Not only have we both chosen prawns for our shellfish theme this month, both Gen and I also have some backstory on a different type of shellfish before the prawny affair – me with my lobster allergies and Gen with her crab encounter. Here’s what she has to say about coming face to face with crabs:
Ironically, crabs freak the crap out of me! I mean, do not show me a crab. I’ll do an embarrassing girl-run into the next zip code. Yes, it really is that bad. I thought finding crab meat, actualmeat, not ‘crab-flavoured’ fish sticks, would be easy. After all, I live in Cape Town, and we have a huge selection of fresh seafood. I phoned around and found two places who swore to me that I would be purchasing meat, not crabs. Off I went, happy that I would not have to put my running shoes on, and, at both places, I was handed freaking crabs, people! Eeeeeeeeeeeek! The Husband laughed as I waved my hands in the air, shouting “I can’t! I really can’t!” whilst trying not to hyperventilate. Yeah, the dudes behind the counter laughed too.
Oh, Gen! She made me laugh so hard! And then she went on about prawns having freaky eyes. And I laughed even more! But I can see where she was coming from. Crabs that are still alive with their eyes and huge ass pincers do not look very inviting and I’m with her with the prawns’ eyes, too. My only consolation is that they both do make good food. Just have a look at this Prawn Soup Gen made:
Credit: Eat, Play, Clove
Tell me THAT does not whet your appetite? The picture looks so good that when I opened my browser to see what Gen had come up with, I was instantly glued to the screen, STARING at her orange soup and the succulent-looking prawns for some good minutes. And because she mentioned that she made it with a Thai-ish theme, I swear I can almost taste that Tom Yum Soup in my mouth!
It makes me want to eat some Tom Yam soup now. Really, no kidding! I think that is probably one of the best looking and best-photographed soup I have ever seen this month. Just on that alone, Gen did well for this month’s challenge.
Hop over Eat, Play, Clove for Gen’s Thai-ish version of Prawn Soup recipe. While you are there, do check out her other mouth-watering dishes too. And make sure you leave her some bloggily love!
Shellfish the theme of our tenth monthly mystery challenge is.
One we have not done before, this is.
To do that, you will try
What I’m trying to say is that I so love, love shellfish. (And Starwars). Not every kind of shellfish, though, as I mostly pass those categorised as molluscs such as cockles, conch, oysters and mussels. It’s a texture thing.
I am, however completely in love with crabs (but not horseshoe crabs), crayfish, prawns (oh yummy prawns!), scallops and squids.
Lobsters I used to love. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to enjoy any more lobsters since the discovery of my allergy to it only about 7 years ago. That took me by surprise as I never had any history of lobster allergies prior to that.
The thing was, I have been eating lobsters fine all along, albeit not a weekly or even a monthly affair. It took one supposedly fuss-free meal at an Italian restaurant in Bangkok once upon a dinner, and when I woke up the next day, my entire face swelled up, my eyes could not be pried open, my entire body broke out in hives and my breathing was somewhat difficult.
That was straight to emergency! My allergy was confirmed with a blood test. Of all things…lobsters and ONLY lobsters. And on the hindsight, thank heaven it is ONLY lobsters for there are other worst allergies.
Years later, it turns out that Spud shares the same lobster allergy as I do. We only knew because she had the same blood test done in her early stages of life when we were told that she was allergic to something. I still think it’s kind of weird that allergies like that just developed when there was never a problem before. I wonder why that is.
Now that you know, it’s easy to plot a revenge on me or kill me; just feed me lobsters. OK, maybe not enough to kill me, but enough to make me go raving mad from the inconvenience of having a puffa fish face.
So there! Just like that, lobster is off the menu but there are plenty other options to experiment with.
Succulent, fresh tiger prawns is my crustacean of choice and I thought that I’d challenge myself with one that is of restaurant-taste quality and style. The kind that makes me wants to wallop everything and then come back for more.
Nevermind that Silver Bullet does not eat prawns. This time, the shellfish theme allowed me to be…uhm…selfish.
A look at this month’s creation…let’s take:
Oven Grilled Gambas al Aljillo
2016-01-11 02:58:49
Serves 10
Home-made spicy, garlicky and peppery prawn dish that is full of flavour
Cut dried red chilli slant-wise and soak in hot water for 5 minutes then drain
Rinse the prawns, drain all excess water and put them all in a bowl
Peel and press garlic and add into the prawns. Don't discard the remaining skin - just chopped them up and mix them together with the already pressed garlic
Throw in all the rest of the ingredients except coriander and butter. Don't forget the dried chilli.
Mix well and leave it overnight in the chiller
Heat the oven to 180 degree celsius
Spread the prawns and all of the seasoning in a baking or aluminium tray
Blob small amount of butter on top of the prawns and drizzle more of the olive oil if you prefer
Oven grill for about 8-10 minutes
if you are using butter, make sure you mix them all up again and spread them around as soon as you notice the butter starts to melt
The prawns should be ready in 8 minutes, otherwise leave it a little longer on lower oven temperature.
Garnish with coriander and serve!
Notes
It is not necessary to leave the prawns marinated overnight and you can leave it for an hour.However, I found that the taste just infused way, way better if left overnight. A great recipe to feed a crowd.
Grubbs n Critters https://grubbsncritters.com/
The one thing I love about this recipe is the generous use of chilli olive oil and the subtle taste of sage, saffron and Worcestershire. I’ve also been dying to use the chilli oil my in-laws brought me and this was a perfect excuse to use it.
I’m a sucker for anything spicy and I love that the dried chilli pieces ramped up the taste just a tad further. I spare no regrets for the copious amount of fresh garlic used.
