Taste of the Tropics

Tonights dinner was very fruity. And not just any fruit - tropical fruit. The only thing we were missing was the pineapple!

Broiled shrimp with mango salsa was spicy and sweet. And I wanted to try to make some coconut rice to go with it, because what goes with mango better than coconut? I looked at some recommended recipes and ultimately just decide to pour some coconut milk into my rice cooker with the rice. It came out perfectly.

And are you ready for one of Kate's handy dandy cooking tips? I always make my marinades in ziplock bags. Then you just add the main ingredient (chicken, beef, shrimp) and you can actually moosh it about to get everything coated and refrigerating it becomes cake.

Jon liked this dinner, although he said the shrimp were tasty enough on their own that they didn't even need the salsa. I guess that's a complement....although now I'm not so sure what to do with the extra salsa I've got in my fridge. Guess I should go pick up some tortilla chips!

Broiled Shrimp

1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup parsley
1/4 cup basil
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tbsp creole mustard
1 tsp dried mustard
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
24 jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined

1) Combine all ingredients in ziplock bag, refrigerate one hour.
2) Heat broiler. Broil shrimp 4 minutes, turning over half way through.

Mango Salsa

1 Tbsp canola oil
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 jalepeno seeded and chopped
1 tsp crushed ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
1 ripe mango, peeled and coarsely chopped
1/6 cup fresh orange juice
1 tsp light brown sugar
salt and pepper to taste

1) Combine all ingredients but salt and pepper.
2) Place in fridge for 30 minutes to let the salsa do the flavor tango.
3) Season with salt and pepper