Poached Shrimp Salad

I was reading Light and Healthy 2010, again. I do actually use and read other cookbooks and magazines but lately have been absorbed into this magazine because I spent $8 for it! I know, $8. I never spend $8 for a magazine so I figure I have to make a number of the recipes.

I really wanted to make this to try out the poaching technique. I've never poached fish or shrimp, and this seemed so quick that I decided to give it ago, and I'm really glad I did. This recipe, as simple as it is, really infuses the shrimp with flavor without over cooking it. The shrimp is light, fresh and seasoned.

So the poaching part comes from Light and Healthy 2010. The rest of the salad is my friend's. He makes it all the time, and we decided to add shrimp to it to make it a very filling one dish meal!

Serves 4

Shrimp
1 lemon, halved
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp black peppercorns
1 pound extra large shrimp (21-25 per pound), peeled and deveined

Salad and dressing
2 large heads of butterhead, but I used red leaf lettuce
1 large avocado, pitted, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 large pomelo or grapefruit, peeled an pith removed, segmented
1 shallot, minced but not super finely
white balsamic
olive oil
1/4 tsp salt

For the shrimp
Place 3 cups water in medium sauce pan and squeeze the juice of both lemon halves into the water. Add the squeezed lemon halves, bay leaf, and peppercorns to the water, and cook for 2 minutes. Remove the pan from heat, add the shrimp, cover and let sit for 8 minutes, have ready a bowl filled with ice water.

Drain shrimp, discarding the lemon halves, bay leaf and peppercorns. Immediately transfer shrimp to the bowl of ice water to stop the cooking and let them sit in the ice water until they are chilled, about 3 minutes. Drain the shrimp from the water, transfer them into a large bowl, and refrigerate until needed (I did not do this since I was putting them into the salad right away).

For the salad and dressing
In the bowl in which you will toss the salad, place shallots with balsamic vinegar (enough to just cover them) . When the shallots turn pinkish or red, add the olive oil, approximately 3 to 1. Add salt, and whisk together until the dressing has the consistency of egg yolk, kind of slimey like.

Add lettuce, citrus fruit, avocado and shrimp. Toss together and serve.

Stir-Fried Shrimp with Black Beans

This is Mark Bittman's recipe. So simple so good so quick it emphasizes a staple in Chinese cuisine, the fermented black bean which gives off so much flavor. I would keep everything about the recipe the same except that I would double the amount of bok choy/cabbage and skip the vegetable broth for water since it interferes with the flavor. To make it even more quick, use frozen already deveined shrimp. Serve with short grain brown rice for a healthy meal.

Quinoa as Stuffing

Now this is truly a dish that takes under 30 minutes, especially if you skip stuffing the red peppers and oven baking. Canned beans and defrosted frozen shrimp make this dish move super quickly. Instead, you may opt to chop up the red pepper and throw them in the dish itself rather than stuffing them. If you want to be completely vegetarian than skip the shrimp and add tofu or double the amount of beans. For leftovers, double the recipe.

Fresh cilantro is vital to this dish -- it adds a lot of freshness and flavor. The second time I made this dish, I cooked the quinoa in water (vs. vegetable broth) to lower the sodium intake. There's more flavor when cooked in broth so go for it!