Baked Shrimp

I can't take credit for this ingenious recipe. It is only slighly adapted from my friend Kim's recipe. VERY, VERY good. The Southern resident ate his on a bit of quacamole in a tortilla this time around. And if you catch the loss leader sales on two pound bags of frozen shrimp, it won't even cost a small fortune to serve.

2 pounds shrimp - raw & peeled (these were from my freezer - I thawed and peeled them):








~ 1/2 cup olive oil
3 cajun seasoning
2 cloves of garlic, crushed, or a bit of garlice powder
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 pinch cayenne
juice of 1 lemon or 3 tablespoons bottled lemon juice

I didn't measure one thing for this recipe. Just splash it in a 13 x 9 pan:



Mix in the powdered spices and the shrimp. Allow to sit at least ten minutes. (Or a few hours in the fridge, if you're making this ahead for a dinner party)


Bake at 450 for about ten minutes. Shrimp will look pink when cooked:

Serve with a salad or vegetable and some bread to soak up the yummy sauce. (and if the hubby helps himself to guacamole and tortillas, that's fine too)

20 Minute Shrimp and Grits

This is NOT the same as the slow-cooked-all day miracle that is shrimp and grits. But it was pretty tasty.

The 20 minute time was accomplished by:

1. using already slow-cooked grits in a package from my beloved Trader Joes:

2. using frozen already cut peppers and onions from BJ's:

3. Microwaving things.

4. Using thawed already cooked shrimp (bought on sale, of course!):

5. Using marmalade from a jar. (ok, if you factor in the time MAKING marmalade, this would be 500 minute shrimp and grits. But that was back in March. It doesn't count).


Microwave the frozen onions and peppers until they are cooked. Meanwhile pull the tails off the shrimp and set aside. Open the tube of cooked grits, and pour into a bowl. The grits go into the microwave after the onions and peppers.

In a pot, pour about a cup of white wine, 1/2 pint of marmalade, cajun seasoning (a tablespoon?), a tablespoon or two of molasses, and bring to a boil, then immediately turn down. Add pepper/onion mixture and keep stirring occasionally.

Shred some cheddar cheese, and mix into the grits.

Add the shrimp at the last second - just long enough to warm the shrimp all the way through.

Scoop grits in a bowl, and spoon shrimp mixture over top:

Nasi Goreng

This evening I was speaking to a good friend who LIVED IN JAPAN for about six months, and was surprised that she had never made or heard of Nasi Goreng.

We were first introduced to this wonderful, economical dish by friends in South Carolina. They had been raised in the Dutch Reform community in Canada, and therefore had deep cultural ties with the Indonesian culture, and had been raised eating Nasi Goreng.

Like most fried rice dishes, this one is very flexible, and a great way to use up the bits of this and that in your refrigerator. You need already cooked cold rice to make this dish - so make this the day after you have Chinese take-out to use up that last big container of white rice.

Ingredients:

cold cooked rice, preferably jasmine rice

onion

garlic

bits of vegetables (zucchini, peas, snow peas, carrots, peppers, tomato ....)

bits of meat or seafood (chicken, shrimp, beef, ham, pork)

3 or more eggs

a packet of Nasi Goreng seasoning (from Asian grocery store), or chili powder, corriander, curry powder, salt, pepper

sweet soy sauce (again, from the Asian grocery store)

First:

Chop an onion or two, and sautee until translucent, and then add some chopped garlic.

Meanwhile, crack and beat a few eggs. Add the eggs to the pan, and scramble them so they are in little bits.

At this point you can add the rice, and either add the seasoning packet or add the individual seasonings (I've always used the packets, but one of the recipes I found online said a teaspoon of curry powder, 1/2 tsp each of corriander and chili powder, and 2 tsps soy sauce)

Add in the (already cooked) bits of meat or seafood, mix it all in and let it sit for a few minutes.

Serve with sweet soy sauce on top. YUMMY!

sweet soy sauce really makes this dish - and is also a quick addition to many other asian or pan-asian dishes. The bottle you see to the right is the one I buy. I find it at a Vietnamese run store in Philadelphia - but I was also able to find it when I lived in South Carolina. If you can't find it nearby, you can always order it online.

... and here are some people who probably know more than this American cook of Irish-English-German-French-Swedish descent. (Notice that none of my ancestors used chopsticks very often - though I did have a Japanese Great Aunt by marriage):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasi_goreng

http://www.indochef.com/indo_23.shtml

http://www.melroseflowers.com/mkic/indo_recipes/rice/indonesian_fried_rice.html

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/NASI-GORENG-INDONESIAN-FRIED-RICE-15397