“What’s for dinner?” That’s one of my most loved and yet, most loathed questions these days. Sometimes I have something super wonderful in mind, like a delicious pan seared salmon with some aromatic rice and a salad. In that case, I’m fired up and super excited. Meals like that make me happy to answer the question. But then there’s times where I just plain don’t have any idea what in the world I’m going to make, and this is the scenario I most generally find myself facing. “I don’t know. I have no idea.” These are the times I loathe the question. “Quit asking me. Just wait. Ugh.” What I don’t say is that we’ll find out together when I put it on a plate, whatever it may be.
The other night when I got the question, I knew I was going to be making shrimp. That was easy. But with what? Who knows. Somehow, I was out of pasta. I’m NEVER out of pasta. And sometimes rice just sucks. What to do… My husband had the brilliant idea of using some lasagna noodles, and just breaking them up into smaller pieces before boiling. Smarty pants.
About half way through the cooking process, I started tasting everything, just to make sure it didn’t suck. Guess what? It was GOOD. Like, “HOLY COW WHAT DID I DO?!” Good God… The kind of good that makes you smile to yourself, feeling a happy bit of accomplishment. But I pretty much had no idea what I did. It’s times like these where I kick myself for not writing anything down. A day later, I decided to try to remember exactly what went into this dish, so I could do my best to share it with the world. Yeah, that good.
So, it goes a little something like this…
Shrimp: Peel, de-vein, clean, dry. Marinate in olive oil, salt, pepper, a half a palm full of crawfish/shrimp boil seasoning, chopped fresh cilantro, a couple cloves of chopped fresh garlic, and the juice from one lime.
Veggies: Finely chopped onion, red bell pepper, jalapeno, garlic, carrots, and some frozen peas. Add in some coriander (since it’s the seed from which cilantro comes, I wanted to tie together that way), savory seasoning, fresh cracked pepper, and coarse Himalayan pink salt. Saute in olive oil. When veggies are nice and soft, pour in 1/2 a can of India Pale Ale, and cook that down.
Pasta: I forgot to get some at the store, so it’s broken up pieces of lasagna noodles, boiled to super al dente, drained, and then added to veggies to finish cooking.
Add your shrimp last, along with three small pats of butter. I stirred everything together so everything was well incorporated. When the shrimps were opaque, the meal was done.
I’m fairly sure that’s all I did… Then I used a touch of sircacha on the finished product. Deliciousness at its finest.
What’s your favorite meal that you don’t think you could ever replicate?
