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Honey-Habanero Glazed Grilled Shrimp and Peach

July 7, 2012 in Appetizers, Recipes

Grilling Seafood and Fruits together

This is one delicious combination. I always knew that grilled shrimp is beyond delicious, but grilling peaches with shrimp, takes the shrimp to a whole new level. I was grocery shopping after coming back home to an empty refrigerator after my awesome California vacation and I saw the deveined shrimp shell on and my creative juices decided to help me out. I picked up all the ingredients and came up with this recipe as I walked through the grocery aisles. Not too many ingredients and you will definitely find many of the ingredients at home. So what’s not to love about this recipe. And it’s summer so why not fire up the grill and try out this recipe. This list of ingredients made about 7 skewers of grilled shrimp and peaches.

Ingredients:

  1. 1 lb shell on shrimp
  2. 2 peaches (sliced into 8-9 pieces each)
  3. 1 cup cilantro leaves
  4. 1/3 cup honey
  5. 1/3 cup olive oil
  6. 5-6 garlic pods (minced)
  7. 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
  8. 1 tsp whole black pepper
  9. 2 tsp lemon juice
  10. 1/2 tsp rock salt
  11. 1 habanero chili

Directions:

  • First make the flavored olive oil by heating the oil and adding the minced garlic, crushed red pepper and whole black pepper.
  • Heat the oil till the garlic is slightly browned, now strain the oil out and add the garlic, and peppers to a food processor.
  • Next add the cilantro leaves, honey, 3 tbsps of olive oil, lemon juice, rock salt and deseeded habanero chilli.
  • Mince the ingredients together and add some more olive oil if the mixture is too dry.
  • Marinate the peaches and the shrimp in half the marinade for about half hour.
  • Skewer the deveined but shell on shrimp onto metal skewers with the peaches and grill the shrimp and peaches either on a grill or on the broil setting in the oven.
  • Turn the skewers over after about 5-7 mins. Baste each side of the skewer with the leftover marinade.
  • The grilled shrimp and peaches are ready to be devoured.

Though I say so myself, this was one of the most awesome shrimp dishes I have ever had. Grilling it with the shell on ensured that the shrimp did not dry out and make sure that the peaches are skewered through the skin. This ensures that the peaches do not disintegrate. You could make it spicier by adding more habanero chilli. This was one of the easiest dishes to make and I now wish I had a grill. So if you have a grill fire it up and try this recipe. I promise you will not regret it.

And once again thanks for reading my blog.

Shilpa

Photo courtesy my aunt, Geetha, after she tried the recipe….

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Sweet and Spicy Shrimp and Broccoli

April 3, 2012 in Main Course, Recipes

Ready in a few minutes and lip-smacking delicious!!!

As promised, here is another quick and easy to make recipe. I was at Target the other day and I picked up some shrimp for dinner. As I was roaming around the store, I picked up a bottle of relish. It was a pineapple and habanero relish. Oh yes and since I am on a healthy eating spree, I decided to throw in some broccoli. It takes about 20 minutes to prepare and I ate this with white rice. It was delicious, the pineapple and habanero make an awesome combination.

Ingredients:

  1. 1 pound shrimp
  2. 2 cups broccoli florets
  3. 1/2 cup pineapple habanero relish
  4. 2 green chilies (slit)
  5. 4-5 garlic cloves (sliced)
  6. 2 teaspoons olive oil
  7. 2 tbsp soy sauce
  8. 1 tsp chili paste
  9. 1/4 tsp black pepper pwd
  10. salt to taste

Directions:

  • Marinate the shrimp in the relish, chili paste, soy sauce, salt and pepper for about 10 mins.
  • In the meanwhile boil a pot of water and add some salt. Once the water is boiling add the broccoli to it and let it cook for a couple of mins.
  • Remove the broccoli and set aside.
  • Heat the olive oil and add the garlic and chilies to it.
  • Once the garlic browns add the shrimp to the oil and let it cook till the sauce thickens.
  • Once the shrimp is cooked remove it and set it aside.
  • Add the broccoli to the same pan and saute for a couple of mins.
  • Serve with rice.

This was really easy to make and was delicious. A little spicy, so you could avoid the green chilies if you don’t want to take a chance with making it too spicy. And make sure that the sauce thickens to a sticky paste before taking it off the heat. The caramalized pineapple habanero relish was brilliant. Hope you enjoy this easy to make dish and thanks for reading.

