Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Quarantine Cinco De Mayo Tortilla Chip Crusted Shrimp


Cinco de Mayo to me, means celebrating with Chips, Queso and Margaritas at my local Mexican Restaurant patio.


Staying at home, I couldn’t help but throw together a Mexican inspired dish with what I had on hand. Tortilla chip crusted shrimp with Guacamole and chips!





I
knew I wanted Tortilla chips, so I started there. I had a fresh bag of lime flavored (thanks Instacart substitutions) in the pantry. I also had a half started bag of tortilla chips that was a little stale 🤷🏻. If Im going to eat chips, Im not eating stale chips.....but quarantine times call for quarantine measures. What could I do with the opened bag? Cant throw those babies out!  Aha, I will grind them up in my magic bullet blender. Poof - I have tortilla chip crumbs. What else do I have?  Shrimp I need to use in the fridge! I will dip those in the chip crumbs. 🧐

And then it began!

Ingredients:

- Raw Shrimp (peel them and take tails off). Maybe a pound?
- Avocados (I used two small hass)
- Red Onion (I used about 1/4 giant red onion). Chop it.
- Lemon (or lime - I like lemon). Squeeze the juice.
- Salt, Garlic Powder and Cumin
- Fresh Chips and stale chips (ha or you could use all fresh!)
- Sour cream (optional)

And then:

- Crush up some chips in a blender/chopper until looks like sand
- Coat shrimp in the chip crumbs (they will be a little damp from rinsing them before you coat them so the chip crumbs stick)
- Melt some butter and olive oil (butter alone will burn) in a sauté pan on medium high
- Sauté shrimp a minute or two on each side. I did two batches to not crowd the pan.
- Salt the shrimp with sea salt

Make the guacamole:

- Mix together the juice of a lemon, the avocados, salt, onion, garlic powder and cumin. Mash with a fork til creamy.

Serve the shrimp with the guacamole, chips and sour cream.

You are done! De nada!



Saturday, May 2, 2020

Quarantine Grilled Steaks, Potatoes and Beets

It’s a sunny beautiful Spring Day in Atlanta and it feels like Summer. My Blue Apron box is lost in transit with FedEx for the second week in a row. Whole Foods via Amazon Prime to the rescue with delivery in two hours.





What you need:

Skirt steak (or similar)
Potatoes (I’m using small Tri color potatoes)
Onion (I’m using white)
Parsley
Orange
Red Beets (about 3 or so)
Pesto (I had a packet of pesto left over from something)
Banana peppers (optional)
Parsley (optional)

Here’s what I did:

- Pour some Worcester sauce, olive oil and sea salt on the steak. Let marinate. Overnight would be best, but I did for about an hour
- Boil Water
- Cut potatoes in half and beets into quarters
- Drop into salted and boiling water
- Preheat grill outside
-  Let potatoes and beets parboil and small dice an onion, a handful of banana peppers, and some parsley
- Peel and slice the orange
- Put orange into a bowl with banana peppers. Pour a little white balsamic if you have it over them and a pinch of sea salt
- In another bowl, put the onions, parsley, a pinch of salt, and pesto it you have it
- Drain beets and potatoes and put some olive oil and salt on them
- Go put steak on grill and potatoes/beets on grill. The potatoes/beets will need to go on a piece of aluminum foil so it doesn’t fall down the grates
- Flip the steak once nice and charred
- Once other side cooked take the steak inside and let in rest covered in aluminum foil loosely
- Let potatoes/beets stay on grill about 5 -10 mins more
- Slice steak
- Put beets in bowl with oranges
- Put potatoes in bowl wirh onions/parsley/pesto

That’s it!