Slick

Shrimp Stuffed Zucchini

I was thinking a while of what to do with the gift of zucchini my friend dropped off. My brother-in-law shared with me a fabulous zucchini recipe his wife made, VERBALLY, I tried to hang on his every word yet I lost him somewhere around when he said ‘cheese’. That is the exact reason that I need a visual like photos or written words.

After they left, I asked my husband to recite the recipe and he goes ‘What recipe?’…I guess I’m not making that tonight.

The July issue of ‘Today’s cooking’ (今日の料理） magazine featured Stuffed Goya (bitter melon) recipe. Whadda ya know? Wait,wait don’t tell me (OK, I was influenced a little by NPR here). This could be a great substitute. This low calorie, tasty appetizer is still delectable after cooled so perfect for bento.

Note; I totally spaced out  half way through cooking, forgot to take process pictures, totally bad… but I hope you have a great imagination.

Ingredients and Instructions - reworked from original recipe

Equipment: non-stick skillet with lid.

• 1 Zucchini 7-10 inches.
• Large shrimp 15-to 20 depending on zucchini size. Remove shell and clean.
• Potato starch or corn starch  about 4 to 5 teaspoons divided
• Pine nuts (optional) about 1/4 cup
• Ginger root  minced about 2 Tablespoons divided in half
• Sake 4 teaspoons divided.
• Sugar 2 teaspoons divided in half (omit if desire)
• Salt 1/2 teaspoon
• Pepper
• Garlic minced about 1 Tablespoon
• Tobanjan (spicy miso paste, available in well stocked super market )1/2 to 1 teaspoon depending on your spicy preference.
• Chicken broth or Chinese soup dashi stock (中華だし) 3/4 cup
• Soy sauce 3 Teaspoons
• Vegetable oil

1. Slice zucchini in half length wise. Remove seeds and make a well with a spoon. Sprinkle with about 1/2 teaspoon of salt on the flesh. Set aside.
2. Put shrimp in a portable food processer then using the pulse button run the machine until it is chopped very small but not paste. Add pine nuts and make short run two times more.
3. Add 1 Tablespoon of sake, 1 Tablespoon of minced ginger, 1 teaspoon of potato starch, 1 teaspoon of sugar, salt and pepper and spin the baby again for once or twice. Set aside.
4. Wipe inside zucchini with paper towel then cut zucchini about inch wide. Dust with some of starch. Put some shrimp mixture to mold into a half moon shape. Dust lightly again with starch all over.
   
5. Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in the skillet. Brown both sides and transfer to a plate.
   
6. Add 1 teaspoon of oil in the same skillet. Put garlic, rest of ginger and tobanjan and sauté till aromatic. Put stuffed zucchini back into the skillet.
7. Add rest of sake, broth and soy sauce into the pan. Put lid on to steam for 4 minutes or so. Turn once during the steam process.
8. In a small bowl, mix 1 teaspoon of starch dissolved in 1/8 cup of water to make thickening agent.
9. Pour the starch mixture into the pan. Stir gently until slickly coated, approximately 1 minute.     

I was engrossed on making new recipes last week. My handsome dishwasher spent hours cleaning up the mess.

Waste not sprit - I made homemade furikake (rice topping) from shrimp shell I dried in sun – I then grind up in the blender, sauté with mirin, sesame oil and soy sauce, add sesame seeds to finish. Voila! A bit too crunchy but good for your bones!

Beet dishes are for my beet lover husband. Both from Charles of Five Euro Food. Beets and Mozzarella Carpaccio and Beet bread. He is a fun yet practical food blogger I am leaning from. And his little guy is awfully cute!

Gateau au chocolat was for a young friend who is on the mend.

Shiso juice is great solution! And refreshing!

A friend came for a short visit from Tokyo, Japan.They brought us some souvenirs, among which were this red chill pepper thread (糸唐辛子). It’s not spicy but adds some stitches of sophistication.Tokyo University graduate husband is an engineer at ANA (All Nippon Airways). They can fly anywhere the company flies inexpensively. So envious!

I bought a iPhone5! Now I will be an iphonographer! That’s slick!This is my very first iphoto! Hummmm, I need more practice.

What is that?!! My neighbor friend brought a dragonish ginger creature for me to see. Too bad this doesn’t look like Elvis. No, it's not eBay worthy I’m afraid.