Gluten Free Drunken Shrimp with Veggie Fried Rice

Sticking with this week’s loosely Asian inspired theme, this is a fairly quick , easy and very delicious recipe.

The shrimp stir-fry makes for a quick meal and is great for a weeknight meal. These shrimp are absolutely delicious. I thought the shrimp and their sauce was the perfect topping for the fried rice, but noodles or even a salad could work just as well. I used this recipe to clean out my vegetable door. I just used whatever I had on hand, but you can use any veggies you want.

Gluten Free Drunken Shrimp with Veggie Fried Rice
Shrimp adapted from this recipe from Chow.

Ingredients

For the Rice:

• 2 Tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 large onion (I used 1/2 red and 1/2 white to clean out the fridge)
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 carrots, peeled and diced
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 green bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 cup frozen peas, defrosted
• 10 green beans or snap peas, chopped
• 2 cups cooked brown rice
• 2-3 Tablespoons gluten-free Tamari
• 1 Tablespoon rice vinegar
• 3 green onions, finely sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon toasted sesames

For the Shrimp:

• 3 Tablespoons low-sodium gluten-free Tamari sauce
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 jalapeño pepper, stemmed (seeded if you don’t like spice) and thinly sliced
• 2 Tablespoons cilantro, finely chopped
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 12 jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 lemongrass stalk, tough outer layer removed and cut into 4 pieces
• 1/4 cup vodka

Instructions

For the Rice:

1. Preheat a large skillet or wok to medium heat. Add sesame oil. When oil is heated onion, garlic, bell peppers, peas and carrots and sauté until tender.
2. Add the rice to the veggie mixture. Pour the soy sauce on top. Stir and fry the rice and veggie mixture until heated through and combined. Top chopped green onions and sesame seeds and serve.

For the Shrimp:

1. Place the soy sauce, garlic, jalapeños, cilantro, lime juice, oil, and sugar in a shallow dish and stir to combine. Add the shrimp and lemongrass and stir to coat. Let marinate for 10 minutes at room temperature.
2. Heat a large frying pan over high heat until hot, about 3 minutes. Add the shrimp mixture and cook until the shrimp are bright pink, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and carefully add the vodka. Return the pan to high heat and cook for 1 minute more or until the alcohol smell has dissipated. Remove the lemongrass pieces and serve the shrimp and sauce over rice.

Shrimp Louie Salad

The Crab Louie has been a San Francisco classic since the early 1900s. Since there has been no crab around this kitchen since the infamous crab cake incident of 2011, I substituted the only shellfish that has yet to make an attempt on my life, shrimp! I’ve never actually had a shrimp/crab Louie before, so I don’t have basis for comparison, but this salad was delicious. It made an extremely enjoyable and beautiful lunch. It might seem like there are a lot of ingredients, but it came together very easily.  I definitely plan on make it again. I think it would be perfect for a fancy luncheon or if you have guests.

A traditional Louie salad involves hard-boiled eggs, but since cannot stand the sight or texture of egg yolks, I left them out. They definitely were not missed. I also used kalamata olives instead of regular black olives, mainly because they were what I had on hand, but they also provide way more flavor. Every other ingredient was fresh and crisp. Living in Southern California, we get amazing produce year round. Tomatoes and avocados are at their prime and we are still lucky enough to find great asparagus at farmers’ market.

The dressing is similar to 1000 Island dressing, but not quite. I read at least 20 different Louie dressing recipes and in the end just picked the ingredients that sounded best to me. I like my dressings on the tangy side and most of them sounded like they would be pretty sweet. I used chili sauce, which I think is super sweet to begin with, so I did not add any extra sugar. I also used dill pickle relish and more lemon juice than most called for. This helped to cut the sweetness (it still had some, but not too much) and thinned out the dressing. Gloopy dressing is never a good thing. I also added Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco and paprika for color and flavor.

