August 20

Shrimp Skewers and Cold Soup

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• Cilantro Lime Shrimp Skewers [View Recipe]

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  Ingredients

  • 1/3 pound shrimp (defrosted according to package)
  • 2 large limes
  • 2 cloves garlic (crushed and peeled)
  • salt & pepper
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • 2 tablespoons cilantro (cleaned and chopped)
  • 10 medium tomatoes (rinsed and dried)
  • 8 small mushrooms (wiped clean and stems removed)

  Instructions

  We start off by defrosting our shrimp according to the package directions in a colander in the sink. Meanwhile, we make our quick marinade. In a glass measuring cup, we squeeze our limes, yielding 1/4 cup of juice. We add the garlic, salt and pepper, olive oil, and cilantro and stir. We place the defrosted shrimp in a medium bowl, one at a time, removing their shells and discarding them. We pour the cilantro lime marinade over the shrimp and set it aside for a couple of minutes while we turn on the gas grill.

  While our grill is pre-heating, we take out our metal skewers and alternate cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, and shrimp on four skewers. We place the skewers on a dinner plate. The shrimp do not need to marinate for a long time, in fact, any longer than 10 minutes and we would have refrigerated them (only for at most 30 minutes since the acid in the marinade would "cook" the shrimp and change their texture.)

  We grill the skewers over a medium heat just for a couple of minutes on each side until the shrimp are just cooked through.

• Gazpacho [View Recipe]

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  Ingredients

  • 1 slice bread
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1.5 pounds tomatoes
  • 1/3 long cucumber
  • 1 medium pepper
  • 1 tablespoon vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • 1/4 cup water
  • salt & pepper
  • 1 tablespoon lime juice (freshly squeezed)
  • hot sauce
  • cilantro (cleaned)
  • croutons

  Instructions

  We start at lunchtime by crumbling the slice of bread into our blender. Next, on our cutting board, we crush, peel, and coarsely chop our garlic. We add this to the blender. We give the tomatoes a quick rinse and dry and then coarsely chop them, removing the core. We get about 2 cups of tomatoes and we add these to the blender. Next, we peel about half of the skin off the rinsed piece of cucumber. We chop the cucumber and put about a cup into the blender. The remaining 1/2 cup or so we chop into small pieces for garnish for the soup. We put the garnish into a resealable container. The red bell pepper we also chop some for the blender and some for the garnish. We add 1/4 cup of the pepper to the blender and the rest we chop small and add to the garnish container.

  We add the vinegar, oil, water, salt and pepper to the blender and puree. When the soup is nicely pureed, we taste for seasoning and add the lime juice and a few drops of Tabasco. We strain the soup through a fine-mesh strainer into a large container. We have about 3 cups of gazpacho. The soup is smooth and thin, but it will thicken slightly in the fridge. We probably could have left out the water for these juicy tomatoes. We cover and refrigerate both the soup and the garnish for a few hours.

  We serve the soup chilled, tasting first for seasoning. We add the cucumber and red pepper garnish and some cilantro and croutons.

• Couscous with lime juice, scallions and tomatoes