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.