Shilpa

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Patties (version 1:Lamb Patties; version 2:Rice and Shrimp Patties)

February 15, 2012 in Appetizers, Main Course, Recipes

Valentine’s day and another Daring Cooks challenge…

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!!! And a very happy birthday to a very special person…. Ayush! I still can’t believe that he is already 2 years old. He is my closest friends son and his birthday is on 14th Feb… If I remember right, he is not a big fan of sweets but loves spicy food. So though I am not there to celebrate his birthday with him, I dedicate this post to Ayush and wish him a very happy birthday with loads of hugs and kisses…
And yes of course I did celebrate Valentine’s day with my hubby… But thanks to his very busy schedule (I am not complaining as he is busy cos he is getting done with his PhD dissertation), we had to have a very low profile celebration today… But we did not skim on the chocolates and wine. I made a pepper garlic chicken dish which I will post in due time and have marinated some lamb for some delicious lamb biryani for tomorrow. These recipes are all getting ready to be posted once this post is done.
The Daring Cooks’ February 2012 challenge was hosted by Audax & Lis and they chose to present Patties for their ease of construction, ingredients and deliciousness! We were given several recipes, and learned the different types of binders and cooking methods to produce our own tasty patties! Valentine’s day happens to be the reveal date for the daring cooks challenge for Feb 2012. I have made these before but for this challenge I decided to make two types of patties which I haven’t tried before. One is a spiced mint lamb patties and the other one is a combination of rice and shrimp.
I love patties mainly cos they are delicious and secondly, you can convert just about anything in patties and make a while new dish without a lot of effort.

Lamb Patties

(Makes about 4-5 patties)
Ingredients:
  1. 1 lb ground lamb
  2. 1 slice white / wheat bread (1/2″ cubes)
  3. 3 teaspoons milk
  4. 1/3 cup chopped red onion
  5. 1 1/2 tsp minced garlic
  6. 1/3 cup mint leaves
  7. 1 tsp oregano
  8. 1.5 tsp paprika
  9. 1.5 tsp black pepper
  10. 1 tsp coriander pwd
  11. 1/2 tsp cumin pwd
  12. 1 tsp cinnamon pwd
  13. 1 tsp ginger pwd
  14. 1 tsp nutmeg pwd
  15. 1 1/4 tsp salt
Directions:
  • Mix together all the ingredients by hand. Once the ingredients are thoroughly mixed together form patties.
  • To ensure that the patties are all the same size, use a measuring cup to measure out each patty. I used 1/3 cup for one patty but I would recommend using about 1/2 cup meat to form a single patty as the red meat patties to shrink quite a bit when they are cooked.
  • Also form a depression in the middle of the patty before frying it as these patties do tend to puff out in the middle as they cook.
  • It works best if you can cool the patties for some time in the refrigerator as it helps firm up the patties and avoids breaking and cracking of the patties.
  • Once they are firm enough add just a touch of oil to a non stick pan and transfer the patties to the pan. Flip the patties just once when the side on the pan  is browned. The patties are ready in about 1o mins.
  • Serve as a burger in a sandwich bun with an onion, lettuce and a yogurt sauce, mixing together about 4 tbsp greek yogurt, 2 tbsp mint chopped leaves, 1/2 tsp dried oregano and salt to taste.

These patties are just correctly spiced and are very filling. I did not realize how much they shrink so the bread I got to make burgers with turned out to be too small. But thats a lesson learnt. Hope you enjoy these patties as much as I did. And now for the Rice and Shrimp Patties.

Rice and Shrimp Patties

(Makes about 5-6 patties)

