Sunday Dinners: Tea-Poached Shrimp With Three Salsas
April 18th, 2009
The Sunday Dinners project is a collaboration between Andrew Schloss and Cookthink. (For more on this, read Andy’s introduction to the project.)
Some foods are so simple in their construction, so ordinary in their form, so central to our collective culinary unconscious that we come to resent the fact that we have to cook them. Instead we leave the cooking to industrial giants, and in so doing we lose the knowledge that chicken isn’t naturally breaded in a bucket and salsa wasn’t born in a jar.
By bowing to corporate chefs to cook our favorite dishes, we relegate them to the world of commodities. Strained of all idiosyncrasies, they become streamlined to capture market share rather than the interest of the palate. Increasingly they lose their original value, until eventually it becomes impossible to convince anyone with active taste buds that these were once good foods.
Such has been the route of countless staples: tunafish, baked beans, chicken soup, macaroni and cheese — and the ubiquitous jar of salsa. Granted, commercially prepared salsa is convenient, and a boon for sparking a sauce or layering up a spur-of-the-moment taco, but fresh salsa is so easy to make and so much better than its processed counterpart that there is no excuse for not whipping up a batch when preparing a dish where salsa is featured.
Salsa cruda is the simplest of Mexican sauces. Raw and fresh, it is nothing more than a mixture of finely chopped vegetables. Anyone armed with a food processor and enough skill to flip a switch could make up a slew of the stuff with confidence that the gastronomic rewards would far exceed their Lilliputian efforts.
In fact, countless salsas can be mixed up in seconds to lend flavor and texture to a wide range of plainly grilled, roasted and poached dishes, without causing even a brief delay in meal preparation.
To prove my point, this week’s Sunday is hibiscus tea-poached shrimp served with three contrasting salsas — one made of tomato and ginger; another from corn and bell peppers; and a third that’s a mixture of fresh fennel, orange and avocado. It is accompanied by scalloped potatoes flavored with goat cheese, and an arugula and pecan salad with a balsamic vinaigrette.
Recipe: Tea-Poached Shrimp With Three Salsas (Sunday Dinners)
Recipe: Scalloped Potatoes With Goat Cheese And Anchovy (Sunday Dinners)
Recipe: Arugula Salad With Red Onion And Pecans (Sunday Dinners)
