Randy Wayne White & The Sunshine Plate

From The New York Times, this recipe sat, unused, far too long in a binder.

Randy Wayne White. I discovered this guy in my twenties, when I was starved for Florida fiction and he happily provided. A few years back, he published a cookbook, and it has (among other things) one of the best recipes for a shrimp curry you will ever taste. I’m not posting it here because I feel strongly you need to buy his Gulf Coast Cookbook and test the recipes yourself.

White lives in Pine Island, which is near Sanibel without being anything like Sanibel. I wrote a piece about the cluster of small coastal towns that exist on the island once in 2009, for Visit Florida, and I called it “The Florida Time Forgot.” I wrote about it again on my non-food (mostly) blog, Just Keep Swimming, in 2010, and in my soon-not-really-soon-to-be-a-bestseller-book about Florida, I describe Pine Island as the tomboy little sister to Sanibel’s prom queen appearance. Lots of fishermen here, so of course I wanted the shrimp recipe when I saw it in The New York Times Magazine in 2010.

Of course, I didn’t make the Yucatan Shrimp (but I will) – I actually used the pork recipe beneath it. And, me being me, I modified it, and you can find my version of the pork with pineapple salsa below.

Pineapple Salsa

1 1/2 cups fresh pineapple, peeled and diced

1  jalapeño, seeded and diced

2 tablespoons ginger (I used the jarred stuff)

2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil

1 tablespoon fish sauce (You can add more if you want more heat)

Juice of one lime

Pork
One pork roast, cut into 3/4″ thick slices (the salsa will top eight pork steaks)

Salt and pepper (I use kosher salt and grind the pepper)

Mint

Cilantro

1. Season pork with salt and pepper and sandwich pieces of mint and cilantro between them. Set aside while you…

2. Mix salsa in bowl.

3. On a quite hot grill – makes no matter to me if you use charcoal or gas; we used gas this time but will use charcoal if the mood suits us and we aren’t too hungry to wait for the flames to start to die – grill pork about  3 minutes per side.

4. Top with salsa.

5. Share and enjoy!

 

The Recipe File, One Month of New Food, & Feta Shrimp Fusilli

Instead of a recipe box, try file folders.

I have a habit – I freely admit I get this from my grandmother – of collecting recipes. Not just online (thank you, Allrecipes.com, for making my recipe file feel lighter when, in fact, it’s just getting worse) but in real life, where my once-slim and once-tidy bright pink binder… well, it kind of exploded.

Once we finished the kitchen remodel, I moved my recipe books into my new pantry (Why would two adults need a third bath when what really matters is having a way to store baking goods, that’s what I always say. Well, not always, but this time.) One small problem… the binder wouldn’t hold all the recipes anymore. It was the metaphorical blister on the glossy new lips of my new kitchen.

And so I weeded. I tossed recipes I tried and hated, purged ones that no longer held any appeal, and filed the remainder in sleek file folders.

One folder, the “TRY” folder, taunts me. This month I vow to try each recipe and file or pitch it. If it’s worthy, I will post the results here.

Last night I made this, though, with rave review from El Cap, a/k/a The World’s Pickiest Eater.

Feta Shrimp Fusilli

• 2 cups fusilli
• 1 cup feta, crumbled
•  1 pound Key West shrimp
• Olive oil
• 1 cup diced cherry tomatoes

1. Set water to boil for pasta and shrimp (two pots, people, this isn’t one of those Pinterest one-pot meals) and add a dollop of olive oil to the pasta water to keep it from boiling over the lip.
2. Peel and vein shrimp (or have El Cap do it, as is my preference)
3. Boil pasta to desired tenderness.
4. Boil shrimp for three minutes.
5. Drain pasta and return to bowl with one tablespoon olive oil.
6. Crumble feta over pasta; mix.
7. Add shrimp and tomatoes.

Winging It With Top Sirloin.

The whole point of learning how food works is learning the rhythm of food, not specific ingredients. Yes, you can use the recipes Tiffany and I post here, but our hope is that you learn to feel the pulse of food and come to understand how to create one taste with many foods. To get there, you have to be willing to make mistakes. I know I’ve made my share. I’m not afraid to admit it, and anyone who tells you they can’t think of a bad meal they’ve made is either not a real cook or full of shit.

Last night was a good night in our house, food-wise. Our kitchen remodel is on the cusp of completion (and sweet lord, what a great kitchen it is), and ever since the gas company hooked up our cooktop a few weeks ago, I’ve been at it nonstop. Last night was the first time I acquiesced to allow El Cap to grill meat outside. I handed him two marinated top sirloins and told him to have fun.

Of course, grilling steak doesn’t mean you don’t do anything to it other than throw it on the grill. I marinated it for a few hours – olive oil, Adobo Light spices (Yeah, the premixed stuff. Don’t judge me.), Worcestershire, cilantro, and a dash of the green jalapeño pepper sauce Tabasco makes (I would drink that stuff if I could). Then I had to look through the fridge to see what I had to go with it. No real veggies – just one serving of cooked asparagus and some potatoes, but that seemed somehow too much for the night. I wanted something that seemed different without being too much work.

So, while the steak and the grill were doing their thing, I cooked some farro, sliced some fresh mozzarella and chopped half a tomato, and grabbed some chopped scallions from the fridge (if I don’t chop them when I bring them in the house, they just rot in the deep recesses of the Whirlpool). When El Cap brought in the steak and sliced it,  had the farro already on the plate. He added the steak, and on top of that I added mozzarella, tomato, and scallion.

Seriously easy stuff – my total contribution (other than watching the farro cook) was about four minutes. The key is knowing that the flavors would work well together. I could have done the same thing with feta and olives instead of mozzarella and tomato, but probably not mozzarella and olives.

So that’s the challenge: Think about what flavors you like. Do you like peppers and onions? Use that as a topping. Good food doesn’t have to be dramatic foods seasoned with things you’ve never heard of before (although it can be).

Sometimes you just have to wing it.