Summer Salad Duo

Depending on where you live, it's either too hot to turn on your oven, or your oven won't turn on. If you live in this house, your oven won't turn on. But it looks so nice! Something electrical is wrong.  (Note: these are #fancyovenproblems) 

But for many of you, it's one point nine bajillion degrees outside and you're probably not  interested in turning on your modest functioning oven. This is where I come in.


Here are two summery salads that cover all your nutritional bases. Protein, whole grain, fiber, fruit (if you're counting tomatoes), veggies, and healthy plant fat! I might have eaten this meal with crusty bread and goat cheese. I have an addiction! Not my fault!


Cucumber Tomato and Red Onion Salad


1 large cucumber
1 medium red onion
2 large tomatoes
1 tbsp EVOO
1/4 c. red wine vinegar
1 tbsp dried basil
1/2 tsp garlic powder
S&P to taste

Peel cucumber. Slice in half lengthwise, then scoop out any extra seeds. (If you use a hot house cucumber - the kind that comes wrapped in plastic - then you can just slice in half and skip the seeding).
Slice in half moons.

Cut tomatoes in 1/8ths.

Slice onion into bite size pieces. Nobody like giant onion chunks. Or do they?

Add all produce in a bowl. Add garlic pow, basil, S&P.

Drizzle with EVOO and red wine vin. Toss and refrigerate for 10 minutes.

Ten minutes is all you need to get a slight pickle going on in there. Perfect!




Shrimp, Corn, and Avocado Quinoa Salad 


2 dozen cooked shrimp (like from leftover Cajun Boil)
1/2 c. yellow corn kernels
1 large avocado
2 c. cooked quinoa
juice of 2 limes
salt to taste

Peel shrimp and cut into bite size pieces (2's or 3's)

Cut corn off of cob

In a large bowl, combine corn and shrimp with quinoa

Dice the avocado and fold into quinoa mixture

Dress with lime juice and salt and toss well to coat

This quinoa salad is even better the next day! The lime juice keeps the avo from browning. You could go veg by substituting baked tofu for the shrimp.

Stay cool! (and never change! middle school yearbooks? anyone?)

Cajun Boil

When I was a kid my family and I took a few trips to Lake Shasta and stayed on a houseboat with my aunt and uncle and other extended family members. We saw bears, tons of deer, caught some fish, and inadvertently went rafting (in a houseboat...) I was just young enough to not really remember those trips now, but I do have memories from the photographs I've seen, not to mention the trauma from the rafting incident. Just teasing, Uncle Gary!

The first time I had this meal was on one of those house boat trips. I don't remember the first meal because I was too young, but my family has had this hundreds of times since then. It's a really fun meal, especially for a group. But this isn't a fine dining sort of meal... it involves newspapers and piles of shrimp shells.

Cajun Boil
for 6


1 Zatarain's Crawfish, Shrimp, & Crab Boil in Bag
6 ears of corn
12 red potatoes
1 large bag of fresh or frozen, shell on, raw shrimp
8 spicy sausage links (like chicken andouille)
6-12 sourdough rolls, depending on your carb neediness
condiments: ketchup, horseradish, a selection of mustards and hot sauces, salt, pepper, butter

Add crab boil bag to the most giant pot you have (like industrial size huge) and fill 5" below rim with water.

You might call it a cauldron.

Prep corn by breaking into halves, or thirds, depending on your forearm strength.

Wash and scrub potatoes. Dry, pierce with a fork, and pre-cook in microwave on a plate for 12 minutes, or until cooked evenly.

Get your other ingredients ready. Rinse off shrimp (nobody likes frozen shrimp ice sauce).

And cut sausages into halves.

Water should be boiling away at this point!

Add in sausage and cook 2-3 minutes, or until just starting to plump up.

Add corn. Cook 4-5 minutes, or until a little brighter yellow.

Add shrimp. Cook about 5 minutes, or until they float and are red and opaque.

Prep your table! This is the fun part. The first layer (which you can't see) is a cut open trash bag. This protects the table from juices. Then put a few layers of newspaper, making sure you use the newspaper for placemats. Then finally, a layer of paper towels. You could use dish towels too. We make a ring of potatoes. It's kinda blair witchy.

Drain the boil!

And dump that shit on the table!

Now go be a pig and eat with your hands. Yum!

Bloody Mary Shrimp and Grits

There are very few food items in this world that I dislike. Eel, persimmons, and whiskey come to mind immediately. Ick. I'm really not picky, and will typically try anything. But some things just sound... terrible. Bloody mary's? I don't understand how people drink those. A V8 alone is repulsive, so why of why would you add vodka to that? You people don't seriously find those yummy, right? It's just like a cult, right? Like a big fat joke on society? I just can't get behind bloody mary's.

But I can get behind Bloody Mary Shrimp and Grits.

EDITORS NOTE: i just re-read this in August 2015 and have to say that as of today, 2 of my top 5 favorite drinks are whisky and blood marks. Funny how we change so much in so little time. xo

Bloody Mary Shrimp & Grits
for four

Grits
2 cups tomato-based vegetable juice
2 cups vegetable broth
1 tbsp EVOO
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 cup white grits (not quick)
1/4 c. shredded parmesan/romano blend
2 tbsp butter

Shrimp
2 tsp EVOO
1 small white onion, finely diced
3 stalks celery, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 c vegetable broth
1 tsbp worcestershire sauce
3 heavy dashes Tabasco
1/2 tsp celery seeds
1 bag frozen shrimp, rinsed and defrosted (tail-on, peeled, de-veined, large)
healthy amount of cracked black pepper
salt to tast
corn starch slurry (1 tsp corn starch+2 tsp cold water)
4 green onions, diced

In a pot, heat veg juice and broth with garlic, onion powder, and EVOO.

