The Alcoholian

Posted by johngl

As Labor Day quickly approaches and I sit here contemplating the finale of the burger thing, the fate of this blog, the state of my health, and spending some time at my real job this holiday weekend, I’m wondering: what’s in the fridge?

Food it my outlet.  Sometimes I think I would rather cook it than eat it, but then I look down at my waistline, which has expanded at the average rate of two inches per decade over the past 3 decades, I find that isn’t true. To some, this may seem like glacially slow movement.  But unlike glaciers, I don’t see this bundle of fat melting away any time soon. My belly is immune to Global Warming. It has a life all it’s own and takes an ultra-conservative approach to my otherwise liberal leanings.  It probably believes in god.

Also, very sadly, I no longer get the “you’re so skinny” comments as I once did when my parents and grandparents gazed upon my 6’6″ 175 lb. body.  It could be because they’re all dead now, but I doubt it.

Perhaps I should just eat healthier; you know, stay away from the piles of foie gras, duck fat, and butter burgers.

This looks healthy.  Fresh Gulf shrimp, mango salsa, and avocado.  Even though the shrimp are sautéed in garlic-butter, there isn’t a lot of bad stuff in here.

And I love shrimp.  It was a love affair that began when I bought my first 5 gallon-bucketful of them right off the boat in Cedar Key, FL — for 3 bucks a gallon.

I love them I tell you.

Cleaning shrimp is really a snap.  I use scissors and run them down the back to the tail.  The shells then peel right off and the sand vein is easy to remove.

Now that they are cleaned and ready, melt you some buttah into a skillet over medium heat.  There is a lot of protein in these babies and very little fat.  Proteins tighten under heat.  Take it easy.

Toss in some finely chopped garlic and give them a sprinkle of salt and pepper.

It just takes a minute or so before you’ll have to turn them.

Once you turn them, turn off the heat.  The carry over from a heavy skillet will be more than enough to finish these off.  Put a lid on the pan or cover it with a drape of foil.  Then go off and prepare the plate.

The recipe for the mango salsa can be found here.

This is an amazingly flavorful combination of foods and I should eat them more often just to counter the effects of burger binging. My liberal tree-hugging brain (as well as my doctors) would be a lot happier, though I’m afraid my belly would probably make stupid, unfounded comments about death panels.

The best things in life should be shared!

Tags: mango, shrimp

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 5th, 2009 at 11:01 am and is filed under Meat, Recipes: Eats, Techniques, Water. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.