The Good Plate

Posts Tagged ‘sesame seed oil’

Recipes in this Post

Barbecued Asian Pork Chops

• Barbecued Asian Pork Chops
• Grilled Fillet Mignon with Blue Cheese
• Barbecued Baked Potatoes

A funny story here. My friend Amber and her husband, Stevie went to the local Home Depot some time in 2010, and I was looking at Weber barbecues. The last one I had got toppled by a BVM Sister – the Sister was not hurt, but the Weber was a goner. The Weber at the Home Depot was on sale, and Stevie said I should get it, and I could keep it their house until Spane and I found a place with a yard. Stevie has one of those big drum barbecues, and he barbecues enough for a few days on that grill, so he likes to use mine for smaller meals. I get to “borrow” my barbecue about once a year. We’re good friends, and we laugh about this all the time.

So, tonight I decided to do kind of like Stevie does. I cooked a few things on the barbecue so I won’t have to cook tomorrow. I grilled a fillet mignon, bake potatoes wrapped in foil, and the Asian pork chops.

Amber came by tonight and shared our dinner. The Asian pork chops were moist, tender and full of flavor. The steaks with their blue cheese were just fine, accompanied by the wonderfully smoky baked potatoes and balsamic grilled vegetables. It was a great dinner to share with a very good friend.

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In this Post

• Shrimp Stuffed Wontons
• Dipping Sauce

I Love Shrimp!

I wanted to make wontons for dinner tonight and stuff them with cream cheese and jalapeño, like I did with the Pope’s Hats. Since they have no meat, they are perfect for Fridays. But, on my way home from dropping Spane off at school, I stopped in at the local Hispanic market, where they had some lovely raw shrimp. So, I got some of that, and when to the local Armenian store to buy fresh cilantro, and fresh spring onions.

When I was a little girl, I had a severe allergic reaction to something, and I was tested and no one could figure out what it was. When I was in my twenties, I went to Encinada, Mexico and I again had a severe allergic reaction. Finally, a few years after that, I had one more allergic reaction. I thought about it, and realized that every time I had had a severe allergic reaction, I had eaten shrimp. But, I had been eating shrimp all my life, what was so different about those times? Then I realized each time that the sand vein had not been completely cleaned – I had eaten some of the sand vein. What is the sand vein in a shrimp? It’s their digestive tract, in other words, that’s where their poop is. There is also the “blood vein” (a euphemism for the ventral nerve cord) along the inner curve of the shrimp’s body that also has some nasty black stuff. I finally figured out after all those years that I was not allergic to shrimp itself, I was allergic to the sand vein, or to be more precise, the poop. I’m pretty much convinced that people who are allergic to shrimp are allergic to shrimp poop, not the shrimp itself, just like I am.

Why am I telling you all this? I am telling you this because, even if you are not allergic to shrimp poop like I am, there is still no excuse to leave the nasty digestive insides of shrimp intact. It may take a few seconds to clean, but it is well worth the effort, now that you know what that dark stuff is.

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Recipes in this Post

• Asian Tuna Steaks
• Caramelized Carrots

A few weeks ago, there was a lovely tuna steak on sale at the local supermarket. It was just big enough for Spane and I to share. I got it, put it in the freezer and forgot about it. This afternoon, I took it out for dinner.

Spane has been bugging me to make Macaroni and Cheese, and I went to my local Vons to get the cheese I needed a few days ago. I really think that Mac and Cheese requires white cheddar. This time, I had a little bit of medium cheddar left over, some bits of Colby from a cheese tray, and some mozzarella I used to make Risotto Rice Balls. I did not have bread crumbs, I used them all up with the Rice Balls and the Chicken Croquetas, so I took a large heel of sour dough and ran it through the food processor,and used that.

The cheese tray that we had on Monday night had the ubiquitous carrot pieces, and there were some of those left that would make a good vegetable to go with our dinner. I decided I would make the carrots the same way my mother made them.

I decided to use an Asian marinade for my tuna. Spane really loved it, with the carrots and, of course, the Mac and Cheese.

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