This past week, though, I may have found it – THE cookbook that may end our family’s long history of meal flops.

Authored by Chef John Ash, “Cooking One on One” takes an aspiring cook through flavor-makers (such as salsas and marinades), then basic techniques (soups, oven-dried foods, and so on), and finally main ingredients (meats, beans, sea foods, soy foods, etc.). He emphasizes home-grown and free-range ingredients, which suits our family well.

I questioned the book for a brief moment when I realized I’d have to start shopping at an actual dedicated grocery store, with all four tiny munchkins in tow. But I think it will be well worth it.

Today I’m posting my try at the first recipe in his book: Salsa Fresca or Cruda. For copyright reasons, I won’t post the whole recipe, but I’m sure there are many variations that would be delicious! (More thoughts on copyright in a future post…)

On the pages following this recipe, Ash suggests meals to make with Salsa Fresca. I chose his marinated shrimp menu suggestion.

Ready? Here we go:

Start with raw shrimp, size 16-20. I used frozen shrimp – which Ash says is not that much different from fresh. Thaw by running cold water over the shrimp.

While the shrimp is thawing, make the marinade.

The fresh oregano was fantastic in this recipe, but dried would work, if you don’t want to shop around for fresh.

The next step is peeling and deveining the thawed shrimp – the longest part of the process.

While the shrimp was marinating in the refrigerator…

… I made the salsa fresca.

You can add all kinds of things to salsa fresca! I used parsley because my husband doesn’t like cilantro.

I took these pictures upside-down ( I wasn’t upside-down… just the picture was flipped) so I didn’t realize until afterward that the chopped ingredients were arranged in the shape of a heart. Awww… I’ve been trying to think of “spicy” captions for a card using this photo.

Moving along…

I added basic seasonings to the salsa… plus a kick of lime or lemon juice.

YUM!

Now the shrimp is ready to be cooked.

John Ash gave two options for cooking the shrimp: grilling or broiling.

Confession #1: I don’t know how to use our grill. I hope that will be remedied by the end of my year of cooking.

Confession #2: The last time I broiled anything was nearly twelve years ago, when we were first married. I caught my hot pad on fire. I’ve successfully avoided broiling ever since then.

This time, I opted for broiling. At least I know the potential pitfalls of that method!

I placed the marinated shrimp onto the broiling pan. A skewer would make the turning process much easier, but our skewers are still packed away in a moving box, apparently along with my vegetable peelers and my husband’s grill tongs.

I set the rack at the highest level, set the broiler at the highest temperature, and carefully set the broiling pan in the oven. I let the shrimp broil for one to two minutes on each side. Perfect!

I’m chalking this one up to a catastrophe-free meal. And oh my, so incredibly flavorful!

I ate and ate and ate and ate. This stuff was delicious!

I had to chuckle when I read that John Ash eats this with his fingers. That’s exactly what we did.

It might become tradition to post a picture of how my kids occupied themselves while I cooked. So here we go…




What My Kids Did While I Cooked:

What gets me is the big car wheel in the middle of the bouquet. It’s like they carved out a spot specifically for it. What role do you suppose the carrot played in the fiasco?

I let the troublemakers have some of my shrimp anyway. 😉