It’s transitioning quickly from winter to summer now, as is usual for New York around this time of year. In my experience, I am no longer craving hearty meals during this season. If I am going to be running around outdoors, I don’t want to be carrying around heavy food in my stomach which will only slow me down. Something lighter more refreshing will do. While scrolling through my news feed on Facebook the other day, a friend of mine posted a link to a simple recipe that fits the bill for me and Lauren. The name is “Avocado Shrimp Salad” which already wins the two of us over. This is a simple yet delicious salad that fits perfectly with this time of year and is easy on the budget, another plus.
This is a very straight-forward recipe. All you need is some good shrimp, greens, avocados, and veggies. By “good”, I don’t mean little tiny ones used for stir-fry. (Sorry to Natasha, but I like my shrimp a little bigger) But at the same time, we found out after the fact, that huge shrimp are not the way to go either, unless you cut them up first before serving. Since this is billed as a Cajun dish, big bright flavors are essential – lemon juice, chili pepper and cumin, the works. The avocados serve to cool down some of the spiciness, if you are not a big spice junkie such as me.
The dressing should not be very heavy, something delicate to tie everything together. We followed along with a simple olive oil base, cilantro and lemon juice. In my opinion, cilantro is the bacon of the herb world. You can add it to just about any non-dessert dish, the smell is strong enough to distinguish it from parsley and it packs a punch in the flavor category!
It was my turn to “mise-en place” (French for “Put in place”) the vegetables and tomato this time while Jeremy handled the hot shrimp. We didn’t have any corn or red onion available, so we substituted with jalapeno and poblano peppers, but still had avocado, cucumber, tomato and lettuce. (Don’t you just love how a salad can be so adaptable?) Knife cuts have a three point check list.
- Use the right knife for the job. The wrong knife can make it harder to cut through and/or look sloppy, especially soft and juicy foods like tomatoes or bread.
- Cut on a clean cutting board. Keep it kosher and don’t let germs spread all over.
- Cut evenly so that everything looks similar and cooks at about the same pace. You “eat with your eyes” first.
Don’t they look even? Everything so nice and neat?
I had the loco-motion going smoothly in the wrist. I think of it like my arm is the main rod on a train car cranking the wheels. With a little attention to sizing, my julienne was straight on.
The first sign that shrimp are fully cooked is in the color. They go from gray and black to a peachy pink with red tails. After that, the middle has to cook through until it’s tender and slightly firm. If it gets to be rubbery and chewy, you’ve gone too far. 160 degrees F and opaque are your main goals. You want them to curl up like a “C”. When they’re raw, they kind of stretch out. Betty’s Kitchen Quick Tip #40 shows this in action. Sometimes, you can let them rest off of the heat and let it cook the rest of the way through with the residual heat if it just needs another 30 seconds. You don’t want to accidentally cook the juices out of it. Whenever I cook with chopped garlic, it chars or burns more than I’d like it. The rest period might help with that too. If anyone has any advice on this problem, please comment us your solutions.
Once the shrimp finished cooking among the spices, it was time to put our 2 halves together and toss them around so that the dressing could seep through.
The shrimp was seasoned perfectly, but we could’ve cooked them about a minute longer. The dressing was just right. As it turned out, I forgot to cut all the way through the slices and had to separate them by hand! How embarrassing! Everything else seemed crisp, dynamic and perfect for a summer-like spring day.