 

Shrimp Louie Salad

For the Louie Dressing:

• 1 cup high-quality mayonnaise
• 1/3 cup ketchup or chili sauce
• 2 lemons, juiced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tablespoons dill pickle relish
• 1 Tabelspoon Worcestshire sauce
• 1 teaspoon Tabasco
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

For the Shrimp:

• 12 shrimp, peeled, deveined, and tail removed
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

For the Salad:

• 1/2 head iceberg lettuce, finely chopped (almost shredded)
• 1/4 pound asparagus, blanched
• 2 fresh tomatoes, cut into quarters,
• 1 avocado, peeled, pitted, and sliced lengthwise thinly
• 1/4 red onion, finely diced

Instructions

For the Dressing:

1. In a bowl, whisk together all ingredients. Add salt and pepper to taste. Place in fridge while cooking shrimp and assembling salad.

For the Shrimp:

1. Heat oven to 400F. Combine shrimp and all other ingredients in a small bowl or plastic bag. Toss to coat. Place the shrimp on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast in the oven for 6-7 minutes, or until shrimp are nice and pink. Let cool slightly while you assemble the salad.

For the Salad:

1. Divide lettuce between two plates. Divide the rest of the ingredients between the plates of lettuce. Serve with dressing on the side and enjoy!

Shrimp in a Mexican Tomato Sauce

This dish is almost like a cooked ceviche. It has all the same flavors, just prepared in a different way. These shrimp would be great in tacos or even as the filling for enchiladas. The sauce in this dish is very simple and easy to make and very versatile. It would be great with chicken as well. This dish comes together pretty quickly, but making the sauce ahead of time would cut down cooking time to around 5 minutes just for the shrimp.

Shrimp in a Mexican Tomato Sauce

For the Sauce:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup finely chopped white onion
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1 jalapeño, finely chopped, including seeds
• 2 cups fresh or canned chopped tomatoes, including juice
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• juice of one lime

For the Shrimp:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/4 pounds large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• juice of one lime

1. To make sauce, heat the oil in a 2- to 3-quart heavy saucepan over medium heat and add onion, garlic and chile and cook, stirring, until onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, bay leaves and salt and simmer over low heat, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until sauce is slightly thickened, about 20 minutes. When thickened, add in lime juice and stir to mix.
2. Heat the oil in a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat until it just begins to smoke. Toss the shrimp with the salt, then add to the oil and sauté, turning occasionally, until barely cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes.
3. Stir the sauce into the shrimp and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the shrimp is just cooked through, 1 to 2 minutes more. Stir in cilantro and lime juice.

Shrimp with Mango & Black Bean Salsa

This is a fast and easy meal. It’s perfect for summertime since very little heat is needed. The flavors come together perfectly. The best part of these tacos is the salsa. It’s super fast to make and super delicious. It would be great with chicken or fish tacos or on top of a salad. If you want to add some heat, adding in a couple jalapeños or a bell pepper would be great.

Shrimp with Mango & Black Bean Salsa

For the Salsa:

• 1 (14.5) ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 large tomato, seeded and diced
• 1 mango, diced
• 3 green onions, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 sprigs cilantro, chopped
• 2 limes, juiced

For the Shrimp Tacos:

• 3 shrimp per taco
• 1 corn tortilla per taco
• olive oil
• Ground Cumin, to taste
• Ground Roasted Coriander, to taste
• Ground Cayenne Pepper, to taste
• Onion Powder, to taste
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Crumbled feta or queso blanco

For the Salsa:

1. Mix beans, tomato, mango, green onion, garlic and cilantro in a medium bowl. Top with lime juice. Toss before serving.

For the Tacos:

1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
2. When oil is heated, add shrimp.
3. Sprinkle with cumin, roasted coriander, cayenne and onion powder to taste. Add in the minced garlic.
4. Stir to coat. Cook shrimp about 3 minutes per side until pink throughout.
5. In a separate pan, heat the tortillas.
6. Top the tortillas with shrimp and salsa. Add cheese if desired.

