Two Recipes from The Starving Poets' Cookbook in honor of National Poetry Month

I found a copy of The Starving Poets' Cookbook among late father's things earlier this year. Each entry is a two-page spread that includes a poem about food, a recipe, and an anecdote on how the poet obtained the recipe. My father was a writer and poet himself, but he was no cook, so I imagine that one of the entries in this was written by someone he knew from one of his writer's groups. In honor of National Poetry Month James and I selected two recipes to try from this slim volume. The first was Saffron Seafood which we made with frozen precooked shrimp. First we thawed the shrimp, then removed the tails. The shrimp was then coated with soy sauce flavored with ginger, and corn meal.

The saffron cheese sauce was made by boiling 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth with 1/2 cup of milk, and adding a pinch of saffron (good thing that the recipe called for a pinch, because that was exactly the amount we had on hand). This was poured into a ceramic bowl, and the same saucepan was used to mix two T. of oil with two T. of flour. The saffron broth was poured back in and then I added a bit of cheddar cheese and heated until the cheese was melted and the mixture was smooth.

In another pan I sauteéd a chopped onion and a minced garlic clove and then added the shrimp. This mixture was put into a baking dish, and then topped with the cheese sauce. It was baked at 425 in the convection oven for 15 minutes. It frankly looked unappetizing, but was in fact quite tasty.

The dessert we chose, Banana Coins, was quite a bit easier to make. We melted some Mexican chocolate in a pan, chopped two bananas into 1/4 inch dices and dipped them in the chocolate. They were placed in the freezer for 15 minutes, at which time they were ready to eat.