Super Simple Slightly Spicy Shrimp Skewers

With my pregnancy, I've been SUPER lucky to not really have any morning sickness!  I've heard horror stories of friends who are sick every day... I guess this baby is just cooperating and taking it easy on me.  While I never actually felt sick, I did have a few food aversions.  The idea of protein just grossed me out.  I could only eat a few bites of chicken or a tiny little slice of steak.  This could really be a problem for someone who typically only eats protein and veggies!  Luckily, even when I was feeling sick, I could almost ALWAYS eat shrimp!  My local Whole Foods sells frozen wild caught key west shrimp.  I'm not really sure what a key west shrimp is, but it was the only frozen option that was wild caught. Each week, I would buy at least one huge bag of frozen shrimp, so that if I was feeling queasy, I could quickly thaw out and cook up a few shrimp.  This recipe is one of the most simple recipes ever!

Slightly Spicy Grilled Shrimp Skewers

*  1 lb of shrimp - preferably wild caught

* 6 cloves of garlic

* 2 tsp paprika

* 1 tsp chili powder

* 1 tsp red chili flakes

* 1 tsp cumin

* 2 tbs olive oil

Some people like to have shrimp with the tail on because it makes a nice little handle when you go to pick them up.  Curt, however, doesn't need or want an extra step between him and food, so I usually just take the tail off and devein the shrimp while I'm  at it. 

 Next, you just throw all of the ingredients in the bowl with the shrimp and mix it all up so that the shrimp have a nice coating.  I usually use my hands because, for me, that's the best way to make sure that everything is thoroughly mixed and that every little shrimp is covered in the flavor.

I let the shrimp marinate for a few hours.  I prepped this in the morning, then just let it sit through the whole day and grilled up the little suckers at night.  You probably don't need to marinate them very long at all since it's more of a dry marinade and would probably stick to the shrimp even if it was only for a few minutes.  

That night when I got home, I took the shrimp out of the fridge and started skewering the bad boys.  I'm sure that if you didn't feel like skewering and grilling, you could just bake them, or saute them in a little bit of fat over the stove.  Coconut oil or some butter would probably work just fine.  I like mine grilled though since it's summer... how many times throughout the year can you really enjoy grilling, right?!

So here are my little skewers all ready to go.  I turned on the grill and let it heat up a bit.  

This is the best part about grilling shrimp.... it only takes a few minutes to cook!  I let them sit for about 3 minutes on each side.  You just want to make sure that you keep an eye on them because overcooked shrimp are rubbery and dry!

So here they are! Yummy grilled shrimp!

I served them with some creamed spinach. Yes, I know that dairy isn't paleo, however, when you're preggers, full fat dairy from grass fed cows is great for the little one... so I've been loading up! If you don't do dairy, you can always find a billion other sides.... some cauliflower rice, sauteed spinach, or even a green salad would be great with these skewers.

I loved this dish.  It was super easy, it was fast, it was delicious, and it filled me up while providing me with some protein.  

Enjoy,

Jenn

The Cookin Cutie Goes Paleo?

So, has anyone ever heard of the Paleo Diet?  Well, if not, you should check it out.  It's not so much of a diet to lose weight as it is a way to eat food that is actually good for your body (weight loss, clear skin, more energy, and more muscle tone are just some of the benefits!).  Anyway, I don't want to get on a soapbox and explain all the details here.  If you are interested, leave a comment and I'd be happy to talk more about it! 

Anyway, in an attempt to live a healthier lifestyle, I'm attempting to eat foods that are actually good for me!  I found this recipe in some magazine a while ago. I ripped it out, though, so I really don't remember where it came from, but it sounded yummy, and it fit with the Paleo thing!

I've heard of a lot of people cooking chicken under a brick, and I'm not really sure what's so cool about it, but I thought I'd give this a try!

* 1 cup fresh orange juice

* 1/3 cup fresh lime juice (about 3 limes)

* 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (about 1 1/2 lemons)

* 2 tbs olive oil

* 3 tsp salt, divided

* 2 tsp finely chopped rosemary

* 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano

* 1 clove garlic, chopped

* 1 whole chicken ( about 3 3/4 lbs) - butterflied

* 1 tsp paprika

* 1 tsp black pepper

* 1 1/2 oranges

* 2 foil wrapped bricks or something heavy to press the chicken down

I started this on Saturday night, but actually grilled it today.  I like giving meat a long time to really soak up all of the marinade juices and flavors!

