NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State
University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665
June 18, 1998
Bastille Day, the French independence celebration held annually on July 14th, dates back to the reign of Louis XVI. Coincidentally, he was the monarch who helped the American colonists win their war against Great Britain, so I think it's fitting that we think of France when we celebrate the Fourth of July.
You know, food had a part to play in the French King's fall from power. It seems his wife, Marie Antoinette, was living the high life while the French commoners were starving. When they asked the monarchy for more bread, the queen's response was "let them eat cake."
I decided to find out what the French eat on Bastille Day and discovered, via the World Wide Web, that there is a French festival held each July in Santa Barbara, Calif., to commemorate the occasion. The Web site contained quite a bit of detail about the event, including a list of the vendors who supply food. It seems there are crepes and tarts and pastries and quiche—but no mention of cake that I could find.
And no mention either of escargot, the French delicacy consisting of snails, butter, herbs and garlic. I've eaten escargot before, but I'm sure a Parisian would sniff at the quality of what I ate. For that matter, I wasn't too impressed either. Let the French eat snails, I say. The gastropods I half-heartedly consumed were rubbery and, as I recall, blackish-gray in color. Eye appealing? Not.
The French are also quite fond of foie gras, which is a cognac-enriched pate made from either goose or duck liver. But neither did I find any mention of foie gras on the French festival Web site. What I did find were official-looking recipes for French onion soup, a vegetable stew and an onion pizza.
Also scheduled to take part in this year's French festival in Santa Barbara are food vendors offering Vietnamese, Cajun and Mediterranean cuisine—and one planning to prepare Alsatian sausage and sauerkraut. While all those cuisines have a relationship to French culture, I've concluded that Santa Barbara's French festival is more a celebration of America's melting pot.
If I were running the show in Santa Barbara, I'd give it more of a traditional French flair. After all, we might not be Americans if it weren't for the French. I guess I'm suggesting that if you're planning to entertain this Fourth of July, think about serving something that has a culinary link with France. Here's a colorful seafood recipe that, like escargot, is resonant with garlic. Viva la difference.
Skewered Shrimp and More
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients:
4 tablespoons olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon thyme
1 tablespoon hot red-pepper sauce, or to taste
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
24 large uncooked shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 large red pepper, cut into 6 pieces
1 large green pepper, cut into 6 pieces
6 purple onion pieces, cut like peppers
Procedure:
Whisk together oil, garlic, lemon juice, vinegar, mustard and
seasonings in a mixing bowl and then pour into a covered
container. Add shrimp and place in refrigerator for 1 to 2 hours;
stir mixture several times while it's marinating. Beginning with
shrimp, alternately skewer shrimp and vegetables so each skewer
contains 4 shrimp and 1 piece each of the red and green peppers
and onion. Spray grill with cooking oil and cook kebabs for about
5 minutes on each side over a medium-to-hot heat.
What's Your Take on This, Julie?
"Shrimp" comes from the Middle English word for "puny person." Despite diminutive size, these tiny crustaceans are large in terms of flavor. Shrimp is a good source of protein and minerals including iron and zinc.
A serving of these colorful shish kebabs provides a full day's supply of vitamin C from the red and green peppers and about one-third of the recommended daily vitamin A as beta carotene. A serving also contains 200 calories and about 11 grams of fat, much of it monounsaturated from the olive oil. A few fresh mushrooms and cherry tomatoes would make tasty, low-calorie additions as well.
Seafood is among the most perishable foods and needs to be handled with caution for best flavor and safety. The Food and Drug Administration inspects seafood, and it's estimated that more money is spent for seafood inspection than for any other protein food. All along the seafood chain, it also is tested for flavor, odor and appearance.
Even with all these precautions, consumers are ultimately responsible to get the food safely to the dinner table. Avoid eating raw or undercooked seafood. Eating raw shellfish, such as oysters and clams, accounts for more than 90 percent of seafood poisoning cases. Cooked shrimp, salmon and canned tuna pose little risk.
At the store, avoid purchasing seafood with a strong "fishy" odor. When buying frozen fish, check for evidence of being thawed and refrozen, and look for light spots that could indicate freezer burn. Ask to have your seafood packed on ice even when home is nearby. Refrigerate promptly and use within two days.
Cooking seafood is a breeze. "Green" or raw shrimp should be deveined before cooking by cutting along the outside curve of the shrimp, lifting out the black vein and rinsing the shrimp under water. Seafood in general, and shrimp in particular, take just minutes to cook. Grilling shrimp instead of deep frying adds no fat other than what is present in the marinade.
So, fire up the grill and try something a little different this Fourth of July. And if you're really feeling patriotic, add to the festivities by serving a dessert with fresh strawberries, star fruit (carambola) and blueberries.
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Sources: Dean Hulse (701) 231-6136 & Julie Garden-Robinson (701) 231-7187
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