Pulling back: shrimp with pineapple and mint

Annalena sometimes wonders about the lack of testing that goes on in the world of cookbooks, and cooking magazines.  She truly believes that there are many people out there, who are convinced that they don't know how to cook, because they followed a recipe to the "t," and it didn't work out at all.  Not that "it wasn't as good as I wanted it to be," or  "it didn't look like the picture " (it never will), but out and out "it was AWFUL."

Sometimes, ragazzi, we do have to take responsibility.  A piece of blueberry pie is NOT diet food, no matter how you "slice it," (Annalena brings this up because, in her weight watchers class, she once had a woman say that she ate such a thing, and counted it as a bread and a fruit.  Was that right?).    BUT... as you gain more confidence and learn more, sometimes you will realize:  IT AIN'T YOUR FAULT.  And do not assume you cannot cook because your recipe didn't work. Sometimes, your source was wrong, as was the case in this recipe, when Annalena first made it. She will give you a corrected version.

Those of  us who cook regularly, find shrimp a lifesaver in the kitchen. They are tasty, low in fat, and cook in a ridiculously short amount of time, even if you start with frozen, peeled stuff.  We should all have some of them around, preferably wild, or from a source with a good record for environmental health, because many sources of shrimp do not.   And we fall into routines with our recipes.  This is NOT necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes, as the song goes , you just wish to "BREAK OUT."  Annalena wanted to do so with this recipe.  It looked (and is), very easy.  It seemed (and is), very different from what she usually cooks.  But when she made it as written, it was NOT very good.  And she knows why.

The salient ingredients here are shrimp, pineapple, and mint.  In fact, they are the ONLY real ingredients.  Think for a minute (which Annalena did not):  which of these is the ingredient you wish to feature?  And which of these has the mildest flavor?  (If you answered anything other than shrimp, perhaps this is not the blog for you, bambino).    So when the original recipe called for 2 inches of pineapple, sliced small, and a third of a cup of fresh mint, Annalena should have paused... For a pound and a quarter of shrimp?  But... she followed through.  She got a dish where the pineapple and mint were prevalent, but the shrimp was there for texture, nothing else.

This can be avoided.  And we will.  And we will avoid it by cutting back on the pineapple, and the mint.  As follows.

First,  combine a third of a cup each of rum and lime juice.  If you are not using alcohol, substitute more lime juice, or orange juice, or lemon juice, whatever you like.  Add 2 teaspoons of cornstarch to this, and a bit of black pepper and a bit of salt.  Stir everything together, until the cornstarch dissolves.  It won't take long.

You will need a hefty pound of shrimp or prawns, peeled.  (If you get wild ones, you will have to peel them yourself, and probably devein them, if the line grosses you out.  Annalena is not troubled by it).    You will also need NO MORE than a half cup of diced pineapple, and NO MORE than two tablespoons of fresh mint leaves, chopped up.  Divide that mint in half.

Now, we are going to cook, and we are going to cook very , very quickly.  Put a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil in  a big skillet and get it very hot.  Add the shrimp and move them around.  No more than two minutes.  Now add the pineapple, and stir it all together for a minute.    Add that liquid you mixed together.  If you did use rum, move your face away, just in case... Stir for another minute.  Now, add half the mint. Taste a piece of shrimp.  Does it have enough mint for you?  If it does, STOP.  If it does not, add half of the remaining mint, and then do it again, if you still want more.

DONE.  At most, you have spent ten minutes making dinner. Make it with the coconut rice Annalena wrote about recently.

If the pineapple bothers you, use mango.  In summer, use peach.  Green mango would be good here, too, as would unripe papaya.  If mint is not your thang, use another strong herb.  Cilantro seems to be obvious ,and it is.  You retain the Asian feel with that.  And finally, if you want some interplay with heat, add some hot sauce at the end.  Not if you serve this with the spicy asparagus we chatted about recently, as Annalena did. That would put too much heat in the meal.

In any event, go back through these recipes:  coconut rice with the spicy asparagus, and shrimp with pineapple and mint.  Does that sound like a good dinner to you?  It was, and it is.  Go cook.