Fresh Shrimp Salad

Life in Southern Indiana is nice,
but one thing that is sorely lacking is
fresh seafood.
Fortunately, a friend of my husband's let him in on a little

secret a few months ago.
It seems that a truck from Fabian Seafood
comes up to B-town with fresh seafood from the gulf
every so often in the warm weather months.
I was directed to go online and sign up
on Fabian Seafood's website so that I could be notified
when they would be coming to town.

I got the email last week
and marked the date on my calendar.

Fresh seafood was on the way.

But you wanted a teaser, right?

Wednesday nights are salad nights

and shrimp are the perfect accompaniment.

After standing in line in a parking lot for half an hour,

I purchased five pounds of shrimp and

one pound of cooked back fin blue crab meat.

I followed the recommendations and portioned out

the shrimp into marked freezer bags and then added

enough water to cover the shrimp.

After sealing the bags,

they were placed in the freezer.

For best flavor,

the shrimp should be used within seven months.

I had a plan for the final batch of the never-frozen shrimp:

salad.

The players are:

Tostada bowls

Romaine lettuce blend

Red onion

Orange bell pepper

Mozzarella cheese (for the Foodie Daughter)

Parmigiano-Reggiano (for my husband and me)

and the fresh shrimp

I had tweaked Rosie Hawthorne's recipe for

Lemon Sriracha Aioli

and came up with a Sweet Chili Aioli.

This is wonderful as a salad dressing.

I make this to taste, but the proportions are roughly

4 parts mayonnaise

1-1/2 parts lemon juice

1 part sweet chili sauce

2 parts sugar

Mix well.

Taste and adjust till you are satisfied with the flavor.

Set aside.

The shrimp have been deshelled and deveined.
I then added sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
before quickly sauteing.
Since this was fresh shrimp,

these literally took one minute to cook.

By the time I had put all the shrimp in the pan,

it was time to turn the first shrimp

and then it was time to take the first shrimp out of the pan.

It was that fast.

But was it worth it?
The answer was unanimous.

Yes!

This shrimp had a wonderful flavor.

It had the flavor of the ocean,

or in this case, the gulf.

Living in Southern Indiana,

we tend to forget that shrimp is supposed

to have a flavor and not just texture.

I'm in love with shrimp all over again.

Food - on Foodies Untie?

Who knew that a blog titled Foodies Untie might actually cover food once in a while. I mean, what are the odds of that happening?

But first, if you have an orchid and are unlucky enough to break off the flowering stalk, just plop the stem in water and voila, you have an instant flower arrangement. Orchids last well in water. This particular bloom has been in water for over a week now since I had knocked it off the plant.

All right, now we get to the food. After this stressful week, I have to admit that the last thing on my mind is food. But still, we have to eat, so we might as well eat well. Since the dear daughter is still on soft foods after having all of her wisdom teeth pulled this week, I only had two people to feed for dinner.

I decided that a quick salad would be good for dinner and would be good for us. I have Romaine lettuce that I had cleaned and cut the other day, red onion, celery, Memphis BBQ Rub and shrimp. In the rear are some of the ingredients for a vinaigrette: Pinot Grigio vinegar, black pepper, sea salt, bacon fat, Dijon mustard and a shallot. I later added honey to the vinaigrette to cut the tart edge.

I de-shelled the shrimp and patted them dry before sprinkling them with the rub. This went back into the refrigerator while I worked on the rest of the meal.

Once the salads had been assembled and the vinaigrette was started, I heated some bacon fat over medium-high heat in a non-stick skillet. The shrimp were then added and quickly cooked. The shrimp weren't very large so they cooked very quickly. Don't overcook your shrimp.

After removing the shrimp from the pan, I added more bacon fat to the pan along with about 2 tablespoons minced shallot. The bacon drippings and shallot were poured in with the Dijon mustard, vinegar, salt, pepper and honey. I mixed this and adjusted seasoning and sweetness to taste.

I shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese over the salads and added some homemade croutons along with the shrimp over top. The dressing was drizzled over the salads and forks were raised.

The vinaigrette had a nice bite to it and complemented the barbecue flavoring of the shrimp. The salty cheese added just the right counterpoint to the other ingredients.

Not too shabby for a frazzled, worn-out and stressed-out caregiver to a sick cat and a daughter who's recovering from having her wisdom teeth removed.

Shrimp Salad

Now this is a dish that I have been wanting to try for some time. And today was the day. As I didn't feel like dealing the the monkey business that is phyllo dough, I bought some pre-made phyllo cups. Other than that? This is a serious business of cutting and dicing and cooking and peeling.

I opted to follow Paula Deen's recipe for Shrimp Salad in Phyllo Cups.

Here we have pre-made phyllo cups, black pepper, salt, mayonnaise, pre-cooked (raw) shell-on shrimp, celery, lemon and green onion.

I heated some water to boiling and then added a splash of white wine and a pinch of salt. The shrimp cook quickly and it is important to watch this carefully. Over-cooked and rubbery shrimp is never a good thing.

As soon as the shrimp are finished cooking, immediately immerse them in an ice bath to stop the cooking process.

Once the shrimp have cooled, peel them and set the shell and tail aside. These discarded parts will then be bagged and frozen for later use in a seafood stock.

Then we chop. And chop. And chop. And, man are my arms sore now. And isn't this cutting board in real need of a good scrubbing now?

Mix together 1/2 cup mayonnaise, 1/2 cup minced celery, 1 tablespoon minced green onion, 1-1/2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper.

Add in the 2 cups of finely chopped cooked shrimp and mix gently.

Fill the phyllo cups and serve immediately.

It is a very good idea to set this dish over ice while it awaits the diners.

As there was filling left over, I placed the remaining shrimp salad in a bowl and provided crackers as an alternate version of this dish.

Our response? The phyllo dough was not substantial enough to hold its own against the shrimp salad filling. In the end, we much preferred the shrimp salad topped on crackers.

I will make this recipe again, but will make it as a dip with crackers rounding out the dish.