Crunchy Shrimp with Ginger Orange Sauce

photo from myrecipes.com

I know, I have been MIA for a while.

Briefly, I give the following as explanation:

1. My camera got lost.
2. I’ve been up to my eyeballs with work stuff, everyday stuff, and other stuff. Sometimes I feel that being a “good” blogger can be soooo very challenging.
3. My camera got lost.
4. We’re piling everyone into the car for a road trip to Florida tomorrow.
5. Woo-hoo!

I know it’s lame, and I apologize, but without a juicy photo to share (have you seen my camera, by the way?) I’m posting one of my contest winners from a few years ago and borrowing a picture from myrecipes.com. I won the $10,000 grand prize in Cooking Light’s Ultimate Reader Recipe Contest for creating this recipe and it continues to be a favorite with friends and family.
Enjoy, and I’ll check in again soon.

Crunchy Shrimp with Toasted Couscous
and Ginger Orange Sauce

For Ginger Orange Sauce:
1 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons reduced fat mayonnaise
1 1/2 tablespoons chicken broth
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
For Couscous:
1 cup uncooked couscous
1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/3 cup sliced scallions
2 tablespoons sliced almonds, toasted
For Shrimp:
20 jumbo shrimp (about 1 pound), peeled and deveined
2 egg whites, lightly beaten
1 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons chopped fresh cilantro
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 - 2 tablespoons canola oil
2 cups trimmed watercress

1. To prepare sauce, place orange juice in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook until reduced to 1/4 cup, 10-12 minutes. Transfer to a medium heatproof bowl to cool. Add remaining sauce ingredients to the cooled orange juice and whisk until smooth.

2. Place couscous in a 10-inch non-stick skillet over medium heat and cook 3 minutes or until toasted, stirring constantly. Add the broth, orange juice and salt to pan and bring to a boil. Cover and remove from heat. Let stand 5 minutes; fluff with a fork. Stir in butter, scallions and almonds. Cover to keep warm.

3. Place shrimp in a large bowl; add egg whites and toss to coat. Combine panko, ginger, cilantro, salt and pepper in a large zip-top plastic bag. Add shrimp; seal bag and shake to coat evenly with panko mixture. Heat the oil in a 12-inch non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add coated shrimp in one layer. Cook until golden brown, 2-3 minutes; turn shrimp and cook until second side is golden brown.

4. To serve, spoon couscous onto a large platter. Arrange watercress over and around couscous; top with shrimp. Drizzle sauce over shrimp.
Serves 4. (serving size: 1 cup couscous, 5 shrimp and 1 1/2 tablespoons sauce)

Save This Page on Del.icio.us

Subscribe to FamilyStyle Food

Copyright (c) 2008 FamilyStyle Food

Peanut Shrimp Salad - It's a Winner!

My peanut-crusted shrimp salad with basil-lime dressing (photo: MyRecipes.com)

Wow! I'm back after a great trip to Birmingham, where I was lucky to be chosen as a $10,000 category winner in the Southern Living Cook-Off.

All I can say is that the folks at Southern Progress, who also publish Cooking Light, Cottage Living, Sunset and numerous other lifestyle magazines, not only know how to throw a cook-off, but are an amazingly talented, passionate and hospitable group. You get the feeling that they love going to work every day.

I made some new friends, caught up with some old ones and even got that relaxing massage.

The grand prize winning recipe, Roasted Banana Ice Cream with Warm Peanut Butter Sauce, looks wonderfully decadent with lots of Southern style. My only problem with it is that I have an allergy to bananas and I won't be able to try it!

Peanut Crunch Shrimp Salad with Basil-Lime Dressing
Makes 4 servings

Basil-Lime Dressing:
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons Crisco Pure Peanut Oil
1 tablespoon Asian fish sauce
1 tablespoon Domino Granulated Sugar
1 teaspoon Asian chili garlic sauce
1 teaspoon peeled, grated fresh ginger
1 garlic clove, minced

Shrimp Salad:
1 cup panko crumbs
1/2 cup USA-Grown Dry Roasted Salted Peanuts
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon McCormick Gourmet Collection Red Curry Powder
20 jumbo Certified Wild American Shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons Crisco Pure Peanut Oil
3 cups mixed baby salad greens
1 cup diced English cucumber
1 cup peeled diced mango
1/2 cup mung bean sprouts
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves
3 green onions, trimmed; white and light green parts sliced into matchsticks
1/4 cup USA-Grown Dry Roasted Salted Peanuts, chopped


1. To prepare Basil-Lime Dressing, puree all ingredients in a food processor. Set aside.

2. Pulse panko, peanuts, cornstarch and curry powder in food processor until fine crumbs form; transfer to a pie plate.

3. Toss shrimp with the egg in a large bowl. Dredge shrimp in peanut mixture to coat.

4. Heat oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Place shrimp in skillet; cook shrimp 3 minutes per side, or until golden.

5. Gently toss greens, cucumber, mango, bean sprouts, mint and onions in a large bowl with 2 tablespoons Basil-Lime Dressing. Arrange salad on individual serving plates; top each with 5 shrimp; sprinkle with peanuts and drizzle with remaining dressing.



Save This Page on Del.icio.us

Copyright (c) 2007 FamilyStyle Food

Olive Oil-Poached Shrimp with Chickpeas and Feta

Fresh and Wild

"Fish are the only carnivores consumed in any quantity by people."

That quote is from Barry Estabrook's story about shrimp in the March issue of Gourmet, and I've been thinking about it.