Chili-Garlic Shrimp

The shrimp! That’s what this dish is called at my favorite Irish pub in Santa Barbara (Dargan’s). Dargan’s is definitely a favorite meeting spot for me and my best friend Jessica. We have spent many an hour chatting away over pints there. The shrimp is one of my go to dishes if we happen to be grabbing dinner there (their black bean burger is pretty amazing as well). Well unfortunately, Jess and I have been busy ladies lately and we haven’t been to Dargan’s in a while, but I had a hankering for the shrimp, so I tried my best to recreate the meal at home. It’s not an exact replica, but it’s pretty close and just as delicious.

For some reason I had never thought to combine mashed potatoes and shrimp into one dish before having it at Dargan’s. The two never seemed like a combination that would work all that well. I was definitely wrong about that. Quite frankly I should have known better; obviously two of my favorite foods are going to be amazing together…Obviously.

Chili-Garlic Shrimp
(serves 2)

• 2 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• extra virgin olive oil
• 12 large shrimp
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• Sweet chili sauce

1.  Place the peeled and cubed potatoes in a pot. Cover with water and boil until tender, about 15-20 minutes.  When the potatoes are quite soft, drain them completely and return them to the pan over medium heat. Add the butter and cook for a few minutes over medium heat, stirring the potatoes vigorously to help any leftover water evaporate. When any remaining water has evaporated, and the potatoes are quite smashed up and smooth, remove from heat. Add the warm milk and garlic powder. Mix together until everything is smooth and creamy (I usually use a hand mixer, it’s easier and faster).  Season to taste with pepper and salt.
2. While the potatoes are cooking, heat the olive oil in a large pan. Add in the shrimp and garlic. When the shrimp are nearly completely cooked (pink) pour in a generous drop of the sweet chili sauce and stir to coat.
3. When the shrimp are done, dish up the potatoes on two plates. Divide the shrimp between the plates with any of the remaining sauce in the pan. Feel free to add more chili sauce if you want it.
4. Serve and enjoy!

Lemon-Garlic Shrimp & Grits

Oh my. I don’t even know where to begin with this one. It’s amazing. It’s delicious. It’s lemony, garlicky, buttery, spicy goodness all in one. I could eat this every single day and never get sick of it. Never ever. It took everything in my willpower not to make this for every meal I’ve had since the first time I’ve made it. You should make this like right now. Go.

I added more garlic and lemon than the original recipe called for. I like a lot of sauce and this recipe isn’t all that sauce-y, so the extra lemon juice helped.

Lemon-Garlic Shrimp & Grits (from Food Network)

• 3/4 cup instant grits
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 1/4 pounds medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 4 large cloves garlic, minced
• Pinch of cayenne pepper (optional, but highly recommended)
• Juice of 1 lemon, plus wedges for serving

1. Bring 3 cups of water to a boil in a medium saucepan over high heat, covered. Uncover and slowly whisk in the grits, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Reduce the heat to medium low and cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the parmesan and 1 tablespoon butter. Remove from the heat and season with salt and pepper. Cover to keep warm.
2. Meanwhile, season the shrimp with salt and pepper. Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the shrimp, garlic and cayenne, if using, and cook, tossing, until the shrimp are pink, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and add 2 tablespoons water, the lemon juice and parsley; stir to coat the shrimp with the sauce and season with salt and pepper.
3. Divide the grits among shallow bowls and top with the shrimp and sauce. Serve with lemon wedges.

Sunday Summary! July 24, 2011

This week involved a lot cleaning and and preparing and cooking for a lot of people I didn’t know. It was weird. Then my one of my favorite singers died. Poor Amy. It was sad. But mainly this week involved a whole lot of this…

except that it's real...

If you have never met me in real life, I should probably take the time to point out that I am the most accident/injury/illness prone person you will ever encounter. I can currently count at least 7 injuries of varying degrees, along with one unknown mystery ailment, which is the bane of my existence at the moment. It’s taken years to perfect this extraordinary skill set of awkward and clumsy, but I really do make the most of it. Plus, all of my ailments and how I acquired them tend to make for fairly amusing stories.

