Tuesday, May 26, 2009

When The Going Gets Rough, Rosie Gets Cooking.

Enough about puppies. Enough about stress. Enough about issues. Rosie's back in the kitchen cooking tonight.
And here's the finished product: marinated, sauteed shrimp, grilled tile fish, red beans and rice, and butter beans.
Please follow along as I prepare dinner for all the Hawthornes tonight. First, the marinade for the shrimp: Lemon Lime Little-bitty red onions Little-bitty white onions Garlic Olive Oil Red pepper flakes And pretend there's a bottle of Chardonnay up there.
First, I zested the lime and the lemon into a storage bag.
Then I juiced the lime and lemon, added in the sliced onions and garlic, and the crushed red peppers.
A little olive oil in the bag.
And some Chardonnay.
I added the shrimp to the marinade, expelled the air from the bag, closed it, and massaged the shrimp.
You don't want to marinate this more than 30 minutes or so, because, as you can see, the shrimp is already starting to cook from the citric acid. (Notice it's getting white, i.e cooked.)
Mr. Hawthorne brought home a nice tile fish fillet from Billy's Seafood tonight. He pulled out the pin bones and seasoned it with Cajun Seasoning.
The tile fish went onto oiled foil and onto the grill for about 17-19 minutes.
Mr. Hawthorne knows his fish. This was grilled to perfection. Moist, juicy, flavorful, flaky.
In the meantime, I had prepared my beans and rice.
OK, I slummed it by using a red beans and rice packet. But it's really, really good. The beans and rice cooked for about 25 minutes and I minced a strip of that jalapeno, sliced the green onions, and chopped the cilantro for accoutrements.
Then I decided I needed some creme fraiche to balance out the heat of the jalapeno and the smokiness of the bean/rice seasoning.
Here are the red beans and rice after about 25 minutes of simmering.
Mr. Hawthorne simmered butter beans and unfortunately this photo of the beans is washed out.
I poured the shrimp marinade into a sauce pan and heated it to boiling.
I heated my pan, added olive oil and butter and heated the butter to slightly brown, then added the shrimp, tossing for about a minute.
Lastly, I added the heated marinade to the shrimp.
And it's ready to serve. Remove from heat. Be sure you don't overcook the shrimp. Overcooking shrimp makes them tough and rubbery - two characteristics you do not want in shrimp.
Shrimp is ready to be served.
And here's my dinner: Shrimp in marinade sauce. Grilled tile fish. Rice and beans accessorized with cilantro, jalapeno, green onions, and creme fraiche. Butter beans.
The rice and beans were wonderful. And adding the scallions, jalapenos, and cilantro just took it to the next level. The creme fraiche tamed the heat and added a delicate counterpoint to the smokiness of the rice/bean seasoning (Could it be cumin, Rachael????). The scallions were a lovely green crunch and bite and the cilantro was just the icing on the cake.
I love butter beans. They're buttery and beany. And green-tasting.
It's just too bad I don't eat supper during the daytime because, if I did, my food pictures would ROCK!
This plate would be white. And the goods would just JUMP out at you.

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