Pictorial
Food Pictures
In this first entry of the “Daily Express” I prepared something very quick. For the past few days we have been frenetically working to give a new look for both this blog and the main site. We were supposed to go food shopping yesterday as we normally do, but with both of us concentrating on finishing this work (Normita on the main site which should be uploading as I write this, and me on the blog) we decided to finish the work instead and leave the shopping for later in the week.
I had a look at what we had in the refrigerator early this morning and found out I had a bit of frozen medium-sized cooked shrimps, and found that we still had half a pot of Mexican-style rice Normita prepared yesterday. She had made it with a bit of frozen veggies (peas, carrots, corn) and used some sushi rice as we had an old bag of it we recently found hidden in the back of the larder, and we want to use it before using fresher stuff. Due to the type of rice it is a bit stickier than normal, but it is very tasty indeed.
Quick and easy stir fry
About an hour before lunch I threw the frozen shrimps in a bowl of water to thaw them and about 10 minutes before we wanted to eat I went to the kitchen. I took out my trusty wok and stir fried the leftover rice in a bit of soy oil. I then added some May Ploy oriental sweet chili sauce, some soy sauce, a big handful of crushed nuts and tossed in the shrimps.
It turned out to be so tasty that we ended up finishing even the portion we were planning to give to the dogs tonight… It’s their lost!
Lucito
Last weekend when we went food shopping we found on sales some huge shrimps at a price so low to make a ham and cheese sandwich look expensive. Strangely enough they were actually fresh, or at least freshly thawed, and they did smell like proper shrimps.
The nice fresh shrimps we unexpectedly found!
In the last year in the area where we now live, due to the financial crisis, the availability of any decent produce has been marginal at best and normally leaves us wondering about what to eat. A lot of times even the dogs do not want to eat what they sell around here. It is one of the main reasons we want to move back closer to civilization as the local stores do not stock anything decently edible as it does not sell at all. Besides chicken which is somewhat edible when you are lucky, normally any meat or fish is a luxury as nothing of quality or that is actually safe to eat is on sale. Judging from the smell in the stores, most of it just rots away, and we are talking major supermarket chains like Wal-Mart or others.
Some of the ingredients.
In any case we were pleasantly surprised to find very nice large shrimps at a very low price and we bought some for our Sunday meal. I had planned to do some brochettes or something similar on the grill, but the weather did not cooperate. I ended up inventing a recipe on the spur of the moment with whatever leftover ingredients I encountered in the larder.
The cooked meal.
With what I found it ended up to become a nice pasta in an Mexican-Oriental style that turned out extremely good and satisfying. It was a long time that we had not enjoyed something so good at home, just due to the unavailability of good products at the supermarket.
Ingredients
¾ to 1 pound cleaned and deveined large shrimps
1 medium échalotte chopped fine
3 chiles guajillos seeded, deveined, and cut into thin strips
3 pieces of candied ginger finely chopped
3 garlic cloves
3 sundried tomatoes in oil
A small handful of shelled walnuts
½ tsp Sambal Oelek chili paste
2 tbs of a mixture of dried citrus peels, salt, pepper, and sesame seeds
Tequila reposado
Olive oil
½ pound dried pasta of your choice
Salt and pepper to taste
Preparation
1. Cook the dried pasta until al dente in plenty of boiling salted water.
2. Once cooked strain the pasta, return it to the pot, and fill with cold water to stop the cooking.
3. After a minute or so strain the pasta again and return to the pot. Put a tablespoon or two of olive oil on the pasta and mix well with a spoon. Cover and set aside for now.
4. About 10-15 minutes before cooking the meal, place the cleaned and deveined shrimps in a bowl, sprinkle the mixture of citrus peels and sesame seeds, and add a few tablespoons of the tequila.
5. In a very hot wok sauté the shrimps in a little olive oil. When they start to be opaque carefully add some tequila to the wok and flambé them. Return them to the bowl.
6. Add a bit more olive oil to the wok and briefly sauté the échalotte, guajillos, and garlic.
7. Add the reserved pasta, the sundried tomatoes, the walnuts, the candied ginger, and the Sambal Oelek. Sauté until warm.
8. Add the shrimp and warm them up in the mix and add a splash of tequila, and some sesame oil to finish them.
Lucito
As mentioned previously we had a great Halloween party last Saturday night and I prepared all sort of silly stuff, some of it inspired by things I saw on the Internet. I plan to post a recipe tomorrow for the Witche’s Hands with Pus Sauce, and if you want recipes for some of the other stuff I prepared please let me know in comments or via mail. Pictures of the party are at the Sassquatch’s Lair
Here is a nice baked giant caterpillar ready to be munched by all the creepy critters invited to the party.
Here are some Vampire’s Eyes. This one did not go to well as we had four vampires at the party and they did not like the idea of some of their friends being harvested for a meal…
The Witche’s Hand did not fare too well either as there were 2 Witches and a Wizard present.
The Rat Roadkill Paté was much better appreciated, except for our pet rat who had lost his cousing in the accident that yielded the paté.
Nobody at all complained about the Crab Snot on a Stick!
Here is a closup of those deliciously rich little morsels of snot!
The pumpkin pie was not too scary except for the poison that the Wicked Witch Normita added to it. Our guess will enjoy the effect at the next full moon!
My favorite… Dragon Piss Jelly with Spiders and Vulture’s Eyes. It is a great delicacy where I come from…
Lucito
Today I was going through hundreds of photos to select some that I will use for the redesign of the blog. I came across some pictures of dishes I cooked or cooked by great chefs I know. They all brought back some fond memories and I would like to share a few with you today.
Here is some Sweet and Sour Pork Cheng Tu Style from a Chinese meal I did for a Christmas party for Normita’s office a few year’s back.
Orange Beef from the same meal.
Shrimps in Black Bean Sauce .
Chicken Stuffed in Cucumbers.
And finally the entire table with the light meal…
The marvelous sweetbreads prepared by Chef Olivier of Cheval de Jade, our favorite restaurant in Mont-Tremblant. I proposed to Normita there a crazy summer on her birthday!
What Normita had the same night at Cheval de Jade, Salmon in Potato Crust.
My famous Oriental Scallop and Leek Soup that always makes a stunning start to a meal.
A Sweet Onions and Port Pie with a topping of goat cheese that I invented for our wedding anniversary a few years back.
A nice array of Sushi that our Japanese Chef friend Koishi prepared for us and delivered home in the woods, back in the days we were living at the edge of a wonderful lake in Québec.
Fried Shitakes at Soto the japanese restaurant where Koishi worked at the time.
A nice Japanese Fish Salad that I prepared as part of a nice homemade sushi meal.
A nice invention of mine for Valentine day somes years ago. Duck Breast Glazed in Honey with a Mango and Strawberry couli.
Memories from our honeymoon in Ixtapa. We went fishing one day and I caught a nice Dorado. We stopped at Isla de Ixtapa on the way back and they prepared it grilled on wook fire. A wonderful Dorado a las Brazas.
One of my all-time favorite creations, Grilled Bavette de Boeuf with Port Sauce with Salardaise Potatoes. The Padrino was known to fly to Canada, back in the days we lived there, just to have his fix of it. That and incredible quantities of fermented beverages.
A nice creation of mine from years ago, Thai Style Fish in Rice Paper. I found a full pictorial on how to prepare it that I will post one of these days.
I hope that you enjoyed the little pictorial history, and now I am starving from looking at the pictures, so I will go to the kitchen and prepare something tasty to eat…
Lucito