Quarantine Cinco De Mayo Tortilla Chip Crusted Shrimp

Cinco de Mayo to me, means celebrating with Chips, Queso and Margaritas at my local Mexican Restaurant patio.

Staying at home, I couldn’t help but throw together a Mexican inspired dish with what I had on hand. Tortilla chip crusted shrimp with Guacamole and chips!

I knew I wanted Tortilla chips, so I started there. I had a fresh bag of lime flavored (thanks Instacart substitutions) in the pantry. I also had a half started bag of tortilla chips that was a little stale 🤷🏻‍♀️. If I’m going to eat chips, I’m not eating stale chips.....but quarantine times call for quarantine measures. What could I do with the opened bag? Can’t throw those babies out!  Aha, I will grind them up in my magic bullet blender. Poof - I have tortilla chip crumbs. What else do I have?  Shrimp I need to use in the fridge! I will dip those in the chip crumbs. 🧐

And then it began!

Ingredients:

- Raw Shrimp (peel them and take tails off). Maybe a pound?
- Avocados (I used two small hass)
- Red Onion (I used about 1/4 giant red onion). Chop it.
- Lemon (or lime - I like lemon). Squeeze the juice.
- Salt, Garlic Powder and Cumin
- Fresh Chips and stale chips (ha or you could use all fresh!)
- Sour cream (optional)

And then:

- Crush up some chips in a blender/chopper until looks like sand
- Coat shrimp in the chip crumbs (they will be a little damp from rinsing them before you coat them so the chip crumbs stick)
- Melt some butter and olive oil (butter alone will burn) in a sauté pan on medium high
- Sauté shrimp a minute or two on each side. I did two batches to not crowd the pan.
- Salt the shrimp with sea salt

Make the guacamole:

- Mix together the juice of a lemon, the avocados, salt, onion, garlic powder and cumin. Mash with a fork til creamy.

Serve the shrimp with the guacamole, chips and sour cream.

You are done! De nada!

Quarantine Grilled Steaks, Potatoes and Beets

It’s a sunny beautiful Spring Day in Atlanta and it feels like Summer. My Blue Apron box is lost in transit with FedEx for the second week in a row. Whole Foods via Amazon Prime to the rescue with delivery in two hours.

What you need:

Skirt steak (or similar)
Potatoes (I’m using small Tri color potatoes)
Onion (I’m using white)
Parsley
Orange
Red Beets (about 3 or so)
Pesto (I had a packet of pesto left over from something)
Banana peppers (optional)
Parsley (optional)

Here’s what I did:

- Pour some Worcester sauce, olive oil and sea salt on the steak. Let marinate. Overnight would be best, but I did for about an hour
- Boil Water
- Cut potatoes in half and beets into quarters
- Drop into salted and boiling water
- Preheat grill outside
-  Let potatoes and beets parboil and small dice an onion, a handful of banana peppers, and some parsley
- Peel and slice the orange
- Put orange into a bowl with banana peppers. Pour a little white balsamic if you have it over them and a pinch of sea salt
- In another bowl, put the onions, parsley, a pinch of salt, and pesto it you have it
- Drain beets and potatoes and put some olive oil and salt on them
- Go put steak on grill and potatoes/beets on grill. The potatoes/beets will need to go on a piece of aluminum foil so it doesn’t fall down the grates
- Flip the steak once nice and charred
- Once other side cooked take the steak inside and let in rest covered in aluminum foil loosely
- Let potatoes/beets stay on grill about 5 -10 mins more
- Slice steak
- Put beets in bowl with oranges
- Put potatoes in bowl wirh onions/parsley/pesto

That’s it!