Rachael Ray's Big Orange Book (21 page)

Combine the vinegar, honey, and hot mustard in a salad bowl. Toss the watermelon, watercress, scallions, and bell pepper with the dressing and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Combine the hot sauce, duck sauce, and soy sauce in a small bowl. Heat the oil in a skillet over high heat. Add the shrimp to the hot oil and stir-fry for 3 minutes, or until pink and firm. Add the soy sauce mixture to the shrimp and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper and squeeze the lime over all. Serve the shrimp on a bed of the watermelon salad.

This is serious comfort food, Portuguese style. If you're a fan of
ribollita,
the thick Tuscan bread and vegetable soup, you will LOVE this dish, which is pronounced “ah-sord-ah.” You'll know the bread porridge is done when the stirring spoon can stand upright in the pot by itself—just like it would in a good ribollita. (Skip lunch if this is supper; you'll need to save room!)

SERVES 4

Fill a medium pot with water. Add the bay leaf, then cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice into the pot and throw in the squeezed halves. Bring to a boil.

In a second pot bring about 4 cups of water to a rolling boil over high heat. Salt the water. Add the bread chunks and cook, stirring and mashing them, for 5 to 6 minutes, until a thick porridge forms. Remove from the heat and stir in the EVOO, garlic, and cilantro. If using the egg, add it now and stir vigorously into the bread porridge. Adjust the seasoning.

Once the bread porridge is simmering, add the shrimp to the lemon–bay leaf water and season with salt. Cook the shrimp until pink and firm, 3 to 4 minutes, then drain.

Serve the
açorda
in shallow bowls and arrange 5 prawns around each portion.

The term “grits” is not used literally here: instead of ground hominy, this recipe utilizes polenta logs, a store-bought, fully cooked cousin that is ready for the grill.

SERVES 4

Heat your grill to medium-high or preheat a ridged grill pan on the stovetop.

Place the shrimp in a shallow dish and pour about 2 tablespoons of the EVOO over them. Sprinkle in the grill seasoning, lemon zest, paprika, and cayenne and toss the shrimp to coat them evenly in the oil and spices.

Slice the polenta into 12 pieces about ½ inch thick on a little bit of an angle. Brush the polenta with a little of the EVOO and season with salt and pepper.

Combine the grated garlic with the juice of 1½ lemons, the mustard, and about 3 tablespoons of the EVOO. Toss the escarole and drained beans with the dressing and season with salt and pepper.

Grill the shrimp and polenta discs about 3 minutes on each side (if using an outdoor grill, keep the lid closed while cooking). The shrimp should be pink and firm and the polenta evenly marked. Squeeze the juice of the remaining ½ lemon over the shrimp. Serve 5 shrimp and 3 polenta discs per person with the escarole salad alongside.

Spanish Shrimp and Chorizo Skewers with Especial Couscous

If you enjoy paella, this dish delivers many of the same complex flavors but is much faster to make—so you'll eat sooner. Look for Spanish chorizo in the packaged meats aisle.

SERVES 4

Heat an outdoor grill to medium-high or preheat the broiler with the rack 8 inches from the heat.

Combine the paprika, garlic, parsley, and lemon juice in a shallow bowl. Add the hot sauce and 3 tablespoons of the EVOO, then add the shrimp and toss to coat. Let the shrimp marinate for 10 minutes.

While the shrimp marinate, bring the stock, the remaining tablespoon of EVOO, the lemon zest, turmeric, saffron, peas, and scallions to a boil. Stir in the couscous, turn off the heat, and let stand for 5 minutes. Add the cilantro, almonds, and olives, and fluff with a fork.

Thread 4 shrimp with 3 pieces of chorizo per metal skewer, nestling the sausage in the natural curve of each shrimp. Grill or broil for 7 to 8 minutes, turning once.

To serve, make a bed of couscous on each dinner plate. Top with a skewer and pull the skewer away from the shrimp and chorizo, leaving them resting on top of the couscous.

I love corn chowder; I could eat a whole pot of it by myself. To keep myself from doing so, I invented this gravy to pour over lean fish. (All things in moderation, right?)

SERVES 4