Although, thinking is not my excuse for taking a week off from this blog; no, that was due to my sudden inclination to repaint my kitchen walls (Silver Sage by Restoration Hardware, if you're curious), which required me to unplug my computer and then led to all sorts of reorganizing and vacuuming of certain spaces that haven't been touched by high-quality Miele suction since we moved in.

I don't know why the idea that fish possess the bloodthirsty predatory nature of creatures like tigers, wolves and Giant Water Bugs is so interesting to me. Maybe it's that fish are also one of the few truly wild foods that we eat in quantity.

Really, not including fresh game, the list of wild foods eaten on an average day in our culture is pretty short: Honey (which almost doesn't count because it's cultivated by beekeepers) Nuts - like these wild Missouri pecans. Real wild rice. Morels, ramps and fiddlehead ferns. And if you really swing with Euell Gibbons, dandelions from the back yard.

I was glad to read Estabrook's piece, because he addresses a nit-picky problem I've had lately with shrimp, which is that they have a tendency to taste like scum from a big muddy pond. That's because, he says, the millions of pounds of shrimp we eat each year are farm-raised in large "murky" pools somewhere in Asia or Ecuador. And, those shrimp have probably been frozen and refrozen multiple times by the time we grab a bag in the grocery store, which is why every once in a while you'll get a shrimp with the texture of a cotton ball.

What we really want to be eating is fresh, wild American shrimp. I tracked some down at a gem of a local seafood shop, Bob's. I hadn't been there in a long while and apparently I've been missing out on some fine, fat Gulf shrimp beauties. Although I'm sure they'd seen some freezer time, they smelled sweet and fresh. I poached them in olive oil in this Mark Bittman-inspired recipe:

Olive Oil Poached Shrimp with Smoked Paprika, Chickpeas and Feta
Makes about 4 servings

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil (use the good stuff for this)
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
2 pounds Gulf shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/3 cup oven dried tomatoes, sliced
1 can chickpeas, drained
A few handfuls baby arugula or spinach
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese


Combine the oil and garlic in a 10-inch skillet. Turn the heat to medium and cook until garlic begins to sizzle. Add the cumin and paprika and stir. Turn the heat up and add the shrimp, seasoning to taste with salt and pepper.

Cook until the shrimp turn pink. Stir in the tomatoes, chickpeas, arugula or spinach, and top with feta.
Serve over couscous.

Copyright (c) 2007 FamilyStyle Food

Friday Night Home Date

Meal for 2

Sometimes I find myself envying the freewheeling days of my children. Maybe it’s because they’re in the “golden” stage of their childhood - they exist within an endless, joyful continuum of pleasures and distractions, and they wheedle and negotiate like little con artists in order to fulfill them.

• They Want: Cheese Nips, popsicles, bacon, ice cream
• They Need: To play 2 hours of Game Cube, to have a sleepover, to build a 700-piece Lego star fighter
• They Ask: When is it going to snow? Where did you put my homework? Did you wash my blue sweatshirt yet?

Everything needs to happen right now, not in an hour or most dreadfully awful, Next Week (translation: NEVER). It’s all play, sweets, entertainment, and a little bit of whining, all the time.

By the end of the week, I’m whining too - when do I get to play? - and I’m worn down to a nubbin.

nub•bin
noun

A small lump or residual part.

I look like Mommy, probably smell like Mommy, but the lumpy parts of me that are left need an hour in the whirly-tub and a large cocktail.

And that is why we have instituted Friday Night Home Dates in our house. It’s the best! We give the kids whatever they want for dinner and put them to bed. Then the grownups, in this case, Mom and Dad, get to have a playdate; a quiet dinner at home and no need to call the sitter.

Now T walks in the door on Friday nights with his hand outstretched, waiting for me to place a drink in it. I cook whatever I’m in the mood for, and I keep it simple.

This week I made this quick, delicious shrimp with coconut milk. It’s from Tyler Florence’s new book Tyler's Ultimate. I’m not a Tyler fan, but I have to admit this book has lots of easy, appealing recipes and juicy photography.

To start, I recommend a classic Vodka Gimlet.

Coconut Shrimp with Basmati Rice, Apricots and Lime
Adapted from Tyler’s Ultimate by Tyler Florence

For two, generously

Sauce:
2 tablespoons peanut oil
1 tablespoon grated ginger
2 red hot chili peppers, chopped
4 chopped shallots, or 1/4 cup chopped red onion
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 tablespoons sugar
1 can coconut milk
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 lime, halved
Rice:
1 cup basmati rice
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 cup apricots, diced
3 scallions, white and green parts finely chopped
1 cup fresh greens (Tatsoi is great if you can find it, otherwise use prewashed baby spinach or arugula)

1 pound large shrimp, shelled and deveined
1/4 cup roasted salted peanuts
Lime wedges

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the ginger, chilies and shallots and cook a few minutes, or until the shallots are softened. Stir in the remaining sauce ingredients and bring to a simmer. Lower the heat and cook for 25 minutes. The sauce should be reduced by a third, and slightly thickened. Add the shrimp to the pot and cook until they are just done and turn pink - 3 to 4 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, combine the rice, salt and water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and cover. Cook 15-18 minutes, or until all the water is absorbed. Stir in the remaining ingredients except for the shrimp.

3. Serve in shallow bowls topped with some peanuts and an extra squeeze of lime.

Copyright (c) 2007 FamilyStyle Food