Ingredients:
  1. 1/2 cup uncooked rice
  2. few strands of saffron (optional)
  3. 1/2 cup coconut milk
  4. 1/2 cup water
  5. salt to taste
  6. 1/4 tsp white pepper powder
  7. 1.5 cup raw shrimp
  8. 1 tsp cumin seeds
  9. 1 tbsp oil
  10. 1/4 cup diced red onions
  11. 2 tbsp coriander leaves
  12. 1 cup ground oats
  13. milk to add moisture to the patties if they feel too dry
  14. 1 egg beaten
For the Shrimp Marinade
  1. 1 tbsp coriander seeds
  2. 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds
  3. 1 twig curry leaves
  4. 1 tsp black pepper
  5. 1 tbsp garlic paste
  6. 1 tsp ginger paste
  7. 2 tsp tamarind paste
  8. salt to taste
  9. 2 tbsp coconut milk
Directions:
  • Wash and cook the rice in the water-coconut milk mixture. Add the salt and white pepper powder to this before it is cooked.
  • Once cooked, cool the rice.
  • In the meanwhile dry roast the coriander seeds, fenugreek seeds, curry leaves and the black pepper.
  • Transfer the roasted seeds to a grinder and grind to a fine powder.
  • Now marinate the shrimp in the freshly ground spice mix along with the rest of the ingredients. I marinated the shrimp for about half hour.
  • Next heat the oil in a non stick pan and add the cumin seeds.
  • Once the seeds start to sputter add the onions to the oil and fry till they are slightly browned.
  • Next add the marinated shrimp and cook on both sides. This would take about 10-15 mins.
  • Transfer the shrimp to a food processor and grind to a coarse mixture.
  • Add this to the cooked rice along with the coriander leaves and add salt to pepper if required.
  • Next mix the ingredients together with your hand to a sticky consistency. Use the milk and ground oats to ensure that they form patties .
  • Once again use a measuring cup to measure out for each patty. I used a biscuit cutter to get the heart shaped patties. But you can make them simple circular patties.
  • Use the egg as a wash over the patties and roll the patties in the ground oats. (you can substitute this with bread crumbs).
  • Again put the patties in the refrigerator for a while so that they firm up and do not disintegrate when fried.
  • Heat some oil in a non stick pan and transfer the rice and shrimp patties to the pan. Cook for a 3-4 mins on each side till a golden colored crust has formed. The meat is already cooked so you do not have to cook it for too long, just make sure that the crust is a nice golden brown in order to get the slight crunch to the patties.
  • The patties are ready to serve hot just by itself.

Since these patties have both  rice and shrimp in it they do not require any accompaniment other than some ketchup. Hope you enjoy making both versions of the patties and do let me know if you try out some variations on these patties. I would love to hear about them cos I love to make different kinds of patties. Till the next post, happy valentine’s day everyone!

Shilpa

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Shrimp in Green Sauce

March 17, 2011 in Main Course

The Second of a Trilogy

So as promised in my post a few days back, here is the second recipe that I came up with for the shrimp. I guess there are some things from your roots you are rarely able to get away from. Like my love for black pepper. My family is originally from a town called Tellicherry in Kerala. And it’s famous for its black pepper. I never realized that the black pepper from back home was sold at a premium here in the US. You find Tellicherry black pepper in gourmet aisles. And to think of it, my grandma’s home in Tellicherry had a pepper tree that I barely remember. Well I do remember it but I guess it’s only when you can no more see it every summer vacation that you miss it. I really miss those month-long summer vacations in Kerala. My cousins and I have some pretty awesome memories from those long past days.

Anyways to get back to my shrimp recipe, I love pepper and I love using it in most of my recipes rather than chilli powder. I love the spicy hotness black pepper leaves behind in your throat. So if you are not one who loves black pepper, just hold back on the amount you put in. But you may miss out on the essential taste of this dish if you put too less of it. I used sweet sake and pepper as two main ingredients because the final taste that this dish leaves behind is the sweetness of the sake and the hotness of the black pepper. And to add to it, it a pretty quick to make recipe. It took me about half hour to make it, specially since I had deveined, tail off shrimp at home.

I used about 30-40 medium-sized shrimp and it served about 2-3 persons for a very filling meal.

Ingredients:

  1. 30 – 40 medium-sized shrimp / prawns
  2. 1 sprig curry leaves
  3. 1 teaspoons black mustard seeds
  4. 18-20 green onions (white part chopped, green part cut into 1/2 inch pieces)
  5. 2 teaspoons chopped tarragon
  6. 2 green chillies, chopped (use more or less depending on how spicy you want the dish, you also skip this entirely and add just the black pepper powder)
  7. 3 teaspoons garlic paste
  8. 2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce (use normal soy sauce of low sodium is unavailable)
  9. 1 tablespoon spicy schezuan stir fry sauce (you could skip this entirely, I have made it with and without this sauce and both versions taste great)
  10. 1/2 cup sweet sake (you could substitute this with some sort of sweet cooking wine)
  11. 1 – 1 1/2 cup vegetable stock / water
  12. 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
  13. 1/2 – 1 cup chopped coriander / cilantro
  14. 2 teaspoons olive oil (you could substitute this with vegetable / canola oil)

Directions:

