Saturday, July 21, 2012

Tails of pig and leftovers...

Tonight in my on going struggle with what to have for dinner, I decided to have curried shrimp and spinach. Mostly based on the fact that I had a healthy portion of the healthy 5 grain pilaf left over from last night.
Curried Tiger shrimp, sauteed spinach, 5 grain rice pilaf
It got me to thinking about when it was I developed a taste for curry. Like olives, curry was not something I grew up with. When I was younger I grew up in a predominantly white, lovely middle class city in Southern Ontario, Kitchener. When I saw predominantly white I mean it, in a high school of 800 we had 2 black kids, and they were brother and sister. Kitchener, like most of Ontario, has diversified vastly since then and the food offerings are now many and range across all kinds of cultures.

Now don't get me wrong, Kitchener was not without it cultural nuances. It was called Berlin, up until WWII when they decided best change the name of the poor town! So Kitchener is very, very German. This is mostly truly delicious food, for the most part. But I will never forget going to a friends house for dinner as a young girl, I must have been 8 or 9 and my little friends father was so happy to be serving up Pigs tail. Pigs Tail!! I was horrified, but my good upbringing made me unable to do anything in response but feign a smile and try my best to eat. It was probably very good, why wouldn't it be!? but I dont recall. All I know is they knew I was trying to hide the fact that I was disgusted and it was uncomfortable and my little tummy felt sick.
Years later at the distillery, they got on kick of serving whole roasted suckling pig, at  brunch.


I will admit, the darn lil thing was off the hook good. But, the poor piggy went through hell the day or 2 he sat in the fridge, awaiting his final scrumptious fate. Dont call PETA, the thing was already done for, but I swear every cook that went in that fridge posed it in any one of a number of positions best left for the kama sutra..they danced with it, put cigarettes in its mouth. Poor lil Porky.

So, ya, I dont know when I started to like curry :) Tonight was no big schmeal, Ill talk you through it...the sauteed spinach and rice I will leave for you to muddle through for now.

Quick Curry Shrimp

Ingredients 

Tiger shrimps ( how many, I dont know I made 6 for me)
tsp butter
2 TB good quality curry powder
1/4 red onion fine dice
2 cloves garlic chopped
1/4C something sweet or boozy ( tonight I had a splash of Ice wine I used, it is sweet and                   boozy..use wine or juice)
1/4C Chicken or veg or shrimp stock

Get It Together

First a wee note...Curry is a wonderful fragrant unique thing. You can adjust your curry to be anything your palate desires with the addition of turmeric, coriander, cardamon,ginger etc Dont be afraid to play around

So take your curry powder and toast it lightly..by this I mean put it in a dry frying pan and let it toast, in the same manner you would nuts or seeds
To this add your butter or oil and once hot and ready add your onions
Add garlic and saute lightly
add shrimp
Deglaze with wine or juice ( deglaze..fancy term for add liquid to stop the garlic and onions from overcooking)

AT this point once the shrimp are cooked I remove them from the pan.

Add chicken stock and let reduce until half gone.
Montez au buerre..another fancy term, but a wonderful wee trick to make a quick sauce...listen up...
Once your stuff has reduced enough, turn off the heat and let the liquid become still. At that point toss is a TB, yes a tablespoon, Shhhh,of butter and swirl the pan around until all the butter melts.
What this does aside from make one very fat, is smooth out the flavor and actually thicken the sauce. If the sauce is still simmering at all the butter will split and all is lost.

I tossed a half a tomato on the shrimp on the spinach on the plate, just cause I have them and they are lovely now mid summer....

Namaste :-)



No comments:

Post a Comment

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Tails of pig and leftovers...

Tonight in my on going struggle with what to have for dinner, I decided to have curried shrimp and spinach. Mostly based on the fact that I had a healthy portion of the healthy 5 grain pilaf left over from last night.
Curried Tiger shrimp, sauteed spinach, 5 grain rice pilaf
It got me to thinking about when it was I developed a taste for curry. Like olives, curry was not something I grew up with. When I was younger I grew up in a predominantly white, lovely middle class city in Southern Ontario, Kitchener. When I saw predominantly white I mean it, in a high school of 800 we had 2 black kids, and they were brother and sister. Kitchener, like most of Ontario, has diversified vastly since then and the food offerings are now many and range across all kinds of cultures.

Now don't get me wrong, Kitchener was not without it cultural nuances. It was called Berlin, up until WWII when they decided best change the name of the poor town! So Kitchener is very, very German. This is mostly truly delicious food, for the most part. But I will never forget going to a friends house for dinner as a young girl, I must have been 8 or 9 and my little friends father was so happy to be serving up Pigs tail. Pigs Tail!! I was horrified, but my good upbringing made me unable to do anything in response but feign a smile and try my best to eat. It was probably very good, why wouldn't it be!? but I dont recall. All I know is they knew I was trying to hide the fact that I was disgusted and it was uncomfortable and my little tummy felt sick.
Years later at the distillery, they got on kick of serving whole roasted suckling pig, at  brunch.


I will admit, the darn lil thing was off the hook good. But, the poor piggy went through hell the day or 2 he sat in the fridge, awaiting his final scrumptious fate. Dont call PETA, the thing was already done for, but I swear every cook that went in that fridge posed it in any one of a number of positions best left for the kama sutra..they danced with it, put cigarettes in its mouth. Poor lil Porky.

So, ya, I dont know when I started to like curry :) Tonight was no big schmeal, Ill talk you through it...the sauteed spinach and rice I will leave for you to muddle through for now.

Quick Curry Shrimp

Ingredients 

Tiger shrimps ( how many, I dont know I made 6 for me)
tsp butter
2 TB good quality curry powder
1/4 red onion fine dice
2 cloves garlic chopped
1/4C something sweet or boozy ( tonight I had a splash of Ice wine I used, it is sweet and                   boozy..use wine or juice)
1/4C Chicken or veg or shrimp stock

Get It Together

First a wee note...Curry is a wonderful fragrant unique thing. You can adjust your curry to be anything your palate desires with the addition of turmeric, coriander, cardamon,ginger etc Dont be afraid to play around

So take your curry powder and toast it lightly..by this I mean put it in a dry frying pan and let it toast, in the same manner you would nuts or seeds
To this add your butter or oil and once hot and ready add your onions
Add garlic and saute lightly
add shrimp
Deglaze with wine or juice ( deglaze..fancy term for add liquid to stop the garlic and onions from overcooking)

AT this point once the shrimp are cooked I remove them from the pan.

Add chicken stock and let reduce until half gone.
Montez au buerre..another fancy term, but a wonderful wee trick to make a quick sauce...listen up...
Once your stuff has reduced enough, turn off the heat and let the liquid become still. At that point toss is a TB, yes a tablespoon, Shhhh,of butter and swirl the pan around until all the butter melts.
What this does aside from make one very fat, is smooth out the flavor and actually thicken the sauce. If the sauce is still simmering at all the butter will split and all is lost.

I tossed a half a tomato on the shrimp on the spinach on the plate, just cause I have them and they are lovely now mid summer....

Namaste :-)



No comments:

Post a Comment

adsensead