Shrimp Poke Bowl
24 December 2024 | St. Marys, GA
Cap'n Chef Andy | Very Chilly AM, Warm PM

I enjoyed the last of the stuffed cabbage. The fridge was now bare of leftovers except for bean soup which was in the little freezer. I decided to make a clam florentine soup derived from a shrimp recipe.
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I bought frozen spinach which came in a size better suited for the quantity I was making. A quart of half and half and an onion were the other ingredients I needed. I already had canned clams, celery, flour, and Irish butter on hand.
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This is another one pot wonder, melt 5 tbsp butter in a medium pot with diced onion, crushed garlic, a a couple stalks of celery finely diced. When the onion is getting translucent the chopped spinach is added, then 5 tbsp of flour are added and the roux is cooked for a few minutes constantly keeping the bottom of the pot clear. Clam juice is decanted from two cans of clams into the roux and whisked smooth, then half and half is added a little at a time. The rule is to only add as much liquid equal to the quantity of the roux. It took three pours, each time letting the mixture thicken in between. Parsley flakes and fresh ground black pepper were added. The soup thickened and the heat was turned off. The bottom of the pot was carefully scraped to prevent burning.
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I had some of the soup while sitting on the pandemic porch in the boatyard and Geoff the chemist cycled by. We chatted a bit. Komputer Ken backed his vehicle past us. I had related to Geoff how Ken had fallen off his bike while attempting his first ride in many years. Ken had been a professional bike racer long ago. Geoff asked me if he should offer to sell Ken training wheels, no, I said, I'll do it. I yelled Ken, Ken, Geoff has some training wheels. Ken flipped me off.
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Netflix debuted a new docuseries about Aaron Rodgers, the current NY Jets quarterback and I was obliged to view it. I like sport documentaries and this one is really special, not because of Rodgers impressive football career, but because of his philosophical search. Many people I know are on this quest, their families estranged due to religious issues or other rifts, and the individual has to go it alone. In this case Rodgers has shown he is a true outlier, he has been experiencing sessions with the South American drug ayahuaska which looks to me to be an extreme experience complete with hallucinations and deep soul searching. Rodgers comes across as a brave guy who thinks for himself and is on a quest to satisfy his curiosity and satisfy a need to reconcile issues in his life. I highly recommend this documentary.
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The clam soup was very good.
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Eloisa sent me a link to a food prep video from the Italia Squisita channel. It was an Etruscan soup preparation. I subscribed to the channel and looked at more of their videos. These are in depth shows about iconic dishes prepared in Michelin starred restaurants. Not all the dishes are Italian. The show shot in New York City about chicken parmesan is about an American dish invented by Italian immigrants and prepared with local ingredients. These videos make most others look like amateur cooking.
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One preparation is a ratatouille made with very thin slices of the ingredients arranged alternating like a multicolored snake. It inspired me in an unusual way.
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I love poke bowl, especially the way East Coast chefs interpret the Hawaiian original preparation. Usually they start with a bed of rice, then a ring of cucumber slices around the edge of the bowl, then diced fish, like ahi tuna, and other asian standards, seaweed salad, diced mango, sliced avocado, a dressing made with mayo and sriracha. How many people toss and turn at night struggling with thoughts about preparation of poke bowl?
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I thought about the Italian gourmet version of ratatouille, the round sliced vegetables layed out like a multicolored rope, hmmm. You could do the same thing with shrimp, avocado, and cucumber. Slice the shrimp like you are butterflying it, but cut it in half. Slice intact half of avocado and reserve the largest slices, the smaller end slices go into a small sauce bowl. Calculate how many avocado semicircles you have and cut the ends off a cucumber leaving a cylindrical middle piece that gets peeled in a striped pattern, halved lengthwise, and sliced the same thickness as the avocado. All these slices should have a taper to them, thicker on one side than the other. When they are stacked together they will form a natural curve and that is what will go on top of the bed of rice.
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The avocado ends are mashed with a tablespoon of mayo and spiced with instant tom yum paste and soy. The paste is every bit as spicy as sriracha and maybe a half teaspoon is enough. The combination of sodium from the tom yum paste and soy can be too much, so you have to taste the dressing as you add the spicy and salty elements. Sesame oil can be added now, too, or sprinkled later after assembly.
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I mixed the cucumber slices with the dressing and then assembled the slices in order, cucumber, avocado, shrimp, cucumber, avocado, shrimp, etc. The result is very tasty with good texture. I bought a mango but it is too green to be of use this time. Sliced raw mushroom would work in this also.
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The soup I vowed I would not make. It's the poke bowl ingredients with broth and egg drop. I've made a soup several times that combines hot and sour and tom yum in one soup. Hot and sour has the egg drops, corn starch thickening, mushrooms, sometimes shredded pork, spiced with vinegar and something sweet, maybe brown sugar. Tom Yum can also have the thickening, but mainly it's the chicken, shrimp, and/or mushroom, and both soups have aromatic sesame oil . The combined soup has mushrooms and shrimp, egg drops, tom yum paste as the spice, the sugar and vinegar, or I use balsamic vinegar a lot. I resisted making this soup so I could make the poke bowl, but the poke bowl ingredients are attractive for this soup.
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If I don't go out and get mushrooms, the soup will be chicken stock with egg drops, poke bowl dressing as the spicing, and shrimp, avocado slices, and cucumber slices, the sweet and sour of balsamic vinegar, how bad could it be? Very bad. I ate the shrimp and tossed the rest. Should have been good, wasn't.
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The next day I made a run to Walmart and it was a zoo with Christmas eve shoppers. I took my time and got what I needed. I stopped in the one quiet place in the store and looked through the recipes stored on my phone for something, anything, a last minute purchase for a holiday dinner.
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When I got back to the boatyard, the gulag, I felt inspired to cook what I bought at Walmart. It was two pair of thick pork chops, a large yellow onion, one of the 3 remaining green peppers at the store, and a can of petite diced tomatoes. I took the large skillet and began searing the chops in olive oil.
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The chops were huge and the large skillet wasn't large enough. I hoped they would shrink to make more room. I prepped the green pepper and onion. No way they'd fit in the skillet along with the huge chops. The chops were browned, not all at once, shuffled around, then removed to add the veggies and scrape the bottom of the pan. There was also ¾ cup of rice there. I added a pint of water and as the mixture percolated the chops went on top of everything and the lid went on top, not enough room to close it completely, but maybe the chops would shrink and the whole concoction will fit.
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After a while I tasted the sauce or broth. Not bad. The chops were cooked enough, but of course they will be much better after stewing them much longer. My nibbling of the chops and tasting of the sauce began to make room in the pan.
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At some point I noticed the top of the stove was wet with broth from the pan. It had been drizzling out, maybe that is another reason for room in the pan. The sauce was a bad substitute for detergent, but the stove top was actually cleaner after wiping it up.
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The concoction was getting better and better. The more the chops cooked the more affable and relaxed they got. Cut em with a fork. The sauce thickened. I had had too much nibbling, but I put some more of a chop on a plate with a scoop of the veggie sauce. Mmm. Food almost any diner would be proud to serve.
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The photo is of the shrimp poke bowl. I have enough leftovers to make another.