Battle of Ingredients #9: BBQ 2018 – Take 2!

Welcome to the next Battle of Ingredients! July was a busy month (you must be sick of me saying this if you follow all the different topics here) but we came back in August for another BBQ. Its almost tradition now that summer months are focused around more BBQ oriented meals. Its easy and fun and we can enjoy the weather. You have to live in Montreal (or the majority of Canada with the exception of maybe British Columbia or Vancouver, I’m not sure) to understand that we live half the year in winter and then another 3 months in rainy spring and autumn and then just like 3 months of warm/hot/unbearable weather. We did get a heat wave which also stopped a lot of the normal activities (notice the lack of hiking posts…). Anyways, we are back and the weather luckily after July’s heatwave is also cooling down a little.

Let’s just jump right in and see what Phoebe (aka Starry Traveler) and I came up for this battle!

Drinks

• Pepito White Sangria
• Beringer Rose – White Zinfandel

A sweet wine and a delicious white sangria that matched perfectly with the season and the event.

Dinner

Inspiration: http://moneysavingsisters.com/3-ingredient-soy-sauce-coca-cola-chicken-drumsticks-slow-cooker-meal/

Phoebe’s husband loves veggies so she added in some asparagus, corn and peppers to grill.

Aside from that,she found inspiration to make chicken that she used to have as a child and the recipe above was the one she used to change a crock-pot version to a BBQ version with this first platter of drumsticks. Normally, its easier with chicken wings but we have friends who don’t eat wings so she accommodated this one.

The drumsticks didn’t get the flavor quite so well. I would imagine that the crock pot would work better when doing drumsticks to get the flavor in it. It wasn’t not tasty by any means. To be honest, I love soy sauce chicken drumsticks. Its one of my fave things to eat. Simple but very yummy. My mom still holds the crown (because I’m biased) but Phoebe’s was pretty awesome also. Everyone enjoyed it. However, the goal was to have the cola flavor pop out and in that sense, it didn’t quite make happen.

Chicken Wings (left): Normal Biftheque spiced wings
Chicken Wings (right) inspiration: https://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/betty-whites-chicken-wings-13707

Phoebe decided to do chicken wings anyways for everyone else. We made one normal variety with some typical steakhouse spices. It was delicious and a guaranteed success. For her second inspiration, it was to do the recipe above but adding in a fourth ingredient, white sugar. The recipe she saw above asks for brown sugar but she didn’t have any on hand. Chicken wings work better for BBQ and for this recipe, the cola flavor definitely did pop out much more. This recipe is an absolute hit. There may some freestyling with how the recipes are as most of the recipes here were inspirations and added in our own flair.

Inspiration for Chard Rolls: http://vegdept.com/asian-style-rainbow-chard-wraps/

My contribution was luckily a lot of my own harvests. I found this chard roll idea and decided to work with what I had. I scrapped the Asian way and didn’t simmer the leaves either but on the grill, they cooked everything through as it wrapped in aluminum foil. My version ended up looking like that and the size varied to the size of the leave. Inside, there were homegrown cucumbers, bell peppers and store bought carrots. I didn’t season it but let everyone add what they wanted. Chard leaves were a little overcooked so it was slightly bitter, bit still the whole tasted fairly good.

Dessert

Campfire Cone recipe: https://hip2save.com/2015/06/25/campfire-cones-fun-easy-summer-dessert/

When figuring out dessert, I searched up what we could do on the grill and it was this easy and fun idea. Mine had blueberries instead red berries because of allergy issues (not me but others). The cook time should have been longer so it would turn into a gooey delicious mess but still, it was a pretty good one. One that can be replicated in the oven, I would think also. I would do this one again with some raspberries and I’d imagine that it would turn out fantastic. Let’s face it..these are s’mores cones with a twist, right? How can you hate on that…well, unless you hate dark chocolate or marshmallows, I guess. You can see the ingredients that I used on the top. I used a local dark chocolate maker, Rochef and it had sea salt so added a different layer of taste.

