Friday, May 15, 2009

Shrimp Tacos with Garlic-Chipotle Butter

I wanted to get this post done a bit earlier to contribute to the Friday Foodie Fix hosted by Diane at The W.H.O.L.E. gang. I suppose it's better late than never. Tonight I made shrimp tacos with garlic-chipotle butter and a tomatillo salsa. There is an ongoing list in my head of things that I never could have imagined about my life. I often think if I traveled back in time to have a chat with my late teens, early twenties self, what things about my life now would I be surprised by. Becoming a firefighter; never saw that coming. Marrying the love of my life and having a beautiful daughter; couldn't have pictured that either. Having a food blog focused on gluten free cuisine; A. I wouldn't have known what a blog was and B. I wouldn't have a clue what Celiac Disease and living gluten free is all about. Most shocking of all, I wouldn't believe that I would get sucked into watching the Food Network. There, I said it, I watch people cook food on TV. My dad would get a good laugh out of that. When I lived at home I was bored to death as my dad insisted on watching golf on TV. Now, I watch Iron Chef America, Good Eats, and Throwdown with Bobby Flay. It's almost depressing to see my admission in print. To top if off, I asked my wife for a Bobby Flay cookbook for my birthday. My recipe tonight comes from that cookbook: Bobby Flay's MESA Grill Cookbook.
There are a few recipes in the book for compound butters. To be honest, other than garlic butter, I have never thought about creating flavored butters with herbs and spices. I am just starting to experiment with compound butters and I am pleased by the results so far. I will give the full recipes, however, I have a small family so I usually cut the recipes in half.
Garlic-Chipotle Butter:
1 Tbs olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1 small shallot ( I used a little yellow onion instead)
1-1/2 sticks of butter (12 Tbs) at room temperature
2 canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce (That's 2 whole chiles, not 2 cans of chiles)
Juice from 1 lime
pinch of salt and pepper
Heat the oil in a small pan over medium heat. Saute the garlic and shallots / onion until soft. Put butter, sauteed shallot/garlic mix, chipotles, lime juice, salt and pepper into a food processor. Blend until smooth. Scoop onto parchment paper. Roll the butter up in the paper and twist the ends like you're packaging a hard candy. Place in the refrigerator.

Tomatillo Salsa and Garlic-Chipotle Compound Butter

Tomatillo Salsa:
10 tomatillos, husked and scrubbed
3 Tbs fresh lime juice
1/4 finely chopped red onion
1 serrano chile, seeded and finely chopped
2 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs honey
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
Dice 5 tomatillos and place in a bowl. Take the other 5 tomatillos, cut in half and place in a blender or food processor. Add lime juice and blend until smooth. Pour into the bowl with the diced tomatillos. Add red onion, olive oil, honey, salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly. Place salsa in the refrigerator. Just before serving, stir in the diced cilantro.

Prepare shrimp by deveining and removing the shell. Place about 2 Tbs of garlic-chipotle butter in a saute pan over medium high heat. Add shrimp and cook thoroughly.

Prepare your tacos with your favorite ingredients. After adding shrimp to the tacos, place a little more garlic-chipotle butter on each shrimp to melt and give the taco even more flavor. Enjoy!!!

5 comments:

  1. Oh man, that looks incredibly good! Actually came by for a question on the pizza crust so I'll comment there but I AM going to try these and for the record I am a little depressed at being a blog fanatic, celiac "expert", foodie myself, never saw that comin!
    Jessie

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  2. It sounds delicious, this is my favorite type of food!

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  3. Wow, Brian, you have my mouth watering with all your gorgeous pictures!! Loved your write-up, too. :-)

    Shirley

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  4. Oh, you know how to perk up my ears. Garlic and shrimp with tomatillos. Your compounded butter sounds amazing. Now that makes me miss butter. I think I'll try this with the soy butter. I'm the only one in the house that can eat soy but oh well. I think I'll use this combo on my fish tonight instead of plain like I was planning. No thinking tonight, 24 is on. Thank you for sharing this on Friday Foodie Fix!

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  5. Oh my goodness, this looks amazing! I love shrimp tacos. I like your idea for the chipotle butter - I've never done anything like that, and it sounds pretty delicious.

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