Basically, I mixed up the rosemary, juices, olive oil, oregano, and 1 tsp of the salt in a glass baking dish.  Easy enough, right?

I bought a whole chicken from Whole Foods, but I had to butterfly or spatchcock the chicken myself.  That's always a fun experience haha. 

Basically, you flip the chicken upside down so the backbone is facing up.... then, you snip out the backbone.  It's kinda weird, because you need kitchen shears and you are literally cutting through the bones, but you need to just forget that the carcass you are mutilating was a living, breathing animal :)  Anyway, make sure you keep the backbone, because you can use it to make yummy chicken stock.  Home made is always better than store bought!

 

After the chicken has been violated and the marinade has been mixed, I just threw the chicken in the marinade and covered it with some plastic wrap to soak overnight.  The recipe said you only have to marinate it for 2 hours, but I wanted to keep it longer.

About an hour before I was ready to grill the chicken, I took it out of the fridge to come to room temperature.  When you grill or cook any meat, you want it to be room temperature.  If the inside is cold, then the chicken won't cook evenly, which, especially when working with chicken, is no bueno.

 

While I was waiting for the chicken to come to room temperature, I mixed up the paprika, 2 tsp salt, and the pepper in a small bowl.  Then, I took the mixture and rubbed it all over the outside of the chicken.  I also sliced up the orange. 

Once the orange is sliced up, you loosen the skin away from the chicken and you slide the orange into the space between the skin and meat.  Now, you've already butchered the chicken, so adding the orange beneath the skin isn't that bad in comparison!

So, now you have a mutilated chicken who has been rubbed in a red spice mixture and had oranges shoved in every place possible.  It's time to heat up the grill! 

I heated up the grill to medium heat (if it's too high, you will burn the outside and leave the inside raw!).  I took the chicken and placed it breast side down on the grill.  I immediately heard the sizzle of the chicken which means yumminess is to come!

 

Now, you are supposed to use a brick, hence the name chicken under a brick.  However, I don't have a brick.  In the past, I used my tea kettle filled with water to weigh down the chicken.  Unfortunately, my tea kettle is gone. (long story... there will be a post about it!)  So, I used my cast iron grill pan - which weighs a lot- to weigh the thing down. 

 

So here's the chicken hiding under the foil and the grill pan!  It's sizzling the whole time.

After about 12 minutes, I  lifted up the grill pan and flipped the chick over to cook on the other side.

 The skin was all charred and crispy.  The picture in the article I ripped out of the magazine has skin that is black and crispy like this, but, surprise, surprise, it looks yummier in the magazine.  Anyway, I flipped the bird ( haha flipped the bird!) over and let the other side cook for about 5 minutes. 



Here's the delicious little chicken all cooked and ready to be eaten! I grilled up some asparagus and some mushrooms too. 

So here it is, a perfectly Paleo (I think) meal.  I had some chicken and grilled mushrooms and asparagus.  It was really yummy!  I liked how the chicken turned out. It wasn't the best chicken recipe that I've ever had, but it was pretty flavorful and it filled me up, which is, afterall, the purpose of a yummy meal. 

 

I'm still experimenting with this whole paleo thing, but look for more yummy recipes to come.  Does this mean that I won't ever bake cookies again?  What about pasta? Not necessarily... However, if I can create delicious meals that are good for me and taste amazing too, then why wouldn't I?

Snappa

So summer is here and thus begins one of my favorite seasons of all :

Grilling Season!

Everyone has grilled hamburgers and hotdogs... maybe a steak or two. I decided to try something I haven't tried before - Grilled Snapper! Forget ground beef! How can you really get more crazy than throwing the entire carcass of a dead animal on an open flame?!

I've heard good things about grilling fish, and, like I mentioned in my last posting, I'm trying to cook more fish for me and the hubby. Here goes nothing!

(Little Kylie Bear was excited about grilling the fish too!)

The Stuff

( Look how cool the whole fish looks!)