And..this wraps up this Battle of Ingredients!
We are back to monthly editions for a little bit and see how things go from there.
September’s edition is still BBQ themed with some more look at what else to cook..seasonal and whatnot.
If you have any suggestions, go ahead and suggest away in the comments and we’ll take a look at what we could do next time.

Battle of Ingredients #7: Easter/Spring Edition

Welcome to the next Battle of Ingredients. My co-host Starry Traveler Phoebe and I gathered this time with friends for a little Easter/Spring celebration.

Heres what we did!

Wine

Tonight’s wine from our friends is the Barefoot Bubbly Pink Moscato. It was light and sweet. A more in depth talk will be in the wine recap next month.

Main Meals

Lamb Chops – Phoebe

Phoebe gets the big task of taking care of the meat dish this time around. We did research and realized that Easter usually revolves around ham or lamb and after some talk, she decided to take on making lamb chops. They were marinated and topped with salt and various herbs. It took about 2 hours to cook in the oven.

This one turned out pretty good. It wasn’t cooked through but I’ve had chops before and they usually aren’t plus it was marinated and seasoned just enough to have a lovely taste.

Ratatouille – Kim

Recipe via Pinterest: https://www.ricardocuisine.com/en/recipes/5312-ratatouille?epik=0DYovE_IWH0tx

Trying out a quick one pot ratatouille this time as our primary vegetable dish. I followed the recipe above fairly closely. Eggplants aren’t in season right now so they were hard to find good ones. So the portion for that was a little less. However, this ratatouille was both easy to make and tasted pretty good. I may have overcooked it a little and it would have benefited from having some pasta or something to serve with. In comparison to the original, I think I skimped out on diced tomatoes a little. Everything’s a learning curve and I certainly had fun making this one and would try it again particularly using a pot this time instead of a pan since there is a lot of vegetables to add in so it started getting a little crowded and that affected the cooking time.

The better version would be to slice everything thinly and then organize it and pop it into the oven to cook. Perhaps a future trial.

Dairy-free Scalloped Potatoes – Kim

Recipe: https://veganinthefreezer.com/dairy-free-herbed-scalloped-potatoes/

Next up is something of a side thing which was the scalloped potatoes. I recently made scalloped potatoes for a Goodfoods box and thought about it for this meal as a dairy-free style and found the recipe above on Pinterest. Scalloped Potatoes were done in the afternoon in advance as to free up the oven space and then reheated. We used a mandoline to quicken the process. We used some unsweetened almond milk (unfortunately, I only had the vanilla flavor) and we took a chance with it to see if it would affect the taste. It did still have a slight vanilla flavor which felt a little weird but overall, the texture is still there. I’d redo this one with the herbs (as the recipe above indicated but I didn’t have any this time around) and also with some unflavored and unsweetened almond milk. We only ended up with one portion left over so I’d say it had a decent result.

Dessert

Marshmallow Wands – Kim

Recipe: http://www.twosisterscrafting.com/springtime-marshmallow-wands/

The ideas I went through for the dessert was numerous but with the two dishes above, I wanted to go for something a little simpler so I went with these springtime marshmallow wands which is basically skewering three marshmallows and then coating them with dark chocolate and adding sprinkles then letting the chocolate harden. Its times like these that I wish I knew how to temper chocolate before coating it so that it would have that lovely crunch when you bit into it. Anyways, I am still learning and these did turn out really great. I know that the coating could have been better but I learned a lot from this recipe as simple as it may seem. Marshmallows and dark chocolate is just yummy! It is a little on the sweet side so I only made enough so everyone had one.

This wraps up this Easter/Spring edition of Battle of Ingredients!
Not quite sure what is next one but might be a spring Farmer’s Market edition for 2018.
Its still in discussion right now 😉

Do you celebrate Easter and what foods do you make?

