The moment of discovery is a beautiful thing. You've likely been toiling away for an outrageous amount of time: Researching, experimenting, tweaking, cursing to the ceiling, taking yet another redo, cowering in the corner in tears while your dog stands nearby prepped to dial 9-1-1 on your cell phone.
Then, finally, it all comes together in such a wonderful way that you become entranced. You see your named called at the Golden Foodie Awards ceremony. And at that moment, cowering in the corner of your kitchen, you begin practicing your thank you speech.
OK -- no. Kitchen discoveries are probably rarely like that at all. If ever. Silly, descriptive, imaginative me.
But this does mark a moment of discovery.
The ingredients were ripe:
1. I was tired from a wonderful day of yard work and pool time. 2. I had to prepare dinner in short order.
3. I had to use much of what was on hand.
4. That orzo, sitting in a dim corner of the pantry, felt neglected. It had threatened to take me to divorce court on multiple occasions.Thus, I had to figure out a way to get it into a dish.
5. I had a craving for onions. Mad craving.
The process was simple. I sauteed the onions in olive oil until they were soft and beginning to brown. Then, I added chopped baby bellas -- no need to add additional oil. As the mushrooms began to cook through, I crushed in a few cloves of garlic.
Meanwhile, I prepped the shrimp. Once cleaned, I put them in a bowl with an ample squirt of lemon juice and a little bit of ponzu, which is one of my favorite condiments. I learned about ponzu at a fast food sushi joint in town. I find that it is an excellent seasoning addition for meats and vegetables. I'm still experimenting with it and found it worked perfectly with this dish.
Letting the shrimp sit, I finished off the onion, mushroom and garlic sautee. I had already begun boiling ponzu. After draining it, I set to work on the shrimp. The secret is adding lots of dried parsley. I mean lots! If you are a lover of parsley, go wild. Add as much as you like. The flavor, along with the lemon and ponzu, is just amazing.
...ahhh...just amazing.
As the shrimp sauteed, I added a little bit of butter -- about half a tablespoon -- along with the dried parsley. Once the shrimp was cooked through, I added the onions and mushroom with a dash of ponzu. The trick is to add a little bit of ponzu at a time a couple of times during cooking. At this point, I added the orzo and, for extra flavor, a bit of garlic salt and onion powder.
That's it! A full dinner in a bowl. Just lovely. The flavor is light, but full. There is so much going on with this experimental dish, and I imagine you can do the same with beef, pork, chicken or a whole range of vegetables (peppers, corn and maybe even eggplant). It's quite different, and somewhat unusual, but I imagine I will be making this time and time again. Good stuff.
You have hit a home run.
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