shrimp ahoy

So I decided to defrost a huge bag of shrimp last night, and you know you're not supposed to refreeze seafood. So tonight was a shrimp cooking party!

The inspiration:

funny how the selling point for Sandra Lee's book is
"nothing is made from scratch!"

Some of you may remember the Redwall series by British children's author Brian Jacques. Well he turned out a few supplementary volumes for the collection and the cookbook is probably the most important, since he principally wrote his trademark tomes of ten page-long feasts for children in hospitals. Describing the delicious food is his way of capturing children's imaginations so it's only fitting that he eventually turn out a cookbook from the same universe.

And Sandra Lee? As much as I like to make fun of her, the concept is pretty practical: using both fresh and processed/prepared food to speed up cooking while keeping things fresh. But who doesn't do that already? Is a cookbook really needed for this method?

Anyways, I don't even know how this Sandra Lee cookbook made it into our house. All I know is that I took it with me when I moved out because I figured that would be exactly how I'd be cooking.

Here's a soup from the Redwall cookbook... Shrimp 'n' Hotroot soup, to be exact. It's supposed to be a favorite of the otters, who probably represent sailors in old British society. How do I come across this? Because I actually took a class on this children's book series in college. Oh yes I did.

Now, back to cooking...

melt some butter, then soften up some onion and chopped leek

chop a few potatoes.
Since the cookbook recommends cooking the potatoes for just 15-20 minutes,
I've cut these a little thinner.
You know, because every aspiring Jeopardy! contestant knows that
the more surface area there is, the faster it cooks.

Softened roots... make sure they don't brown!

Add the potatoes, vegetable broth, salt, pepper,
spicy pepper (cayenne, red flakes, whatever,) and a dash of cumin.

Stir!

Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes while covered.

After simmering, add shrimp...

and one cup of milk.

Heat for a minute or two more and enjoy!

Even if you don't like spicy food, add a little pepper because without it, the soup is pretty bland. It is British! But this is a great, easy-to-make soup that warms you up and puts a big bag of shrimp to good use. The onions and leeks are actually pretty fabulous in this soup, too (when else do you eat leeks? For me, it's only in this soup!)

On the other side of shrimpy food we have Sandra Lee's ceviche (in the chapter on Mexican food, of course.) I pared down the ingredients to the bare basics: shrimp, lime, and red onion. That way it's entirely homemade!

Squeezed 6 limes into that little jar and it filled up about halfway.
Squeezing limes by hand is quite the workout for your hands...
and dangerous! Citrus juice stings eyes!

So squeeze as much lime juice as you can manage, shop up some red onion (I used half an onion here) and fill that jar to the top with raw shrimp.

fancy shrimp time!

Store in the refrigerator for at least four hours... I bet this would make an eye-opening breakfast tomorrow morning!