Goodfood Recap#16

Last week’s Goodfood box was quite a few cool menus and the first time we went with a repeat. We actually love the menu so much that we forgot to take the picture again before chomping it all down. Either way, we took the picture from the last time we cooked  the meal. We will talk more about it.

Let’s check out last week’s meals!

Marinated Salmon & Noodle Stir-fry
with Yuzu Sauce, Baby Bok Choy & Snow Peas

We always opt for fish dishes when we can since fish in general is so expensive to buy. This one turned it pretty well. Its a stir-fry so already guaranteed to be pretty simple to put together. The preparation wasn’t too long either and it was just a bit stir together in the pan when all the elements were done. We always love the added sesame seeds to a dish. It adds a nice little bit texture to the dish. I can’t say I love this recipe but it definitely wins on being easy to put together. Its always great to learn what ingredients to put together a nice little stir-fry and this one is a solid choice (especially since there was recently a sale on salmon and we have some frozen and to be eaten soon).

Ancho Chicken Taco
with Beet-Cabbage Slaw & Toasted Pepitas

My husband apparently doesn’t know how to put together a taco and assembled a quesadilla resemblance thing here and ate it like a sandwich. I only took a bite from this meal since I had some other food that I needed to eat but from the bite, its a pretty decent meal even if its not wrapped into a taco style. Its fairly simple to put in and didn’t take too much time. I’m not sure about the ancho part of the thing though but thats just my personal preference. My husband absolutely loved it.

Grilled Ratatouille Sandwich
with Sundried Tomato Hummus

The repeat meal of our box goes to this fantastically delicious vegetarian sandwich called the Grilled Ratatouille Sandwich. Its packed with flavors from the sweet peppers to the tangy cherry tomatoes and then rounded off with a sundried tomato hummus. Its really a lovely sandwich. The last time was actually my husband who put together a lot of it and this time, I took my shot at it until I went to toast the buns and then burnt them a little. Still, its one that I’d definitely make again. Its truly fantastically delicious!

Peanut Butter Dumplings
with Sesame Green Beans

The recipe says that I wasn’t supposed to fold the dumplings this way but this is the way I know how to fold them since I was little so I kept to my own methods. My husband did the cooking and didn’t read the instructions very well for the dumplings so ended up pan-frying all sides when it was supposed to fry at the bottom then steam in the pan to cook the dumpling wrapper. Either way, it still tasted really great. Other than the vegetarian filling taste really awesome, the peanut butter sauce was super delicious. We actually loved it so much that we kept the leftover and cooked some veggies with it the next day and it turned out really well since the peanut butter dissolves pretty much but the taste retains itself. I loved this one a lot.

Overall, this box turned out very good. Two vegetarian meals and both of them were my faves in this box.

Unboxing & Recap: Miss Fresh #3

This time’s order seems a little closer than normal. However, we have been incredibly busy of late and the last week’s meals also looked pretty interesting. Miss Fresh has some decent meal ideas and honestly, it is helping to learn something new.

Lets check it out!

Miss Fresh #3

As usual, the package once opened! This time it looked amazingly simple. The packaging itself was done well also. It could do with less leafy salads. It took a pretty Asianesque cuisine turn.

The meals in this week’s box was:

Mahi Mahi with Thai Coconut Curry Sauce with Snap Peas and Ginger Salad

I don’t eat a lot of assortment of fishes usually except salmon. But mahi mahi was what caught my attention. The dish itself was easy to make. It just takes time to heat up the coconut milk. Also, note to self that the sauce itself was really spicy. I ended up having to rinse off the sauce for my own sake and still it still maintained some of the spiciness. However, it was tasty.