Did I get the restaurant quality taste as I set it out to be? Apparently, I did as attested by 5 other people who tried it and they got me blushing when they started to rave about it a week on after eating it.It makes me a very happy cook!
Let’s pop over at Gen over at Eat, Play, Clove and see which shellfish has she decided to go with. I bet you Gen will easily ace this challenge and give you a mouth-watering dish that leaves you wanting more!
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Monthly Mystery Munchies features every first Friday of the month in collaboration with Gen, Author of Eat, Play, Clove. Next month will be my turn to choose a theme and we are set for it. Until then!
Here’s a cliché: Where did all that time go! It’s already the 3rd day of March and I have completely missed the first 3 days of the month.
Too many things to do, so little hours in the day to do everything. I spent the last 3 days tapping away furiously on my keyboard with the occasional phone glued to my ears for almost 12 hours straight. Pure, hard tap, tap, tap, several letters at a time. Not blogging. OK. I did take several toilet breaks every now and then. Still. It was pure hard work. I haven’t been home in time for the kids’ bedtime.
Then, when I get home, I continued with the tapping. Writing up my resume and changing it a hundred times over. Till the wee hours of the night. Not blogging. The pandas are of no fight to the eyebags I have now. It’s my new eye make-up.
Today was not any better at the office. Too many meetings. My inbox is bursting. So many emails unread. I hate seeing unread emails; they make me anxious and uneasy. Why do people send so many emails? My personal mailbox is showing 1000+ of unread emails. They are mostly blogs which I follow and I’ve been dying to read them. I read a few, mostly during my quick breaks or when I’m in the bathroom. I’ll get to the rest unread ones soon enough.
Last week, we were informed that we were going for our annual company trip to Japan for 5 days. All paid for. It’s a reward from the company for all the hard work we did last year. It was a nice gesture but I will not be joining. I find company trips a chore; especially on a group tour. And for someone with young kids, 5 days is A LOT to ask from a mother who already spends too much time in the office or travelling on business.
Somehow, some people don’t really quite get that. That 5 days are too many days for a mother to be away from her family for a leisurely company trip with people whom I see for 10 hours a day. Everyday. If I am single, I would not give any thought of not going. But I’m not single. A reward for me now would be that they allow me to BE with my family and not take any more of my time away from them in the name of a reward.
Besides, Silver Bullet will be travelling. It’s true.
Then there’s this nagging thought…looming and brewing at the very far end of my head. Tiny bubble thoughts. They are gently whispering: 2 more months, Ann. Two.more.months. Or less. And it’s happening.
Which brings me to our imminent move to the Netherlands. We now have a house. A home. Somewhere in the suburbs. My visa was approved yesterday. A visa for 90 days for me to get into the country and then I’ll have to collect my residency permit. I still have not secured any job and it’s bugging me. But the semi-good news is that my company is trying to arrange for me to work remotely from Holland for our Thai office.
It is not confirmed due to legalities and the procedures surrounding it. But there’s a possibility. The management is trying to work it out.
Whether they work it out or not, our departure is inevitable. In 2 months we have to pack our lives into a suitcase. We don’t have much but we still have to put up ads to sell our stuff. We can’t possibly bring everything. The cats would have to come with us. So would the kids.That’s a no-brainer.
Our Nanny of 6 years has been informed. She cried buckets when we broke the news. Shame we can’t bring her along with us. We really are fond of her, so are the kids. She’s been a gem. A true gem. I’ll pack her into a suitcase if only I could.
Right at the back of my head, I’m picturing me, a housewife living in a suburb, riding a bicycle and all wrapped up in winter wear. Cleaning, ironing, vacuuming. No Nanny. No extra help. No gainful employment. Not something I find appealing. WTF.
2 more months and I know that at the back of my head that we have lots to do. Like bank accounts to close, phone lines to cut off, subscriptions to cancel, clean up all the crap in the house, trip to plan and plane tickets to buy. Amongst other things.
And blog. It’s not a need. It’s a want. Only because my head is running out of space. I want to write and I want to get back on writing for World of Moms again. This is pure yearning, agonising want.
This relocation still has not quite sunk in yet. Not just yet.
Recently we have been changing our bed sheets almost every day. One of the cats has been using our bed as their litter box to pee and to crap on.And I mean real, smelly cat shit on our bed! It’s annoying. There’s no telling which of the three had done the deed.
We have our suspicions, but we have not been able to catch them red-handed. So we had a conversation:
Me: Where is Andy? Who shit on the bed?
Me: Tell me the truth. So which one of you shit on our bed??
Me: Yes. There is shit on the bed. Why are you not using your litter box? What is up with you?!
It was clear that we weren’t getting through each other on this one. So much for reaction. Asking them to confess is like trying to pull a whisker!It boggles the mind why they do that and we have been scratching our heads trying to figure this one out.
This started a few months back but has gotten quite out of hand in the recent weeks. Just 2 days ago, Silver Bullet discovered that he has accidentally plonked himself on a pile of cat shit while putting Squirt to bed. It’s a big riddle in our household: WHICH cat? WHY OH WHY for the love of god, shit on the bed?
This morning, I think we got our answer. Silver Bullet caught one of them doing the deed while I was still sleeping. The darn cat was shitting away near my feet while I was snoozing! Beat that!
Take a stab as to which of the two did it – Fudge (on the left) or Donut (on the right)?
As for the why I still haven’t got a clue! I might just have to give that Catman, Jackson Galaxy a call. This cat has issues. The only thing we can do now is to make sure that all the bedroom doors are closed off to them. Darn cats!