  • Heat the oil in a wide bottomed sauce pan. Once hot, add the mustard seeds.
  • Once the seeds start to sputter add the curry leaves and green chilli and stir for a few seconds.
  • Next add the white part of the green onions and stir fry for a couple of minutes, till it softens.
  • Then add the green part of the green onions and stir for a few minutes till it has softened.
  • Next add the garlic paste and fry till the raw smell of garlic and gone. This would take a couple of minutes at the most.
  • Now add the soya sauce, the spicy schezuan stir fry sauce (if using) and the sweet sake and bring to a simmer.
  • Next add the shrimp to this sauce and let it cook. If you want a dry dish without any gravy, do not add the vegetable stock / water.
  • But if you would like a dish with more gravy in it, add the vegetable stock/water depending on how much sauce you would like.
  • Once the shrimp has almost cooked, add the black pepper and the coriander / cilantro leaves and stir it. Let cook for a couple of minutes and take it off the heat.

I served this with some bread, but you can serve it as an appetizer if you reduce the gravy or with rice if you increase the sauce by adding more of the vegetable stock / water. I hope you enjoy this dish as much as Amit and I did. I have made it a couple of times now and this is one recipe that’s quick and easy to make. And I still have the third of the trilogy to post, which I will very soon.

 

And I just realized that this post is right on time for St. Patrick’s day and what a coincidence that the dish is Shrimp in GREEN sauce!!! So Happy St. Patrick’s day to everyone. Have fun, be safe and don’t drink and drive!

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Rotini Pasta with Chipotle Cream Sauce and Spicy, Garlicky Shrimp

February 22, 2011 in Main Course

First of a Trilogy

There is this new restaurant (well it’s not exactly new, we’ve started frequenting it recently) that Amit and I frequently go to for lunch. It’s called the Center Bistro and its in the building right next to our lab. We went to eat there twice the week before last and both the dishes I ordered were so awesome that I had to make a variation at home. One dish I tried was a pasta dish with a chipotle sauce. I simply loved it. It was just right with all the flavors coming together and creating a heavenly experience for your taste buds. And then there was the spicy garlicky shrimp. It was fabulous and it seemed to be a pretty easy to make dish. So this post is dedicated to these two dishes that I had at Center Bistro.

I decided to combine the two dishes and make a pasta topped with the shrimp. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Oh and talking about this restaurant, I love it, firstly because the dishes they serve are so different from any I have had at any other restaurants. And they do change their menu once in a while so if you do frequent the place regularly, just when you wish for something new, they change-up their whole menu. Add to it, the fact that they have the Chef’s specials every day.

I also need to mention that shrimp is by far my most favorite. I love seafood much more than any meat and among all the variety of seafood available, I love shrimp, really love it. I think you get my point. I bought about two pounds of shrimp and I do not like to keep it in the refrigerator for too long. So it was a fiesta of shrimp dishes at home for about 3 days! I tried three new recipes and all three according to Amit are blogworthy or “bloggable”.

Without much more ado let me get straight to the first of the trilogy starting with my recipe of Rotini Pasta with Chipotle Cream Sauce and Spicy Garlicky Shrimp. This is a very quick to make recipe and takes about 35-45 minutes to prepare. I adapted it from a recipe I found online and have linked it at the end of this blog.

Ingredients:

  1. 1 1/2 cup rotini pasta (I used whole grain pasta)
  2. 5-6 portabella mushrooms (sliced fine)
  3. 1/2 cup thinly sliced onions
  4. 1/4-1/3 cup white wine
  5. 1+1 tablespoons butter
  6. 1/2 onion (chopped fine)
  7. 1 to 2 chipotle peppers (canned) in adobo sauce, seeded and minced
  8. 1/4 pint heavy cream
  9. 1/4 cup milk
  10. salt to taste
  11. 1/4 teaspoon fresh tarragon (chopped fine)
  12. 1/2 pound shrimp (deveined, shelled, tail on)

For the Shrimp Marinade

  1. 2 teaspoons garlic paste
  2. 2 teaspoons ginger paste
  3. 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
  4. 2 teaspoons fresh chopped tarragon
  5. 2 teaspoons olive oil
  6. salt to taste