Things I Made:

• Crockpot Salsa Chicken Tostadas
• Braised Pork Chops
• Grilled Shrimp with Chive Polenta Cakes
• Strawberry Vodka Lemonade
• Roasted Corn and Tomato Salad

Things I Want to Make:

• Balsamic Strawberry Popsicles – Epicurious – Needs to happen asap.
• Hawaiian Pesto – Eighty Twenty – I hate real pesto but this sounds amazing.
• Mudslide Ice Cream Cake – Endless Simmer – I don’t even know where to begin…

Things to Check out:

Grilled Shrimp with Chive Polenta Cakes

When I first saw this recipe I thought “Shrimp. Polenta. Chives. Sold.” Three things that I like all together in one meal, it definitely had to be made.

The other thing I really liked about this recipe that it’s one that can be prepared ahead of time and cooked as you are just about to serve it in under 10 minutes. I also think it looks much ‘fancier’ than the preparation involved. I’m sure it would impress just about any dinner guest.

I also took some liberties with the shrimp. I don’t think they really mind, they probably enjoyed it. The original called for basil, which I am so totally not a fan of. Basil = grosssssss. I am, however, a firm believer that it is not a real meal unless there are mass quantities of  garlic and paprika involved (you can take the girl out of Hungary…).  

Grilled Shrimp with Chive Polenta Cakes (adapted from this recipe)

Chive Polenta Cakes:

• 2 cups milk
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 2 tbsp. unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing pyrex dish
• 1 tsp. kosher salt
• 1 tsp. fresh ground pepper
• 4 oz. goat cheese
• small bunch of chives

Grilled Shrimp

• 1 1/2 pounds shrimp
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 tbsp. smoked paprika
• 1 tbsp. garlic powder
• 1 tbsp. minced onion
• 1 tbsp. oregano, dried or fresh
• kosher salt and cracked black pepper

Butter a Pyrex dish (the original recipe calls for an 8×8, I used something that was more like a 6×10, worked just as well). In a heavy bottomed saucepan, combine milk, cornmeal, and butter, and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly, over medium high heat. When mixture begins to simmer, add salt, chives and goat cheese , and keep stirring until thick, about 15 minutes. Pour into prepared pan and allow to cool and thicken until thick enough to slice, about 3 hours.

Place shrimp, olive oil, paprika, garlic, onion, some big pinches of salt and pepper, and oregano in a large bowl and toss to combine; place in the fridge until polenta has set.

When polenta has set, you can either cut the polenta into slices in the pyrex or un-mold the polenta onto a cutting board and cut it there. Preheat grill or grill pan to high heat.

Gently grill polenta slices until grill marks form, and polenta is heated though, about 8 minutes. Remove from grill and reserve. Grill shrimp until pink and beginning to char, about 3 minutes per side.

The most exciting part of the whole meal was the accompanying side salad! What’s so exciting about lettuce you ask? Well, this was the first harvest from out our garden! I maintain that our homegrown, organic, pesticide-free, raised with tender love and care lettuce tasted much better than what we get at the store, but Mama CC says there was no difference… I like my story better.

I served the lettuce with a little mustardy vinaigrette which is super simple to make a goes with just about any salad.

Mustardy Vinaigrette

• 1 big spoonful of dijon mustard (I normally use grainy, but we were out)
• 1 big glug of olive oil
• 1 medium glug of white wine vinegar
• Garlic, fresh, minced or I like to use Garlic Gold Nuggets
• Salt and fresh ground pepper

Spiced Shrimp Salad with Plums & Chickpeas

I had just been complaining about how slow out magazine were in getting here this month and today, they nearly all showed up! (Maybe I should complain more often…?) I was reading through the July 2011 issue of Real Simple and there are some great sounding fresh, summery sounding recipes.

