Sunday, June 12, 2016

Asian Prawn and Cucumber Salad


I'm always on the look out for things to do with the cooked, frozen prawns that I buy at Costco.  It's such an easy way to make a great dish.  They thaw quick and are very tasty too.
This recipe was a side benefit of making this recipe for Sushi Shrimp Stack.

A nice light salad perfect for a hot summer day's lunch, or dinner.



Serves 2
Ingredients

2 cups cooked prawns (frozen & thawed)
1 Tbsp mirin, or rice vinegar
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp mayo
1 Tbsp wasabi
1/2 tsp sesame oil
3 cups English or Persian cucumbers, cut into chunks
1/4 cup white onion, cut into small strips
1/4 cup yellow or red bell pepper, cut into small strips
1/3 cup green onions, minced (I used 2 Tbsp fresh chives, either works)
1 Tbsp sesame seeds

Drain the prawns after thawing and add to a medium serving bowl.  In a small bowl, make a dressing of the rice vinegar, mayo, soy sauce, sesame oil and wasabi.  Cut up the veggies, add to the bowl with the prawns in the bowl.  Stir in the dressing.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve.

You can make this up a couple hours ahead and chill.


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Saturday, June 11, 2016

Hawaiian Kebabs- Pork & Pineapple


Just got back from Kauai.
Sigh. It's hard to come home.
 
However, here's an easy little invention that we cooked while we there in the townhouse that we rented. I'm one of those weird gals that LIKES to cook while on vacation, yeah, sure, I do like to go out and eat, but one of the pleasures is sitting on the deck, with friends, enjoying a drink while enjoying the sunset.  And the guys are cooking at the BBQ, yep, that's fun to me.

We had a lot of pineapple juice (3 BIG cans), fresh huge pineapple and other goodies from our Costco shopping stop in Lihue.  It's crazy how much stuff that 4 people can put in a cart when power shopping on your first day of vacation. What a hoot.  We got some great items for our week... luckily we got to split that bill for the cart full of Costco stuff.

I will say, you could make this with canned pineapple chunks!  That way you'd have the already cut chunks, and you could drain the juice to use as the marinade as below.  One note of caution, I would imagine that canned pineapple make the dish a little sweeter.  Probably not a big deal as part of the yumminess of this dish is the savory pork with the sweet pineapple and the grilled onions.  Enjoy!

Serves 4
Ingredients

Bamboo Skewers
2 lbs boneless pork loin chops, cut into cubes
1/2 cup pineapple juice
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
2-3 cups of fresh pineapple, in chunks
1/2 large white onion, cut in chunks

Soak the bamboo skewers, this keeps them from burning while on the grill.

Marinate port cubes in pineapple juice, garlic salt, chili powder and olive oil
Let sit for at least 30 minutes.

Soak skewers, thread the white onion, pork, pineapple, alternating until each skewer is filled.


Heat up the grill to high, then turn down the heat to medium high after you add skewers.  We cooked them for about 12 minutes, but it could depend on your grill and how done you like your pork.  The suggested internal temp for pork is now 145, which usually means it has a small amount of pink inside.


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In case you need a little picture of a Hawaiian sunset to enjoy with your dinner, here you go!