Shrimp Sandwich, Shrimp Salad, Shrimp Kabobs... KABOBS!

A blog that I follow, That's What We Said, does a meal-plan helper thingy at the start of each week. They're always interesting but this week's really piqued my taste bud-y interests! Specifically: crock pot chicken tacos, fancy beefaroni, & shrimps...  With the holiday week, upcoming quickie vaca, and our schedule with the 2/3rds a little altered, these three recipes I knew would work really well for us.

Tuesday night I made the Grilled Jalapeno & Lime Shrimp skewers, as found here, on Ezra's Pound Cake blog. I didn't alter her recipe in regards to ingredients, but because I'm lazy I skipped a step ... maybe two. Who cares? Neither of us, I'm sure. ...did we just become best friends?

Well, theys all sortsa things you can do wit shreemp...

I'm trying to stay low carb so I can kick some intraoffice biggest loser competition ass, so I decided to dice up a few veggies & a mangoooo to go with the shrimp. I cut up 1 each of zucchini, squash, red bell pepper, mango, and 1/2 a Vidalia onion. Assuming you're into this sort of thing... I chopped the veggies & mango, threw in some of the other stuff, stared at it, put it in a grill pan thing and then hoped for the best. I mean really, you can't go wrong with grilled veggies, especially ESPECIALLY! when you add delicious sweet fruit. I've never cooked with a mango before, or even tried to cut one up. I really only guessed that I was supposed to peel the skin off. Turns out I was right. Woot!

Unless you have the metal kind, go ahead and start soaking your skewers. Otherwise, here's the 'pe.

Marinade:

1 to 2 jalapeño chiles, seeded and chopped

3 tablespoons olive oil

6 cloves garlic, minced (1 to 2 tablespoons)

Zest of 1 lime, plus 5 tablespoons juice 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

Measure the marinade ingredients into the food processor, and process until smooth. Set aside 2 tablespoons of marinade. Transfer the rest to a large bowl.



While the shrimp were marinating I chopped the aforementioned veggies, drank another beer, and cranked up the grill; perhaps not in that exact order.



Shrimp:

1 1/2 pounds extra-large shrimp (21 to 25 per pound), peeled and deveined

1 teaspoon sugar

Directions

Pat the shrimp dry with paper towels, and butterfly them. (Make a shallow cut along the outside curve of the shrimp to open them up a little.) Or just buy them deheaded, deveined and flayed and have a beer to celebrate your time-savings.

Toss the shrimp into the large bowl with the marinade, cover, and refrigerate for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Thread the marinated shrimp onto skewers, alternating the direction of each shrimp. (You should get 10 to 12 shrimp on each skewer.)

Sprinkle sugar on one side of the shrimp skewers.

Grill the shrimp sugar-side down over the hot part of the grill until lightly charred, 3 to 4 minutes.

Flip skewers, and move them to cool side of grill. Close lid and let rest until other side of shrimp is no longer translucent, 1 to 2 minutes.

Using tongs, slide shrimp into a clean bowl, and toss with the 2 tablespoons of reserved marinade. (Or, if you want to serve the shrimp on the skewers, brush on the marinade.)

Serve immediately.

Chopped Veggies:

1 Zucchini

1 Squash

1/2 Onion

1 Red Bell pepper

1 Mango

Sesame Seeds

Sea Salt

Balsamic Vinegar

EVOO

I considered skewering this stuff, too, but I was about 3 drinks deep so instead I just tossed them into a grill pan and I put them on the grill while I skewered le'skrimp. Total time on grill was probably 12ish minutes. This is also dependent upon how thick & evenly you chop your stuff. I watch Food Network. I know these things.

The veggies made a great "bed" for the shrimp and the previously zested lime wedge was the perfect fresh zing on each bite. And that's all I have to say about tha-at.