I was immediately intrigued by the recipe on page 190, Spiced Chicken Salad with Plums and Chickpeas. After a few quick substitutions for ingredients I had on hand and we had a wonderfully inspired salad for dinner.

 

The salad was so tasty, and the dressing and marinade could easily be used on other meats/fish or veggies. I also, really loved the colors of this salad, everything was so bright and absolutely delicious. I only marinaded the shrimp for about 30 minutes, since they are a little more ‘fragile’ than the recipe’s original chicken.  And it was so fast and easy to make. I will definitely be making this again. And again.

 

Spiced Shrimp Salad with Plums & Chickpeas (inspired by Real Simple July 2011 p. 190)

• 10 large shrimp, deveined, de-shelled
• 1 medium red onion, half coarsely chopped and half sliced
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 2 tsp. garam masala
• 1/2 C. greek yogurt
• 1/4 C. + 2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
• Kosher salt & fresh ground pepper
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 large handfuls arugula
• 1/2 15 oz. can chickpeas, rinsed
• 1 plum, pitted and thinly sliced

In a food processor, puree the chopped onion, garlic, garam masala, 1/4 cup yogurt, 1/4 vinegar, 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. pepper. Transfer to bowl and marinade shrimp in fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Heat 1 tbsp. oil in skillet over medium heat. Shake off marinade off shrimp. Cook until shrimp are pink and cooked through.

In a bowl, whisk together remaining 1/4 cup of yogurt, 2 tbsp. of vinegar, 1 tbsp. of oil, 1 tbsp. of water, 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. of pepper. Add the arugula, chickpeas, and onion and toss to combine. Top with shrimp and plums. Serve and enjoy!

A Father’s Day Feast! Appetizer Edition. Garlic Lemon Shrimp & Stuffed Mushrooms

We ate our Father’s Day dinner in stages today. Instead of a real lunch I whipped up a couple appetizers for us to munch on while I was getting the rest of the dinner together.

I made some caramelized onion ‘stuffed’ mushrooms and some garlic lemon shrimp. Simply delicious.

 

I based the shrimp on another recipe my mom makes with cauliflower, but left out the breadcrumbs that normall get mixed in so it wasn’t quite as heavy. I will definitely be making this again in the future and might experiment with leaving the breadcrumbs in as well.

Garlic Lemon Shrimp

• 1 pound of shrimp, deveined and de-shelled
• 1 lemon
• 1 stick of butter, unsalted
• 4-6 cloves of garlic
• 1/4 cup parsley, chopped
• 1 tsp. kosher salt
• 1 tsp. black pepper
• 1.5 tsp. red pepper flakes

Preheat oven to 350. Wash and dry shrimp and place on a cookie sheet. Combine all other ingredients in a food processor and pulse together. Drop  butter mixture over shrimp and bake in oven until shrimp is pink and butter mixture is bubbly and fragrant.

 

So, in order to make traditional stuffed mushrooms more gluten-free friendly, I left the traditional breadcrumb mixture out. Since I was caramelizing some onions as I normally do on a Sunday, I decided to combine them with some mushrooms. These ended up being a tasty snack as well. Caramelizing onions is a lot of work, so unless you are making a batch of onions already, it might be a bit of a hassle to make these, but they would definitely be worth the effort. Oh, I would also recommend slicing the onions fairly thin so that it’s easier to get them in the mushrooms.

Caramelized Onion Mushrooms

• 2 large onions, cut in half, sliced and caramelized (you will have leftover onions)
• 1 package of mushrooms, cleaned and stemmed
• Some kind of melty cheese (I used some parm and jack)

Caramelize onions. Preheat oven to 350. Place mushrooms, cap size down on tin-foil lined cookie sheet. Fill mushrooms with onions and top with a sprinkling of cheese. Place cookie sheet in oven until the cheese is melted, about 10 minutes. If you want the cheese to be super melty, turn on the broiler for a minute or two. Serve and enjoy!