Three's (Not) A Crowd

I went to Victoria over the weekend to visit my friend Julz of Can't Stop... Craft Til We Drop!. In true Esther & Julz fashion, our weekend was full of heartwarming activities. One of them happened to be cooking dinner Saturday night. A Jamie Oliver dinner.

Shrimp & Avocado With an Old-School Marie Rose Sauce

(I thought the addition of ingredients & directions would make it easier for anyone who doesn't own Jamie's Food Revolution & wants to try this recipe at home. Everything is directly copied from the cookbook.)

Ingredients:

• 1 or 2 ripe avocados
• 1 or 2 large handfuls of sprouted cress or alfalfa
  
• all-purpose flour
• 1/2 lb (250 g) peeled, large shrimp
• olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 heaping tsp (7 mL) paprika
• 1/4 cup (50 mL) mayonnaise
• 2 tsp (10mL) tomato ketchup (as opposed to the other kind...)
  
• 1 tsp (5 mL) Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp (5 mL) whisky
• 1 lemon
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Carefully cut your avocado until you hit the pit, then run the knife around it to halve it. Gently twist the two halves and pull them apart. Carefully remove the stone and discard, then peel the skin off and discard that too. Cut the cress. Put a handful or two of flour into a bowl. Drop your shrimp into the bowl of flour and toss until they're completely coated. To make your sauce, put your mayonnaise into a bowl with the ketchup, a small splash of Worcestershire sauce and the booze. Halve the lemon and squeeze in the juice from one of the halves. Cut the remaining half into wedges for serving. Add a pinch of salt and pepper and mix well. Give it a taste and add a touch more salt, pepper and lemon juice if you think it needs it.
2. Get yourself a large frying pan and place it on high heat. When the pan is hot, pour in 2 good lugs of olive oil. Bash and break up your garlic cloves with your hand and add these to the pan, immediately followed by your flour-dusted shrimp. Toss them well to coat them in the hot oil. Count to ten, then add a pinch of salt and pepper, and the paprika for flavour and colour. Keep tossing your prawns, trying to keep them in a single layer in the pan so they cook evenly, for about 3 to 4 minutes, until crisp and golden.
3. Divide your avocado halves between your plates. Divide the cress or alfalfa over the avocados and place the shrimp next to them. Drizzle a few good spoonfuls of your Marie Rose sauce over the avocados. Finish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkle of paprika. Serve with wedges of lemon for squeezing over. Fantastic!

Notes on a "Twenty-Minute Meal"...

• It took longer than twenty minutes. Realizing halfway through that we didn't have enough shrimp for three people meant we had to run to the grocery store. Thankfully it was only across the street.
• We used prawns instead of shrimp. I think this was a good move.
• Although there was plenty of alcohol in the house, whisky was scarce. Thus, the sauce was whisky-free and perhaps a little blander...
• I'd recommend frying the shrimp/prawns on medium heat. By the time we put the second batch in the pan, it was too hot (hence the slightly-burnt prawns in the photo).
• Despite the last-minute grocery run, forgetting to put the rice on in time, burning a few of the prawns, and not having any whisky, it turned out well! Everybody enjoyed it & the prawns didn't even taste burnt! Cooking for three is much easier than satisfying my family of six.