Its been pretty hot here the last week or so, so there hasn’t been a lot of baking, BUT there has been a lot of grilling action on the new BBQ, and quick dinners from the stash of food in the freezer. One of the standard things I usually have are frozen raw shrimp. Sometimes I’ll get the ones with the shells on (makes a great quick seafood stock!), and sometimes we’ll have the ones with no shells from Costco.
Shrimp and flatbread for dinner
Last night’s dinner, I thawed out some of the shrimp, let them marinate in some hoisin sauce, minced garlic, ginger and sesame oil. Threaded onto skewers, they cook pretty fast on the grill. To go with the shrimp, I pulled together a quick slaw of chinese cabbage, julienned daikon and carrots. For a no-mayo slaw, I use the basic scandanavian pickle ratio as a starting point (1-2-3 pickle). This is pretty universal pickling liquid recipe that they use for all kinds of pickle including veg + even herring.
- 1 part vinegar
- 2 parts sugar
- 3 parts water
it’s pretty easy to vary the ingredients and come up with flavours that match the mood of whatever you are cooking. For this slaw, I used a bit more vinegar because I was using rice vinegar which is much milder, plus I added a bit of soy and sesame oil for flavour, which subbed in for some of the liquid. The amounts I used for last night’s dinner
Quick Asian-style Slaw (this keeps well in the fridge and stays crisp in the dressing)
- 1/2 small chinese cabbage, cut in shreds
- 1 c julienned daikon
- 1 c julienned carrot
- 1/4 c. rice vinegar
- 1/4 c. sugar
- 1/4 c. water
- 1 T. soy sauce
- 1 T. sesame oil
Finally, for a starch to go with the meal, I decided to make flatbreads on the grill. I always have a batch of basic dough in the fridge (from Artisan Bread in 5 minutes per day). It’s an awesome way to be able to make bread on a regular basis without too much fuss. Flatbread is REALLY easy to make, as it requires no proofing, or even warming up the dough out of the fridge. You just pull out some dough, shape it into circles, and slap in on the grill, griddle or frypan, cooking on both sides until done inside. When you do them on the grill, if they are rolled thin enough, they will puff up like pita — great for sopping up the juices from the shrimp! All told, this dinner took about 15 minutes to prepare and cook at the end, plus about 15 minutes 1/2 hour earlier to prep and marinate the shrimp.
Happy eating!
