In The Kitchen: 8.16.20

Menu ideas and recipes for shrimp, spice/herb mixes, pork, peaches, peppers, chouriço and vegetables

Swooning over summer scampi

The highlight of the week, hands down, was summer shrimp scampi with tomatoes, corn, red onion and basil. My god, this was good. The extra butter I added at the end didn’t hurt. I’m making this again the next time I buy North Carolina shrimp—the only kind I buy.

You know about the slave labor used for Asian frozen shrimp, right? There’s a reason why they’re so cheap, never mind all the environmental issues. Shrimp used to be a luxury and should be still.

Let your spice/herb mixes find purpose

If you have jars of herb or spice mixes hanging out without purpose in your cupboard, add them to the flour, cornmeal and/or breadcrumbs the next time you dredge fish (in my case, flounder with Greek seasoning) or some other piece of protein.

Pulled pork with pickled peaches

I fell hard for this pulled pork with pickled peaches recipe but didn’t want to heat up the house by turning on the oven. So I adapted the recipe for the Instant Pot by increasing the liquid and adding most of the ingredients to the pot as the pork cooked. I also added some barbecue sauce too.

We had the pork on buns with the pickled peaches and slaw. Now what to do with the leftover pickled peaches? I’m thinking they’d be good in a quesadilla or tacos with spicy meat and cheese—something about spicy heat, salt, sour and fat all together is really speaking to me.

Chouriço-stuffed peppers

I had a few poblano peppers ready to harvest so I made a batch of this chouriço mix for a side of stuffed peppers. This was the same day I made the pulled pork so I kept the Instant Pot out to make the brown rice and cooked the stuffed peppers in the toaster oven. Next week, I’ll tell you what I did with the leftover chouriço mix.

By the way, I’m not misspelling chouriço—I’m using Portuguese chouriço, not Mexican or Spanish chorizo.

Summer vegetables

For veggies this past week, we had calabacitas—a Mexican-inspired summer vegetable medley—and the old standby of roasted broccoli, cauliflower and red onion with garlic. Leftovers from both of these dishes are great for frittatas.

Until next week, stay awkward, brave and kind. (phrase from Brené Brown)

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