Maple Chili Shrimp in Blankets

We enjoyed this appetizer as our main course tonight. We decided that the best first course to pair with it would be miso soup. Unfortunately, as I was laying out the ingredients for the sauce which the shrimp will marinade in for 1/2 hour to 1 hour, I realize that we are Out of Maple Syrup. Honestly, friends, this has never happened to me in my lifetime. Let me back up and explain why I am so shocked.  I hail from Vermont. I have relatives who make maple syrup every year, and a jug of it always seems to live in my fridge. Guess who hasn't made a trip to the relatives lately to stock up? And with COVID-19 restrictions, looks like I won't be traveling soon.  Heavens, I might even have to buy some Maine maple syrup...

Without the maple syrup to balance the smoke of the paprika, the dipping sauce recommended for the shrimp blankets is just not what you want to do. The marinade itself works, without syrup, for the shrimp. But for dipping sauce, we just dug out several sauces we keep on hand: soy sauce, sweet chili sauce, and duck sauce. They all complimented the smokiness of the shrimp nicely.

I confess that I've never worked with puff pastry. Well, once, when we tried to make baklava, but that was a Sticky Fail if ever there was one, and best forgotten. This puff pastry was surprisingly easy to work with.  All you do is thaw it, and roll it thin, and cut it 1 inch by 4 inches, so you can wrap each shrimp in a "blanket."  I didn't have any parchment paper on hand, so I used my silicone baking sheets when it came time to lay the blankets out on a cookie sheet. 

While the prep time is somewhat long (I listened to Maine Public radio while cutting the dough and rolling the shrimp in blankets), it is well worth the time invested. Then, it is a mere 15 minutes in the oven and you are serving up delicious marinated baked shrimp tucked into a scrumptious light pastry.

Confession: I cheated and did not mince the garlic cloves myself. I purchased a jar of minced garlic. I allow as how my skill level of mincing of cloves of garlic is not, well, blue ribbon level.  I admire whomever minces the garlic that comes in a jar with uniformly-sized wee garlic bits that spread out perfectly in your sauce and can't be beat. At least, not beat by moi.




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