture and with the 4 tbsp. of melted butter.  Bake for 30 minutes until the bread crumbs are lightly golden brown.  And drift off to that beautifully decorated dining room in Cario thinking about Egyptian mummies and tombs and cartouches and the ancient world!

No comments:

Post a Comment