I stopped by Wegmans to take a look at the fresh fish selection. I told the guy behind the counter that I wanted to grill a whole fish, but had no idea what I was doing. He kinda laughed at me, then brought me to the whole fish section. He described the 2 or 3 fresh ones that were sitting on ice. I think bronzini was one of the other choices. He said that Red Snapper was a very popular fish for grilling whole. I chose one that looked pretty fresh. The eyes are supposed to be clear and not milky. Also, there isn't supposed to be a fishy smell. The fish guy took it in the back, removed the scales, and the fins, then wrapped it up. He said that I should put a few cuts into the sides and I could put some ginger or scallions in the fish to give it a bit of flavor.

(Hello everyone, don't I look yummy?!)
I decided for a side dish we should have some veggies. I absolutely love grilled zucchini and mushrooms. Curt isn't a big fan of mushrooms, but I just eat the ones he doesn't. I cut up the veggies and tossed them in some olive oil, garlic, and salt, then stuck them on skewers. I let them rest for a few minutes, letting them marinate.

(not many things better than grilled veggies)

I took the laid the fish out on the cutting board and put a few thick slits in one side. I had read that doing this prevents the fish from curling as it cooks. It also is supposed to help with ensuring that the fish cooks evenly throughout. I then flipped the fish over and put a few slits on the other side.

The fish guy had removed all of the guts from the snapper, so I didn't have to worry about finding a grilled liver or stomach on my plate. Although he mentioned putting ginger and scallions in the fish, I've never been a huge fan of ginger. I decided to use a shallot, garlic, and what else? Bacon! I had some leftover bacon from the day before, so I figured that would be a good little addition.

I cut up the shallot and garlic and then stuffed the bacon all into the stomach cavity of the fish. I took a few slices of garlic and stuck them in the slits that I had made on the sides of the fish.

(The garlic, bacon, and shallots all inside the fish!)


Now it's ready for the grill!

( The veggie skewers are all nicely placed on the grill with room for the fish too)

I heated up the grill to medium heat and placed the veggie skewers on the grill. They don't take very long to cook, but I threw them on first to make sure they had enough time to cook.

(veggies never looked so good!)

Next, I threw the snapper on the grill and just let it cook. I wasn't too sure how long to cook the fish. Internet pages had said to cook it until it begins to flake.

(look how pretty!)

I let the fish cook for maybe about 10 minutes. The smells were starting to really come out of the grill and waft through the air. Luckily, it was a gorgeous night and standing on our deck with a cold beer, waiting for dinner to cook was so perfect!

(Flip it!)

After the fish had grilled for about 10 minutes, I decided to flip the fish. There was a moment of grossness during the flipping process. The eyeballs were still intact when I put the fish on the grill. I guess, during the cooking process, it had dried out, or something crazy. When I flipped the fish, the eyeball fell out into the bottom of the grill. It was pretty gross seeing the goopy white eyeball on the bottom of the grill... but oh well!

I flipped all of the veggies after I flipped the fish. It took another 10 minutes or so to finish grilling. I just took it off after the fish looked totally cooked. Because there were slits in the sides of the fish, I was able to see that the whole fish was cooked.

(Not the prettiest looking meal in the world)

I let the fish rest on a foil lined pan for a few minutes to let everything cool down. I know that when you cook most meats, you need to let it rest before you start cutting it so that the juices have time to redistribute. I don't know if that's the same for fish, but I figured it couldn't hurt to let it rest a little bit.

There was definitely a LOT of meat on the fish, so Curt, Billy, and I all sat down and dug in! We just sort of scooped the fish off the bone. It pulled apart very easily and we were able to pick out any pesky bones. Since I'm Asian, I had made some brown rice to go with everything. I pulled the veggies off the grill and put them aside.

Altogether, the veggies, brown rice, and fish were absolutely delicious! I really enjoyed everything. The fish had a nice, mild flavor and you could taste the bacon, garlic, and shallots.

We all ate until we couldn't eat anymore! This was all that was left!

Now, I know that my sister, in Cape Verde would do the right thing and eat everything off the fish... including the meat from the head. However, I'm not in Africa, and I haven't quite warmed up to the idea yet. Curt did try a bite of the grilled tail! :)

Anyone want a bite?!

Not much left to eat!
So, in conclusion, my experiment with trying to grill a whole fish turned out to be a great success! Everything was delicious and quite healthy! It was very simple too. I would say that this is definitely a MUST for anyone who likes fish and likes grilling!

(family picture)

Here's the result of a full meal of fish! Kylie isn't asleep yet because we didn't let her have some of the fish... we're awful parents, huh?