Semi-Homemade Fiesta

When Sunday nights usually mean depression of an upcoming Monday and repeats on television, try this delicious new idea for a Sunday night dinner. Shrimp tacos with a mango salsa, guacamole, cabbage, and rice.

I’m no Sandra Lee, and there was no pre-dinner “cocktail time,” but this dinner was a semi-homemade fiesta.

These tacos were part homemade (the salsa and shrimp), and some was from the store (guacamole and rice). Then we assembled. Have I mentioned that I don’t think I’ve ever cooked raw shrimp before? We used to buy it cooked like for shrimp cocktails, but I’ve never worked with raw shrimp. They are very easy and fast cooking. Easy to work with if you don’t mind the slime of taking the shells off (or enlist a husband who is desperate for a real protein filled meal).

Such fresh colors, vibrant flavors, spicy, sweet, crispy. Great combinations!

Shrimp Tacos

Ingredients (serves 2):

• 3/4 pound raw shrimp, remove tails and de-vein or buy it that way. chopped in half or thirds if they’re large. You want them bite sized.
• 1 T extra virgin olive oil, or a high-heat one like vegetable oil
• 2 T white flour
• 1/4 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/2 mango, chopped
• 1/4 tomato, chopped
• 1/3 red onion, chopped
• guacamole (homemade or store-bought), cheddar cheese, lime, cilantro, cabbage, tortillas, dirty rice (like Uncle Ben’s 90 Second Rice), jalapeno, sauteed onion

Instructions:

• Clean and dry shrimp with paper towel, place in bowl.
• Combine salt, pepper, garlic, cumin and sprinkle over shrimp.
• Add flour to shrimp bowl and shake or flip so they are coated.
• Heat a skillet and add oil. Once hot, add shrimp and brown on each side about 2 minutes each.
• Remove from heat and let drain on paper towel. (We did ours in two batches and added the first back to heat up, then re-drained.)

For salsa:

• Combine mango, onion, tomato in a bowl and add salt and pepper.

Assemble tacos with cabbage (or a crispy lettuce), shrimp, salsa, cilantro, guacamole, and any other toppings.

We served ours with rice, 90 second variety by Uncle Ben.

(shrimp in the bowl with spices and flour)

(frying up. flavors were great! a mild kick, crispy, perfect bite size)

(all of the assembly pieces–cabbage, cilantro, guacamole, salsa, cheese, rice, tortillas, shrimp, jalapeno with onions)

Such pretty flavors and colors.

When we make this again, I would chop the salsa parts more. I didn’t like the large pieces of raw red onion, but Jeffrey didn’t mind it. Loved the shrimp flavors! And the cabbage gave it a nice crunch too.

Obviously this is also easy to tailor to your taste. Swap this cabbage for a purple or just use lettuce, ditch the onions or cilantro and replace with parsley.

We made all gone. Buy more shrimp if you want leftovers!

Do you have a protein you haven’t cooked with before?

I still want to try lentils. Don’t know what to eat with them!