Crispy Chicken Wings with Chili-Lime Butter and Roasted Brussel Sprouts

This may very well be the highlight attraction of this box. In my mind, chicken and brussel sprouts cannot go wrong. And I wasn’t wrong. It was easy to make. The wings were crispy. Apparently the trick is the 5 minute broil at the end. I also learned how to make chili sauce (well, chili-lime butter), even if I didn’t end up using it . My stomach just doesn’t do well with. Although my husband did give it a shot and I believe he enjoyed it.

Pork Chops Saute with Peaches and Couscous

As we slowly trim out beef from our diet, pork chops have been a more frequent meat we eat. We make pork chops in many ways here and we actually have a few good recipes. A peach sauce of sorts is interesting and for the most part, it works well with the entire meal. I skipped out on couscous since I’m trying to live a gluten-free lifestyle. This meal is not bad.  The couscous is a bit bland and I think it makes for the pork chop and peach sauce which is pretty flavorful already.

Garlic Portobello and Kale Pizza

The last meal we put together is this pizza. Note that we had to use my lactose-free cheese to replace it and they only had the marble type at the grocery store that was priced relatively good. We are keeping the actually mozzarella cheese that came with it for my husband’s tortellini that he will make soon. I was a little iffy about how this would turn out. I actually didn’t even use all the kale leaves they gave us but it looks perfect. When I pulled it out of the oven, this was the dish that wowed me the most.

Impressions:

This week’s box was really good. Everything was at par with what I’d expect. There was less ingredients as a whole but the balance of having fish, chicken and pork was good along with a vegetarian meal thrown into the mix. It still has some issues with repeating certain vegetables but I feel like it isn’t a huge deal mostly because they are probably going with the seasonal vegetables and I can understand that. The recipes itself were pretty easy to put together. The key is to find what works for you. I cooked every meal in this box except for the pork chops which my husband helped me with and I think I’m getting better at it. Its nice also that some of the skills like making certain sauces or whatnot is skills that can be used even outside of these meals. Its not only a convenient service but an educational one as well.

Which meal do you like the most? Do you have any meal subscription service near you? Have you ever tried one?

Unboxing + Recap: Miss Fresh Subscription #2

I know we’re a little behind on this. I got this box for the last week of July and it was well suitable because it was right before the crazy Fantasia schedule went crazy and I wasn’t home much. I thought it would be a good idea to get one of these boxes and at least make sure that things would be under control the week before. And it definitely was. Surprisingly, unlike last time, I made half of these recipes and it all turned out relatively well…except for one (which was not exactly under my supervision). But we have learned from our mistakes. You will see.

This is kind of an unboxing but its also a recap of the recipes and how they turned out. Maybe along with some impressions. This is a long term thing we’re planning to keep as a once a month little something for ourselves. It keeps things fresh and gives us new ideas. We’re really enjoying the experience as a whole.

Miss Fresh #2

Opening the Box

Everything unloaded

Recipes

This week’s menu had:

Fish (Turbot) with Pancetta and Sage

The fish is Turbot which I’ve never cooked before. It was served with fennel and white rice (not in the picture).  The fennel made my house smell like licorice for the next 24 hours but that is nothing to complain about. The best part about this meal and recipe other than it tasting really good was that it was perfectly made so that it was easy dividing into two portions. One filet each and the fennel was already chopped so just half on each plate.

Sausage and Vegetable Stuffed Mushrooms

A heaping mess is what I’d call this BUT appearances aside, it tasted great. This recipe is served with radicchio salad and well, we ended up cooking that separately with balsamic vinegar and it turned out decent as well. So this is where I started thinking that we should have videos to teach us how to make these recipes because somewhere along the way, I did something wrong. My guess is the mushrooms. Fact is, some recipes do have video instructions but this one didn’t. However, it probably is my inexperience with stuffing anything that caused the issues.

Rosemary Chicken Skewers

Add on more zucchini! Starting at the end of July till now, we’ve been harvesting zucchini like crazy so this was just another meal to add onto the immense amounts of zucchini I’ve been eating. But I love this veggie the most so its all good! This was another great recipe. We had to modify it a little, I believe, because I don’t do well with spicy foods. However, the spices used and just the balance of this dish was really great. I loved it. This meal is served with grilled zucchini and green salad.

