Saturday, November 22, 2008

Blog Food

Some days I am so grateful for this blog. It forces me to make beautiful food from time to time.
Today we hit a homer. Cranky really wanted to clear out a little freezer space, so we defrosted some wild Alaskan shrimp. And there was a sack of English peas in the fridge that needed eating.
How to bond these edibles? Rice. Plain old white rice.
I remember the wanton, ill-informed hippie days when we thought we could "invent" Asian cooking, simply by using a wok, some soy sauce, and a lot of chutzpah. Disaster always resulted.
Somehow, I learned restraint. DON'T use every Oriental sauce in your pantry. DON'T pretend you know how to stir-fry. DON'T fake it.
Except... today I faked it, and I was thrilled with the result.
I marinated the shrimp in an impromptu sauce of shoyu, sake, shichimi togarashi (Japanese seven-spice chili powder), sesame oil, a pinch of garlic powder and a grating of lemon zest.
And then I cooked some rice in the rice cooker, throwing in the shelled peas halfway through, with a pat of butter, to get them cooked in there as well.
Finally, I briefly sizzled the shrimp in a skillet with peanut oil. When they were done, I tossed in the marinade and cooked it down a bit.
I pulled a scallion from the garden, sliced it fine, and decorated the shrimp which were arranged atop the rice and peas. And with a final drizzle of the reduced marinade, we had a fine lunch.
OK, you wanna know something else? There is a huge bag of Doritos on the kitchen counter. That's life around here. No photo.

18 comments:

michael, claudia and sierra said...

doritos do nothing for mr
but cheetos? now we're talking...

i am eating pretzel crackers as i type this
not proud...

peter said...

Look at you, getting all shichimi and symmetrical on our collective asses.

And using sustainable shrimp, at that.

I can't type any more because I'm tearing up too badly.

Oh, but the verification is "mobili" which means "furniture" in Italian. So Ettore Sottsass would be proud, too.

Kalyn Denny said...

It certainly does look delicious. And square plates to boot! Watch out, it's a slippery slope once you start using those square plates. Now the food photos on round plates are never going to look the same again!

The Spiteful Chef said...

Fine, but are they free-range, organic, sustainable Doritos? Because if you went regular commercial, you're basically outside setting fire to nature and making Native Americans shed single tears on billboards.

Zoomie said...

For a wanton, ill-informed former hippie, you do good work!

Anonymous said...

Those look sort of like fingers. Alaska's a really strange place...you're sure they're shrimp and not fingers?

cookiecrumb said...

ceF: I don't even know what a pretzel cracker is, but I hear ya, sister.

Peter: Symmetrical? No, sir, I used the principles of ikebana, and arranged in threes.
Sheesh, as they say in Japan.

Kalyn: I think I'm redeemed on the squareness, because those plates came from Target. Not hip. :D

Spiteful: Oh, no. I set fire to nature.
It gets worse -- I have a damn *ritual* for eating them, and it involves Budweiser.

Zoomie: This was unbeginner's luck. Lord, the crap I used to concoct back in the 70s!

KathyF: Oh, come on. Do I go over to your blog and yammer on you about your vegan shit? There were no bones inside.

jesse said...

Haha, kudos to you for successfully faking it! The shrimp looks awesome!

cookiecrumb said...

Jesse: I'm always scared to cook shrimp. Is it safe? Legal? Sustainable?
But it's pretty yummy.
Thanks. xx

Michelle said...

Gorgeous! I love how the peas add that splash of color to the dish. You're completely right too, my dear. You can't fake it. I do all the time and it continues to be a disaster (aside from your rice and tofu concoction - THAT was delicious and is a fave in this house now!!).
xo

cookiecrumb said...

Michelle: Ah, you're making mapo tofu? I love that stuff (and it works because I got the recipe from a blog pal who is Chinese).
I think this shrimp dish was successful because there are really so few ingredients. Yippee.

kudzu said...

No matter how much one loves Cheetos it is impossible to eat them at the computer. Orange stuff, you know, that has to be licked off and that makes for pretty messy typing. No wonder you love Doritos -- with or without suds.

And yes, it's a pity, but we have to vet our shrimp these days. Yours are very pretty.

cookiecrumb said...

Kudzu: Do you have any idea how clotted your fingers become with orange Dorito dust? You practically have to chew it off. And I do.
Hm. I just realized I never snack when I'm on the computer.

kudzu said...

Ah. So you eat flavored Doritos? I prefer originals (same with potato chips and most other cracker-type snacks), non-doctored ones. But Cheetos is Cheetos.

If I didn't snack at the computer I would get --- oops, I almost said "cranky".

cookiecrumb said...

Kudzu: Oh, no, these are "regular" Doritos, caked with red powder. And I'm with you on plain potato chips.

Anonymous said...

This sounds simple and yummy, just the thing I'm craving.

Maris said...

LOL - isn't it funny how when we make something it's "Is this a good blog picture?" Last night I was showing my mom and brother photos and my mom was telling me what would look good and what would look "kind of disgusting" on the internet (we had nachos) haha!

cookiecrumb said...

Mrs. L: I would do this again. Although the English peas, which our local farmer manages to grow freakishly late into the season, are becoming tough and unlovely.

Maris: Haven't you noticed that the best food takes the worst pictures? Comfort food is homely.
xx