Weekly Dish

Because my daughter’s arrival coincided with the end of the semester (literally—I gave my final exam in the morning and went into labor that evening), I didn’t have much of a chance to wind down as I usually do, throwing myself into the kitchen and cooking furiously, in celebration of the time to do so.

No, instead, I started off my summer break with a newborn, not exactly prime conditions for having huge blocks of time to spend dawdling in the kitchen as I so pleased. But sweet little Josie did enter this world going to bed at a reasonable hour and staying asleep for a good while, which meant that once we got her to sleep, I could prepare dinner undisturbed. Not that I had a lot of energy for dinner, especially in those first few weeks, but I did itch to do something productive besides feed a baby.

So, I turned to the Farmer’s Market for inspiration and set about thinking how to accommodate our new schedule — what could be started early in the day or the night before and finished without too much time and effort after the baby was asleep? Well, salad, for starters.

And, salad worked so well that we have eaten an awful lot of it since Josie’s been in our life. I have a few basic combinations that I tweak here and there depending on what we have lying around. But since I had promised myself I’d try at least one new thing in the kitchen each week, I needed a significant variation on our old green stand-by. Shrimp are abundant and relatively inexpensive at our market this time of year, so we buy them fairly regularly. The little ones we ended up with a few weeks ago were begging to land atop some greens, so I boiled them and marinated them a day ahead of time to make easy work of assembling dinner the next night.

The idea for the marinade comes from Sara Foster, who calls these “Pickled Shrimp” because of the spice combination used to flavor them. Reminiscent of bread and butter pickles, the tangy-sweet marinade doubled as a dressing for our shrimp-topped salad. Next time, I’ll reduce the amount of sugar and marinate some vegetables along with the shrimp for an even quicker and healthier dinner assembly.

Now that I’ve gotten into the cooking groove, if I could only find some time to write about the things I make, then it wouldn’t take me 3 weeks to compose one post. At least I am finally planning our menus again (as you can see below); funny how the little things at this point seem like such big accomplishments!

What does help me to be motivated, I have to say, is all the encouragement from you sweet people who read this blog. It means much to me that after my long silences, some of you still return with heartwarming well wishes for me and my family. Especially for your kind words about Josie, I thank you.

Shrimp Scampi

Steak and cheese sandwiches

(recipe for shrimp after the jump)

“Pickled” Shrimp Salad

1 pound shrimp, with tails and shells
1 lemon
2 t. whole black peppercorns
1 t. whole cloves
1 T. shrimp or crab boil liquid seasoning
1/4 cup olive oil
Juice of 2 limes
3 T. cider vinegar
2 T. sugar (I’ll reduce it to 1 next time)
1 t. mustard seeds
1 t. sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
a handful of basil leaves, cut into thin strips
Arugula or other salad greens to cover two plates
1 cucumber, sliced thinly
1 avocado, sliced
Fresh basil leaves
2 T. of oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, cut into strips

In a large stock pot, bring 2 quarts of water to a boil. Quarter the lemon and toss it in, along with the peppercorns, cloves, and shrimp boil seasoning. Boil vigorously for 5 minutes, then add shrimp. Cook until just pink, about 3 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water immediately. Set aside to cool.

Whisk together the oil, lime juice, vinegar, sugar, mustard seeds, salt, and pepper. When the shrimp are cool, peel them and add them to the marinade, stirring to coat well. Stir in the strips of basil leaves, cover, and refrigerate overnight (or at least for several hours).

To assemble the salad, cover two plates with greens, cucumber slices, and avocado slices. Ladle the shrimp. along with the marinade on top. Finish with fresh basil and a sprinkle of sun-dried tomatoes. Serves 2.

Posted: Friday, July 13th, 2007 at 10:21 am Filed under: Main Dish, Weekly Menu, Party Food, Salad, Vegetables, Seafood, Summer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.