Black Bean and Zucchini Cheeseburger

And finally…our fail. We never make veggie burgers before so this is a completely new concept. We did learn that we needed to remove the water better before adding in the egg that held together the patty. However, we did end up eating this with veggies and whatnot and it tasted pretty good.

A few thoughts after this box 

I’m not sponsored or anything so I guess as a consumer, I get to have some thoughts about this. This box and the one before gave me some little things that came to my mind as I was cooking.

• Leafy vegetables: We had Boston lettuce for the veggie burger but salads are almost always green salad consisting of arugula. One thing is freshness. Our Boston lettuce either wasn’t fresh enough or it was frostbitten from the cryo ice packs. That is fine. I can understand it. However, it would be nice to not see arugula as the green salad. On a personal level, I have to cook it and it tastes like bitter leaves. Even my husband is hesitant to eat it. You know, once in a while is fine but we get this once a month and we land right on the arugula salad. Minor criticisms. We still ate it just not exactly sure if there is more variety of veggies presented eventually. We can always modify as we see fit.
• Recommended cooking order for the meals: When we get the boxes, we get a little instruction card that tells us how long each item should be good for. An example would be meat is good for 1 to 2 days. Deal is we had to use the guidelines to figure out which is the best order to make sure none of it went bad. We used our better judgement but it would be a nice guideline to recommend which should be done in what order. Like this time, the majority was fish and minced meat and chicken and all these things have rather short shelf lives in the fridge before going bad so we had to cook it and put it aside to eat later since cooked food lasts three to four days.

I’d add in instructional videos for all the recipes but I think most of the recipes are rather straight-forward. It doesn’t mean that I am disappointed with any of the meals. I just think these are ways to improve on a pretty great service to improve efficiency for its users. Another thing would be to have allergen-free options. I believe I mentioned this in the previous unboxing so I won’t go further into that. As someone with allergens, I just find that a constant frustration.

Overall, some really decent meals in this Miss Fresh box. We’ll be getting another one soon and it will be much more timely with the overview of it.

Breakfast: Fiddlehead Omelette

Today we’re looking at a little more of an experiment. I’m not sure if any of you know what this vegetable called fiddleheads are. This is what it looks like.

I’ve personally never tasted it but this cookbook that bought about Quebec foods and recipes featured fiddleheads as a spring harvest in our lovely province of Quebec. What better time to give this a try while its late spring although I am still a tad late when its one of the earliest harvests. Before we move one, let me tell you what fiddleheads are. They are foraged in Quebec woods from shoots of the ostrich fern in early-May. I’m not sure what it’ll taste like but that is why we are here.

From the recipe in Made in Quebec by Julian Armstrong, here is our take on Fiddlehead Omelette.

Fiddlehead Omelette

Serves 2

Ingredients:
Fiddleheads

2 cups fresh fiddleheads
3 tbsps olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 shallot, finely chopped
3 tbsp verjus, cider vinegar, or white balsamic vinegar
sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Omelette

1 tbsp butter
4 eggs
3 tbsp whipping cream or whole milk
Salt and freshly ground epper
1 cup shredded Le Marechal, Comte, or aged cheddar cheese

