shrimp

Okay, so it’s not Sunday, or dinner, but I had to share as marinade for grilled shrimp that I discovered last night. I picked it out from AllRecipes.com after seeing that it had over 500 5-star reviews and that most of the reviews involved ALL CAPS and lots of exclamation points!!!!!!

I went in a little suspicious - I mean, it’s marinade, not some miracle drug, but I went ahead and tried it out on our new grill. I wasn’t convinced - the ingredients were really simple and didn’t seem to fit together well. And it didn’t seem to be bad enough for me health-wise or hard enough to make to taste that good.  AND THEN BEN AND I ATE THE SHRIMP AND TALKED ABOUT HOW GOOD IT WAS IN ALL CAPS FOR THE REST OF THE EVENING. IT IS THAT GOOD!!!!! AND I HATE EXCLAMATION POINTS, EXCEPT WHEN I REALLY MEAN IT!!!!!

Even putting the delectable taste of these shrimp aside for a moment, which is hard for me to do even 12 hours later, this recipe has everything going for it: it uses only “kitchen staple” ingredients (with the exception of the shrimp). It does not involve a stick of butter or deep-fried batter, like many other shrimp recipes I’ve test driven.  It cooks in six minutes. It makes you look like a  celebrity chef to anyone you have over for dinner.

In any case, without further ado, here’s the link: Marinted Grilled Shrimp.

A few notes:

1. If you want the shrimp spicy, double the cayenne pepper. As it is, the pepper only gives the shrimp a little heat.

2. If you’re using wooden skewers, soak them first.

3. Don’t marinate the shrimp for longer than an hour - the vinegar will start breaking down the meat.

I once again apologize for the absence of picture or many links - things will get better when the cable guys bring the magic of the internet into our home on Monday.

Go forth and grill shrimp!

I haven’t posted many recipes lately, mostly because I haven’t been making anything new. But today was bright and summery and my new summer copy of Eating Well came in the mail.

I just started my subscription to this magazine, and I have to say I’m in love. It’s the Middle Road of eating healthy - lots of quality ingredients and lots of whole grains, but at the same time, they’re not afraid of having an entire feature this month on types of awesome burgers (the cheddar bison burgers on whole wheat rolls that Ben made for us yesterday were delicious). They include the nutritional information but don’t go out of their way to ban “bad” ingredients from their recipes - they’re more for using small amounts. They’re also into eating green, which I like - last month they had a big spread on where and how you should buy salmon.

In any case, the weather had me wanting to make something fresh and different and Eating Well had a stupendous feature call, simply, Shrimp Fest! . I tried out their beer battered New England fried shrimp, which, although fried, involves 100% whole wheat flour and only two(!) tablespoons of oil. I thought it might be too good to be true, but really it’s just too good.

• A cup of pale ale or other light-colored beer (I used Sam Adams Summer Ale)
• A cup of 100% whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard (sounds weird, tastes great)
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1 pound large or extra large shrimp, peeled and de-veined, but with the tails on
• 2 tablespoons of canola oil

Mix the beer, flour, mustard, and salt. Whisk until smooth. (Note: you have to do this in two batches, so you have to repeat these next steps twice) Put half of the oil in a skillet on medium-high heat. Hold each shrimp from the tail and dip into the batter, knocking off the excess on the side of the bowl. Add each shrimp to the skillet, making sure they aren’t touching. Cook for about 2 minutes on each side, until curled, firm, and golden brown. Transfer to a platter, add pepper, wipe the skillet clean, and get to work on your second batch. If you’re just cooking for two, halving the recipe makes a perfect amount of food.

I served my shrimp with baby red potatoes and green beans tossed in rosemary and extra virgin olive oil. And a Sam Adams Summer Ale. I was going to take a picture, but we, uh, ate all the shrimp without breathing in between bites. Take my word for it, though: they are pretty. And delicious.

The weather in Queens isn’t pretty today. The meteorologists are calling it a “wintery mix” but that is nothing more than a blatant euphemism for, “like hell, if hell weren’t so hot. You will definitely fall on your ass at least once.” The stuff falling from the sky has been changing every hour or so - we’ve seen snow, sleet, freezing rain, regular rain, ice and everything in between. There are a good two inches of a substance on the sidewalks that I would describe as ice soup.

We walked like lame, miserable penguins to the gym and then walked like lame miserable tired penguins home from the gym. And just as I was about to comment on how glad I was to be inside for the night, we both realized that we didn’t have anything to eat. Sure, we could call a delivery boy, but we’d probably have to tip him $20 and look directly into his sad eyes, which would have inevitably been creepily frozen open.

Perhaps, I thought, we would starve.

But, thinking back to the sexy tight-jeaned hero of my youth, MacGyver, I was inspired - MacGyver, who could build a bomb out of a pen cap, a water hose, a lamp stand and a piece of chewing gum! MacGyver, who could do anything he set his mind to as long as he had his Swiss Army knife and a roll of duct tape! This icy dinner-less situation was my own personal Murdoc, and I would hunt down a solution to the problem just as McGyver hunted down international assassins.

I started through the cabinets, the awesome MacGyver theme song running through my head. I found the only real protein we had in the house: frozen shrimp pushed up in the back of the freezer. I went through our dried goods and rustled up some whole wheat pasta.

In a large saucepan, I did what any good Louisiana girl would and started up a roux - I didn’t have any butter (and like cooking healthy) so I used two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and two table spoons of flour. I browned the oil and flour while whisking it on medium heat. Then I added 1 and 1/4 cups of 1% milk and kept whisking, until it was as thick and smooth as McGyver’s silky mullet.

To the white sauce I added a small chopped white onion and a well-drained can of diced tomatoes. To season it, I added a small bay leaf, parsley, garlic, salt, and pepper. After letting it simmer for about 15 minutes (to cook the onions and mix the flavors) I added 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese and the shrimp. (I know you’re not supposed to mix seafood and cheese, but I’ve seen Red Lobster do it and, obviously, The Lobster is the leading authority on cooking seafood.)

I added the pasta to the sauce, and I was done. I didn’t even have to use chewing gum.

Meanwhile Ben, who was acting as Macgyver’s closest friend Pete, created a delicious salad with vegetable odds and ends he found. Within 20 minutes, we were sitting in front of a full hearty and healthy meal. It wasn’t half bad.

The best part of the experience wasn’t the food at all. It was using my analytical thinking and my creativity in order to forge something unique yet functional. Its simple, obvious moral was perhaps even as simple and as obvious as the morals that MacGyver learned at the end of each episode.