The Perfect Party Appetizer

This past weekend I was going to a party at one of my work friend's home and I wanted to bring something I had prepared in my own kitchen. Not wanting to relive the Lime Tart experience from my last work party, I decided this time I would not bring a dessert. I had remembered seeing a recipe that was advertised as the "perfect party appetizer" in one of my magazines. How could I wish for anything more? If I was going to cook something, it should be "perfect" right? Well knowing that perfection is hard to achieve I didn't set my hopes too high. The recipe required me to make dough and I hadn't really ever made dough in a savory dish before. I was a little nervous about the final product but these little shrimp puffs did not disappoint. They were unique, tasty, easy to transport and fun to prepare. Everyone at the party seemed to really enjoy them and in actuality that is all I could really hope for!

Shrimp Toast Puffs with Sweet Chili Dipping Sauce
Cooking Light April 2008

Ingredients

Puffs:
1 pound peeled and deveined medium shrimp
2 bacon slices, diced
1/3 cup finely chopped green onions
1 1/2 teaspoons bottled ground fresh ginger (such as Spice World)
1 cup all-purpose flour (about 4 1/2 ounces)
1 cup water
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 large egg whites
1 large egg
Cooking spray

Sweet chili sauce:
6 tablespoons sweet chili garlic sauce (such as Taste of Asia)
4 teaspoons seasoned rice vinegar

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 425°.

2. To prepare puffs, place shrimp in a food processor; pulse until finely chopped.

3. Cook bacon in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, reserving 2 teaspoons drippings in pan (reserve bacon for another use). Add shrimp to reserved drippings in pan, and saute 3 minutes. Add 1/3 cup green onions to pan; saute 1 minute. Stir in ginger.

4. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine 1 cup water, butter, and sugar in a large heavy saucepan; bring to a boil, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. Reduce heat to low; add flour, stirring well until mixture is smooth and pulls away from sides of pan. Remove from heat.

Add egg whites and egg, 1 at a time; beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth. Gently stir in shrimp mixture.

5. Drop dough by level tablespoons, 2 inches apart, onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray.

Bake at 425° for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350° (do not remove puffs from oven); bake an additional 10 minutes or until browned and crisp.

6. To prepare sweet chili sauce, combine chili garlic sauce and 4 teaspoons vinegar in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk.

Serve sauce with shrimp puffs.