1. Put fiddleheads in a large resealable plastic bag, add cold water to cover, close and shake to clean off the brown husks and any dirt from the fiddleheads. With your hands, pick out the fiddleheads and place in a bowl. Discard water in the bag. Repeat the washing process with clean water at least once more, until water in the bag is clear. Drain and dry fiddleheads with towels.  Cut tail ends off fiddleheads.
2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add fiddleheads and boil for 4 minutes.  Drain and rinse in cold water. Set aside.
3. In a large, heavy frying pan, heat oil over medium heat and saute garlic and shallot until softened and lightly colored, 3 to 4 minutes.  Add fiddleheads and stir constantly for 3 minutes. Drizzle with verjus and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Set aside.
4. In an 8 inch heavy omelette pan or nonstick frying pan, melt butter over low heat.  In a bowl, whisk eggs with cream.  Add pinches of salt and pepper.  Pour egg mixture into the heated pan and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, shaking the pan to distribute the egg mixture.  While the omelette is still fairly moist, spread choose and fiddleheads in the centre of the egg mixture. Continue cooking for another minute.  When the cheese starts to melt, fold half the omelette over itself and tip out onto a warmed serving plate.

Before we talk about the taste of fiddleheads and how our omelette turned out, I think we need to look at the process a little. Making fiddleheads is not incredibly time consuming but it does take a tad more prep time. It could be because I was being overly cautious about how clean it was so I did put it in the large resealable plastic bag and cleaned with water. Its a refreshing way to clean vegetables to say the least but to get clear water, I did it for 4-5 times.

There were some changes to the recipes:

• Shallots were omitted. We just didn’t have any.
• We used normal balsamic vinegar and not white
• Cheese was replaced to lactose-free cheese

Fiddleheads taste a little like spinach. I was searching for that taste that it had. It is also one that some might not like, but I did. My guess is that if it was overcooked and mushy, it wouldn’t have the enjoyment of its slightly crunchier texture. Except crunchy isn’t even the way to describe it because you might think its raw when it isn’t. Although we did veer off from the recipe a little, it turned out pretty well. The thought process behind it is that we are trying something new so omelettes seemed like the way to go.

A little additional fact if you want to give this a go, according to the book, fiddleheads are actually quite easy to make. They make the comparison of cooking it like asparagus where you really can just use butter for flavoring. Its flavor will be enough to make it savoury. The two ways they suggest is to boil for 6 to 10 minutes until crisp-tender (there’s the word for the texture) or steam for 8 to 10 minutes. Just a little side tip for all of you.

I’ve been rummaging in Made For Quebec these days, so expect some more recipes inspired from there soon. Possible something to do with strawberries and rhubarb since now is the harvest season for them and I have made my first harvest. 🙂

Have you tried fiddleheads before? Do you cook them? How do you make it? If not, what are some local Spring produce in your area?

Pinterest Spring/Summer Inspirations!

Its been forever since I’ve shared some fantastic Pinterest stuff! Mostly because while pinning is super fun and therapeutical, putting together the posts can be tiring.  Just deciding what to do takes so much time that it becomes less therapeutical than it actually is even if I love putting those posts up.  However, maybe this is what Pinterest is going to be: Therapy or Inspirations! Spring is pretty much almost over and hints of Summer is landing in Montreal.  The last few days have been hot and humid and I love it! 🙂

This also means spring cleaning and garden/outdoors stuff needs to be taken care of! I have some rhubarb to harvest and maybe make some nice drinks.  The heat also means that I kick in a much healthier lifestyle.  Lots of things that I seek out Pinterest for! Lets look at some of my faves and ones I hope to pursue if not now, eventually!

The Anatomy of Sangria

Hot summer days calls out to me in the form of Sangria. I don’t drink a lot in general but a great sangria is so hard to resist. This infographic breaks it down in an interesting way and peaks some new ways to use different ingredients next time.  For the record, I’ve recently realized that I’m intolerant or maybe allergic to red wine so any sangria’s now have to be with white or rose wine. I have also done a autumn sangria with brandy and that turned out pretty good.

Popsicles

I’ve tried out a few popsicle recipes before and I’m not really good at it but its something I’m trying to learn to do better. This one looks delicious.  They are called Fruit Salad Ice Pops.  I love fruits and especially fruit salads and wrapped up in a popsicle. Yummy!  I’m already thinking of what fruits to get to make it and wondering where those popsicle molds are.