Method

  • Cook the pasta and set aside.
  • Marinate the shrimp in the ingredients listed under ‘For the shrimp marinade’ except the olive oil.
  • In the meanwhile prepare the chipotle sauce: melt 1 tbsp of butter over medium heat. Add the finely chopped onion and saute till it is slightly brown.
  • Next add half the minced chipotle peppers and the cream.
  • Mix the milk in and add more chipotle pepper depending on how spicy you would like the sauce.
  • Next add the salt and the tarragon and bring to a simmer. The sauce is now ready (keep it warm till ready to serve).
  • Heat the other tablespoon of butter and add the thinly sliced onions. Let the onions cook slowly over a medium heat.
  • Once the onions are pink in color add the sliced mushrooms and let it cook till the mushrooms and onions start drying out.
  • Add the white wine a little at a time cooking the mushrooms and onions in the wine.
  • Once it is cooked, add the cooked pasta and mix throughly. Set this aside.
  • Heat the olive oil and add the shrimp to it. Cook thoroughly till the shrimp are cooked through. Make sure that you do not overcook the shrimp.
  • When ready to serve, spoon the pasta into the serving plate. Pour the sauce over the pasta and place the shrimp over the sauce.

This recipe serves about 2-3 persons. Another word of caution is that the chipotle peppers can be very spicy therefore be very careful with adding the peppers to the sauce. Amit and I loved this recipe and the sauce being so easy to prepare can be served as is with the pasta with or without the shrimp. And here’s the original recipe for the pasta and chipotle cream sauce http://www.azcentral.com/style/hfe/recipes/articles/0717vegetarian17rec.html.

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Sweet and Spicy Coriander (Cilantro) Shrimp

December 28, 2010 in Main Course

Time for some Shrimp

With Christmas all done a couple of days back and the new year just around the corner, I was overwhelmed with all the sweets I have been eating. I really needed something spicy and non-holiday like to just give my taste buds a break from all the sweets. So what do I do? I end up making shrimp, my all time favorite. I wanted something which had a hint of tanginess, a little sweet and a lot of spices. It’s difficult to find a recipe which looks delicious, tastes awesome and meets all your taste bud requirements, all at the same time. The only way I was going to be able to make something like that was if I were to come up with a recipe myself. And that’s what I did, and I called it “Sweet and Spicy coriander Shrimp”. I warn you, this is a really spicy recipe. I would recommend using only half the quantity of red chili powder and green chillies if you are not very fond of spicy food. The best accompaniment for this recipe would be rice and I hate plain rice so thought of making some sort of a simple fried rice. That’s how I came up with the Garlic Chive Rice. It’s quick and easy to make and compliments well with the sweet and spicy flavors of the shrimp curry. That recipe is listed in the next blog post (Will post a link right here once I finish writing it up). The shrimp curry takes about 45 minutes to prepare recipe from start to finish and serves 2-3 persons. Amit and I finished almost all of it though.

Ingredients:

  1. 1/2 lb shrimp
  2. 1/2 onion (finely chopped)
  3. 1/4 tsp mustard seeds
  4. 1/2 tsp red chili powder
  5. 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
  6. 1 tsp coriander powder
  7. 1/2 tsp lime juice
  8. 5 cloves garlic
  9. 8-9 almonds
  10. 2 tsp chopped cashew
  11. 1/2″ ginger
  12. 3 green chili (you can increase or decrease this depending on how spicy you want the dish to be. I used some thai peppers and they were really spicy)
  13. 1 cup chopped coriander
  14. 2 tsp tamarind paste
  15. 2-4 tsp olive oil
  16. 2 tbsp brown sugar
  17. 1/2 cup water
  18. salt to taste

Directions:

  • Soak the almonds and cashew in warm water for about 5 minutes.
  • Marinate the shrimp with the coriander powder, 1/4 tsp salt, red chili powder, turmeric powder and the lime juice for about 30 minutes.
  • In the meanwhile prepare the masala paste.
  • Grind the garlic, almonds, cashew, ginger, green chili, and coriander to a smooth paste. Add water to get a smooth consistency.
  • Heat 2 tsps of oil in a flat bottomed saucepan and add the mustard seeds.
  • Once the mustard seeds sputter add the onion.
  • Fry the onions on a medium flame till the edges are light brown. Now add the marinated shrimp and mix the onions and the shrimp together.
  • Fry the shrimp for about 5-10 minutes till it turns a pink.
  • Now add the masala paste along with 1/2 cup of water and bring to boil.
  • Now add the brown sugar and let the curry simmer for a few more minutes till the shrimp have been cooked. (Do not overcook the shrimp, as they will turn rubbery).

This curry goes well with rice. I served this with some Garlic Chive Rice. Again, I would like to warn you that please be careful with the number of green chilies you add. Since you are making a paste of the green chilies, it does turn spicy with a small number of chilies.

The spices and the brown sugar give this dish a very interesting flavor. The first thing you taste is the sweetness of the dish and then towards the end, the spices take over. Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did.

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