Good, Simple Food
Recently I was given the opportunity to cook a nice meal for my mom on her birthday. Tonight I realized I haven’t blogged in a long time and decided it’d be nice to share with SamuraiBlog how to make this relatively simple meal that should impress relatives, significant others and your dog. I didn’t, unfortunately, have the chance to make this into a 5-10 minute cooking show, however I hope the simplicity of this recipe will be conducive to merely a blog post.
The amounts given in this recipe serve approximately 6 people. I was serving only 4 but, as you’ll see, the left-overs can be brilliantly used within a weeks time without any waste.
The meal consists of two main dishes. The combination of dishes, if Martha Stewert were here (and thank god for us all she isn’t), could be described as a great meal for spring as it consists entirely of fresh ingredients (actual logic flawed). The first dish is a Raspberry Vinaigrette Salad of a specific variety followed with a Special Shish Kabob (we’ll find out how special in a minute).
Prep (time 10-15 minutes)
First of all it’s ideal to work with entirely fresh ingredients.
For your salad:
- Take your greens of choice. In my opinion this salad works best with spinach leaves and purple cabbage. This combination provides for a nice color and texture as well as taste to match the vinaigrette dressing, however not all people like the taste of spinach or cabbage and therefore it would be best to use perhaps regular iceberg lettuce and ranch (they get what they deserve).Anyway, chop the stems off off of about a bundle of spinach. Take 1/2 head of purple cabbage, core it, take the good parts (the tasty inner bits) and break it up. You want bite-size pieces as cabbage can be somewhat brittle.
- Other ingredients can be added to your liking. I chose several handfuls of snow peas, avocado and bean sprouts. For this combination (which turned out really well) break the peas up and put aside for a moment; core, skin and chop your avocado.
- The last step is just to make sure you have your favorite Raspberry Vinaigrette and (this one is important) Feta Cheese.
What you put on your Shish Kabobs is really up to you, but here is a great combination:
- Shrimp (1.5lb)
- Scallops (1lb)
- Red+Green+Yellow Peppers (chopped to the size of your shrimp) (2 each, cored)
- Red Onion (also chopped to same size as peppers) (1 whole, cored)
- Those sweat little tomatoes (a bundle or 2 large handfuls)
- Mushrooms (absolute must!) Get the better, darker-colored kind, preferably the size of the tomatoes (two bundles or 4 large handfuls)
Cooking (also 10-15 minutes)
One of the nice things about salads is they’re already cooked (actually no cooking involved, in most cases)! Simply make sure all the ingredients are clean and start assembling. Remember that those quantities serve 6 people. If you’re serving less but have the amounts I prescribed above, save it for later! Salads are extremely healthy and taste great!
Each salad should have:
- About 1/2 handful of cabbage
- About 1 handful of spinach
- 20ish halved snow peas
- A few fingers of sprouts
Put this combination on a plate and sprinkle liberal amounts of feta cheese on top, followed with the desired (everyone is different) amount of Raspberry Vinaigrette, (usually 3-4 tablespoons for a salad this size).
How to do Shish Kabobs the Right Way
I’ve been told all my life shish kabobs are to be put together rather conservatively. That there should be space between the bits is an absurd idea! Shish kabobs ideally combine all the flavors used and each ingredient should taste great together. With all of your ingredients (at the amounts outlined above) you should have nearly 10-15 packed shish kabobs. With your shish kabobs packed this way (and especially with such varying ingredients) you simply have to cook them slower and more carefully than normal shish kabobs.
To do this correctly, follow this directions:
- Get your grille real hot. This can be any grille, I have a gas one.
- Grease up the grille with Crisco or some other vegetable grease (I have store-brand kind). The idea is to just lube the rungs of the grille so your bare shish kabobs don’t get stuck.
- Get your grille burning as low as it goes. We want to cook slow.
- Place your shish kabobs on your grille. After this rotate 180 degrees approximately every 3-4 minutes for 4 times.
- Add Old-Bay/Creole seasoning on either side (I used Old-bay on the first side, Creole on the second)
- Between rotations (2nd and 3rd) melt some butter, a bit of salt, pepper and 1-2 tablespoons of brown sugar in the microwave. There should be enough to cover everything once. Take a brush and brush this solution over everything, taking special attention to mushrooms and scallops.
- When cooking both shrimp and scallops on the same shish kabob, we have to be very careful about cooking. The scallops will be done when they are almost ready to fall off the stick. Everything else, if cooked slowly enough, should be done at this point. Take everything off now!
Enjoy that shit!
BONUS: Most people will not be able to eat all the shish kabobs. There is a method to this, however. If you really want to score some points with your relatives, significant other, dog(?), make omelets the next morning using ingredients from your shish kabobs. The insides will already be cooked. For extra extra points pour a hollandaise sauce over top with some of your favorite, finely grated cheese.
-Sam