Once liquid comes to a boil, stir in grits. Bring back up to a boil, then reduce heat to as low as possible, cover, and stir every 2-3 minutes for 25 minutes. 

Meanwhile, heat EVOO in a saute pan and saute garlic, onion, and celery.

Once softened, add broth, worcestershire, tabasco, and celery seeds and reduce heat to medium-low.

Add in shrimp and nestle them into the brothy sauce. Taste and add S&P.

Meanwhile, in grits land, add in cheese and butter and stir quickly for about 20 seconds, or until cheese and butter are melted and distributed evenly. Remove from heat!

Tighten up your shrimp broth with a corn starch slurry and top with green onions.

  

You might be wondering where the vodka is in this bloody mary. Why, it is on the side, of course, in your daily martini!

Orange You Glad?

Please don't delete me from your google reader just because I made an "orange" joke. I promise to make it up to you by the end of this entry.

I come from a very citrus-y family. My grandpa came to California from Texas to work at the Limoneira farm in Santa Paula, which is now one of the world's main suppliers of citrus fruits. Growing up, my grandparents always had several orange trees on their property. I remember my grandma always made orange juice popsicles for my sister and I to enjoy after school. (Orange juice mixed with white Karo syrup, that is). I learned to drive a tractor doing figure eights around lemon and lime trees. I can honestly say that my family has never ever paid for an orange at a supermarket.  Have I proven my point?

imagine me... a real tractor... and some citrus trees!

We at the Roady household have a humble dwarf navel orange tree/bush thing. It's not like the giant huge trees my grandparents had, but it still produces more fruit than a family can eat. So, other than eating one every morning with breakfast, we need to find some creative ways to use these things. They are starting to get ripe and delicious!

And what goes better with orange than.... Sriracha!?

source: theoatmeal.com

PS, click that link ^up there ^ for an LOL.

Sriracha Orange Shrimp
for 4

Ingredients

• 2 lbs raw, peeled, tail-on shrimp, thawed if frozen
• 1 tbsp EVOO
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• zest of 1 large orange
• juice of 3 oranges (about 3/4 c.)
• as much sriracha as you can handle (start with 1 tbsp, add as you wish)
• slurry: 1 tbsp corn starch mixed with 2 tbsp cold water

Instructions

• Heat EVOO in a saute pan over medium high heat
• Add garlic and stir around for a few moments until garlic is softened and super aromatic
• Toss in shrimp and stir fry for 3-4 minutes or until turning pink
• Add OJ, zest, and sriracha and reduce heat to medium low

• Simmer for 2-3 minutes, or until sauce it hot hot hot and shrimp is thoroughly cooked

• Add slurry to orange juice sauce and very quickly whisk in! Any pause at this step will result in corn starch globs and that is effin gross. 

• Stir well. Sauce will thicken up in moments.

The sriracha makes the sauce a nice bright orange color. You do eat with your eyes first . . .

On the side, I quickly stir fried snow peas, snap peas, broccolini, baby bok choy and portabellas in garlic and a touch of oil.

Also, I had some leftover brown rice from my black bean and brown rice burgers that I spruced up with fresh diced green onion and sesame seeds.

Winner winner spicy orange sriracha shrimp dinner!

This recipe would be equally excellent with tofu or chicken. 

Orange you glad you didn't de-follow me?

Shin's Tribute

Recently I've been feeling very nostalgic for San Luis Obispo. Let me be a bit more specific: I've been feeling nostalgic for SLO restaurants. Fat kid status? Probably.


Boys and girls, I want to tell you about a magical place. It's a place where the food is cheap, the beer comes to the table quick, the service is sub-par (read: minimal tip), and you can even have a happy birsday.

Like this:

Ok, that was annoying. Let's get back to my point. Shin's sushi, a SLO staple, has a special place in my heart. Ps. shittttyyy website.


My favorite shin's meal:
Sunomono <---the best!
Miso Soup
Grover Beach Roll
1/2 price Spicy Tuna cut roll

Not only would this cost me like $10 max, it would put me in a sushi-induced food coma for a good five hours.

The Grover Beach Roll is like a california roll, a lettuce wrap, and tempura combined. Could you complain? The best part is that it's easy to recreate at home! And thus ....

Shin's Grover Beach Roll Knock Off
Makes 10 rolls

Ingredients

• One large head of iceberg, cored and leafed (not sure that's a culinary term for "deconstruct the iceberg"
• 2 cups cooked short grain/japanese white rice
• 1tbsp seasoned rice wine vinegar
• 1 c. imitation (if that's all you can find) or real crab (claw or lump, depending on your budget)
• 1/4 c. light mayo
• 1 avocado, sliced
• 1/2 c. shredded carrots
• 10 pieces Shrimp Tempura - thank you Trader Joe's!!

pretty sure i'd perish without TJ's

Instructions

• Food process crab and mayo together until combined
• Cook tempura according to instructions
• Sprinkle rice vinegar over hot rice and let cool - will make it like a poor white girl's sticky rice
• Lay out an iceberg leaf or two for your roll
• In each roll, put in 1-2 tbsp rice, 1 tbsp crab meat, 1 tempura, 2 slices avo, a bit of carrot
• Wrap er up!
• Serve with sriracha, soy sauce,wasabi, whatevs for dipping

assembly line, assemble!

aw, come on.

piled high for the eatin

One note for this recipe: wrapping in the iceberg leaves is a bitch. Doubling up the leaves helps, but you may need more than one head of iceberg for this recipe then. In the end, it tastes effing delicious, regardless of your wrapping skills.

While this has temporarily stymied my SLO cravings, nothing truly matches the SLO experience. I'd like to be 65 and retired living in Morro Bay right. about. now.