Your Best Dish You (Intentionally) Set on Fire

The ingredients for the dish: lemon, shallot, garlic, Cognac, cayenne, sweet paprika, dried thyme, dried oregano, shrimp and Worcestershire sauce.  

Fiveandspice calls for both lemon zest and lemon juice.  

Finely chopped shallot calls for a sharp knife.  

A small observer takes a whiff of garlic.  

And then sits obediently as Mom chops.  

The shrimp goes into a bowl with the herbs and spices, along with the lemon zest and salt and pepper.  

Lots of garlic!  

The shrimp get a quick toss.  

Like most shrimp dishes of the same family, this one starts with a healthy dose of butter.  

Amanda softens the shallot and garlic in the butter.  

Then, it's time for the lemon juice and the Worcestershire sauce.  

We ended up using jumbo shrimp, but large would be just fine.  

You want to cook them just until they start looking pink all over.  

When you add the Cognac, be ready with a lighter or a long match.  

Fun!  

Some more butter smoothes out any rough edges.  

What you'll need for the mousse: chicken livers, butter, Grand Marnier, heavy cream, onion, thyme, garlic and capers.  

A butter sculpture!  

The onion, garlic and thyme take a buttery bath.  

In go the livers!  

Make sure your livers are nice and fresh -- they should be a deep pink color.  

They half-poach, half-sauté in the butter and aromatics.  

After 5 or 6 minutes, the livers should look like this -- and the centers will still be a little pink.  

Time for a generous wash of Grand Marnier.  

Make sure to stand back and light the booze quickly -- we had a little trouble with our lighter, and Amanda nearly singed off her eyebrows when the warm liquor started to emit fumes, which then ignited. Luckily, a crisis was averted.  

With the fire out, we spread the livers on a sheet pan and put them in the fridge for a few minutes to cool down.  

Then we dumped the whole lot into the food processor -- don't leave any of the onions or liquid behind!  

This is your chance to get the mousse really smooth, so don't be shy.  

All mousses worth their salt feature heavy cream. So we say.  

The cream lightens the paté -- in both color and texture.  

Boulangere's final touch: capers. We love this addition!  

And, of course, a little black pepper and more salt to taste.  

We had to make sure it was properly salted...