Monday, August 8, 2011

shrimp tacos & fried green tomatoes

good morning! a bit behind on outfit photos, so no ootd today, but considering pretty much all i did this weekend was cook & eat, i have no shortage of food to show & tell!

saturday morning we woke up and rode our bikes over to the fort greene farmer's market, certainly the one i frequent most often, as it's just a few blocks from our place. we filled up a backpack with all sorts of fruits and veggies and headed home; sam went out to skateboard, and i started to plot dinner.

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sam and i used to eat tacos on a weekly basis, but i've slowed down on them a bit because they feel so bad for you - at least, the way we eat them: stuffed with fried fish, mexican corn, tons of cheese and sour cream. so i decided to try for a healthier version of the tacos, and you know what? i really think they were just as good.

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reasonably healthy shrimp tacos

3/4 lb shrimp
1 T olive oil
1 T hot sauce

1 cup halved cherry tomatoes

1/2 avocado, diced & squeezed with lime juice & sprinkled with salt

several sprigs of cilantro

red onion, thinly sliced into rings
1 T apple cider vinegar
a few peppercorns
1 t mustard seeds
salt & pepper

4 flour tortillas

1 small container 0% fage yogurt
juice of 1/4 lime
salt

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combine the sliced onion, vinegar, peppercorns, and mustard seeds in a bowl; mix well and set aside.

rinse & slice tomatoes.

rinse cilantro well.

combine the yogurt, lime juice, & salt. i used this in place of sour cream and i was AMAZED at what a good substitute it was. i am not someone who likes low-fat versions of ANYTHING, but in something with this many flavors, this worked great.

peel & devein the shrimp, then marinade in the oil & hot sauce; the hot sauce will start to cook it a bit, so don't do this until you're ready to get them on the grill pretty fast.

heat up a grill - we don't have any outdoor space, sadly, so i use this handy double-griddle i got as a wedding gift (thanks toby!) in its place, and it works really well. get it nice and hot, spear your shrimp on a few skewers, and let 'em grill. they'll turn pink and start to curl up; turn 'em, let em turn TOTALLY pink on both sides, and remove from heat. next throw your tortillas on there, about 30 seconds on each side so they get nice grill marks.

and that's it! this was pretty painless, super delicious, and relatively healthy. until i added the fried green tomatoes.

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my taco (top) versus sam's. we both have a pretty healthy appetite (or unhealthy, you could say,) but he always piles on the toppings while i like my food simple, with a few flavors working together well and no one thing overpowering the other. i did a bit of research into this phenom this morning and as it turns out, girls have stronger tastebuds than boys! this is a broad generalization, of course, but it explains why i think a simple bowl of vanilla ice cream with strawberries is sheer heaven, while sam needs to drown his in caramel, chocolate, cookie pieces and three kinds of nuts to fully enjoy it.


as a side dish to the tacos, i decided to make fried green tomatoes - i'd attempted fried green tomatillos last week, with very disappointing results, and just couldn't get 'em outta my mind. so when we came upon a bin of green tomatoes, i pounced.

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classic fried green tomatoes

2 green tomatoes
2 T butter
1 cup flour
1 T turmeric
lots of salt & pepper

whisk together turmeric, salt & pepper with flour. put on a plate.

slice tomatoes about 1/2 inch thick. coat well in flour mixture.

heat a pan with butter until melted: fry tomatoes until well browned on both sides. salt again. lots of salt. salt salt salt.

add butter to the pan as needed.

that's really it! simple and good. but bad for you. on many levels! green tomatoes contain a toxin that isn't good for you in large doses, so don't eat these too often; on the other hand, said toxin is said to help prevent certain kinds of cancer, so it all evens out in the end. verdict: i'm not a doctor, eat whatever you want.

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that's all from me for now! lots and lots of fancy food for tomorrow (sam's birthday wooooo!)

xo audrey

11 comments:

  1. WOW, those fish tacos look amazing! I love how you called them "reasonably healthy", and I agree with you about having simple toppings, so very interesting fact you found!

    thanks for the ideas!
    Ann Marie
    http://believewishes.com

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  2. wow, im again hungry :) looks delicious!!!!

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  3. Those tomatoes are gorgeous, I want to steal all of them and eat them with lots of gorgonzola and balsamic vinaigrette. And those tacos!

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  4. Such gorgeous food! I'm so craving tacos now. And I just had lunch... I learned so much, too! Like, about the tomato toxins, male/female taste differences...


    And oh man, I can't wait to see the birthday dinner!

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  5. Yay tacos! These look amazing. I've been obsessed recently with making healthy-ish tacos, because while the taquerias where I live are stupidly delicious, they are so very far from healthy. Two favorites: tons of mushrooms (whatever looks good) chopped and cooked with serrano peppers and some shallot and a healthy dose of mexican oregano with some cojita cheese and avocado; and charred corn (which I do over my gas stove) and sweet onions cooked up, with cherry tomatoes, pickled radishes and (duh) avocado.

    Also, I made your chard and heirloom tomato gallette last week and it was super delicious. :)

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  6. All this fresh produce looks gorgeous. You're lucky you can easily bike to a farmer's market! That factoid about tastebuds was pretty interesting too. I guess that explains why Jasen always puts steak sauce on steak and Tabasco on eggs.

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  7. Your blog never ceases to leave me SALIVATING for fresh produce and a good home-cooked meal. That shrimp looks out-of-this-world!

    - Allison
    unpetitchatblanc.blogspot.com

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  8. Holy moly... I am going to be dreaming about these recipes tonight! Everything sounds unbelievably yummy! I am so happy you had a yummy weekend! :)

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  9. I made your tacos and fried green tomatoes on two separate occasions last week, and both were delicious! I got fresh veggies at North Market and those made ALL the difference in the tacos. I also used homemade (but lard free) tortillas; so much better than the prepackaged kind! I, too, am usually a low-fat substitution hater, but I don't often have sour cream on hand and always have Fage. I tried your yogurt "sour cream" and I am now a believer in at least one lower-fat alternative!

    I had never made fried green tomatoes so I used olive oil instead of butter for frying (I was afraid of burning the butter before it was hot enough to do its job; my stove is very finicky.) Using a little bit of cayenne pepper in place of turmeric (another ingredient I was without) gave the tomatoes a little zip. Thanks for sharing your recipes!

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  10. thanks so much everybody!

    and kate, AWESOME! nothing makes me happier than when someone tries & enjoys a recipe of mine. i want to try making my own tortillas next. and i'm definitely trying cayenne next time - they could use a bit of a bite.

    thanks so much, and have an awesome weekend!

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