Infused Water Combinations

Last year I started getting into infused water. I like cold drinks and water is super healthy so I’ve tried something with blueberry and basil before if I remember correctly.  This summer, I want to keep with the healthy stuff and try some other ones.  These ones are pretty neat especially detox and weight/sugar control and metabolism booster. I guess everything but the lower blood pressure one looks like choices I want to try out.

Watermelon Strawberry Sorbet

For those of you who are new here, I’m lactose intolerant or at least it seems to be in an extreme phase again.  Its really built a love and appreciation for Sorbets in my life. I’ve been wanting to try to make sorbet for a while and if these recipes say its easy, I’ll believe it! Its one of my goals this summer to give it a try.  This combination particularly looks great. I love strawberries and watermelons and yet, no one really pairs these two together. I wonder what it’ll taste like.

Liquid Sunshine

I know, its a lot of alcoholic beverages here! In general, there’s a lot of drinks. Thing is, I was going to do a cruise dedicated post after my cruise recap last year and I forgot about it. I flat out forgot. That’s just how I am. A year after, I remembered and was thinking maybe this year, I’ll start a little drinks segment to experiment different recipes.  I don’t mean alcoholic cocktails, even if they are resistible, I don’t usually drink that much but even for like lemonades or infused waters and other healthy stuff. I think its well worth a shot! 🙂

That’s it for this Pinterest Inspirations!
Originally, it had a ton of other stuff for the garden and whatnot, but I just wanted to keep this fun and short! 🙂 

Let me leave you with this lovely quote!

Happy Friday! 🙂

Dinner: Baked Popcorn Shrimps

Its been a month since my last recipe. I really need to get myself in check with this.  That is just not acceptable. My husband has been a champ during my busy work season and taking care of dinner so it minimizes the amount of time I spend in the kitchen.  However, things are hopefully calming down and I can get a few recipes I’ve been wanting to try done.  Baking should be my priority with the lovely Pinocchio Baking Through Disney thing coming up soon. However, I decided to defrost some shrimp a few days ago and make something cool with it.  My initial thought was fried rice but then I was cleaning the cupboards and found a box of Corn Flakes Crumbs.  Its my replacement for Panko bread crumbs and remembered that I had gotten those to make some popcorn or breaded whatnots and didn’t end up doing it. So here we are with the next cooking adventure: Popcorn Shrimp!

Let’s check it out, shall we?

Popcorn Shrimp

You can find the lovely recipe over here:
http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/skinny-baked-popcorn-shrimp-recipe/
I found it via Pinterest (as usual).

What is absolutely fantastic about shrimps in general are that they are really quick to cook.  That also means that this recipe takes more time for preparation than the actual baking time in the oven. I’m all for that!

However, this was more of an inspiration recipe because I ended replacing a few of the ingredients or omitting them in general due to allergy restrictions.

• Panko breadcrumbs replaced with Corn Flakes Crumbs
• Parmesan cheese omitted (due to lactose-intolerance)
• Italian seasoning instead of Cajun

As for the baking time, it said to do 3 mins and flip over and 3 mins. I did 3 mins and then another 5 mins and kept it in the oven a tad longer, maybe a few minutes, just to make sure the shrimps would be cooked through.  Its more of a safety precaution.  I had tried one at the 6 minutes recommended bake time and it was just perfectly cooked through.

Baked Popcorn Shrimp is definitely different.  I forgot to garnish it with lemon juice which might have balanced the taste a little. I like the Italian seasoning but it did have a mild bitter herb taste, which is where I think a cajun flare might have helped it.  Maybe the smoked paprika might have been a good one to use also.  However, this recipe had all the crunches and the bread coating was amazing.  I’ve never cooked with Panko breadcrumbs but this one I used is pretty great.

For a quick and crunchy side for your dish, this recipe does the trick. Even if you want it as an appetizer, it would do also with a lovely little dip.

Do you like shrimps (or other seafood)? How do you like to cook it?