Surf & Turf

The bulb flowers have come and gone but spring is still showing off here at Almost Heaven South with the crab apple and Yoshino Cherry in full bloom

When friends Joe and Carol called and offered to bring some shrimp over for a meal, we said you bet and after a couple of discussions, the menu began as : Char-grilled shrimp, steamed asparagus, and Mexican cornbread (Mississippi raised Joe likes cornbread with every meal).  But then Bev said she thought Black Bean Salad would go well with the meal so it was in and the asparagus was out and then I reminded Bev that she recently said that she didn’t think she much liked shrimp anymore. 

So I suggested she eat one of the two prime fillets we still had in the fridge then I thought let’s just cook them both and we’ll make it a surf & turf meal then I decided I’d cube the meat and make kebabs as an easy way to cook and serve among the group.  Then we revisited the asparagus and I decided to grill just a few so we’d have some green on the plate.  With all these “thens” you know how this meal went from “how about we bring some shrimp over and cook them” to become this full blown eclectic meal.

For the shrimp, I just cleaned and skewed them, brushed on garlic butter (salted butter & garlic paste), and tossed on the grill, turning them often and brushing each time I flipped them.  I made up two dipping sauces - Ina’s cocktail sauce and garlic butter sauce that I didn’t care for.

The black bean salad was made by Bev using the 5 star recipe from Two Peas andTheir Pod.  This pic is from her site but ours looked about the same.

Ingredients for a double recipe:

 2 15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained

 2 cups corn (Bev used canned)

 2 cups halved cherry tomatoes

1¾ cup chopped red bell pepper

¼ cup green bell pepper (added by Bev)

 1 cup chopped red onion

 1 cup chopped cilantro

 Juice of 3 limes (Bev used two)

 2 tablespoons olive oil

 2 teaspoons kosher salt

 1 teaspoon chili powder

 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

 2 large avocados pitted, peeled, and chopped

Instructions:

In a large bowl, combine black beans, corn, tomatoes, red pepper, onion, cilantro, lime juice, olive oil, salt, chili powder, and cumin. Stir to combine. Gently stir in the avocado and season with additional salt, if necessary. Serve.

The meal was a big hit and I enjoyed all four dishes and can see why the salad was rated so high.  Everything else was our usual but I would definitely make the salad again.

And on a sad note, I've often commented on here about the Sloan's Store in nearby Vonore, describing it as a convenience store and a mini Kroger's (with real butchers), Ace Hardware, and fishing store all rolled in to one, but just recently, they closed the grocery part of the operation.  I suppose the few-year-old Food City just a couple of miles away is the root cause, but I sure will miss being able to run to Sloan's when we need a few items and especially the butchers who cut meat to order.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

3/31/19 event date