June 9: Grilled Shrimp with Kale Leaves with Quinoa and Feta

Note: We added shrimp to the week's menu after realizing we had some picked up some from the grocery store the weekend before.

The shrimp we made here was based on the shrimp tikkas recipe we had learned at Naveen's cuisine.  We had about 1/2 pound of shrimp, so we cut down the spice amounts. We made a marinade of 1/2 tablespoon minced garlic, 1/2 tablespoon minced ginger, 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper and 1/4 teaspoon garam masala. We didn't have garlic paste or ginger paste, so used minced versions -- and then put in less cayenne pepper than the recipe had originally suggested (1/2 teaspoon for 1 pound of shrimp) as well.

We used some fresh shrimp we had gotten at the meat/seafood counter. Naveen had suggested using uncooked shrimp, but felt that fresh or frozen would work. He had also recommended butterflying the shrimp before marinating it, which essentially consists of running your knife down the back of the shrimp, as you can see from the photo below.

Mad skillz.

The shrimp went into the marinade for about 30 minutes (they can sit up to 2 hours). 

Raw shrimp. Not so pretty here.

In the meantime, I washed and cut the stems from the kale leaves. I prefer just to eat the leaves -- the stems can be kind of tough for me. Kale is like spinach in the sense that it reduces down big time once you cook it. I know this looks like a ton of kale, but it really shrinks down.

The kale was cooked on the stove with a little olive oil. You'll see in the last picture how much it reduces down. 

Paul, the grill master, cooked the shrimp on the grill for about 5 - 7 minutes -- until they are no longer opaque. Here they are when first tossed on the grill...
 

Thank you, grill light! You are you handy when we make dinner at 9 p.m.

...and about 5 minutes later. The butterflying makes them curl up like that and look pretty. 
 

Um, there a few less shrimp in this photo. I think someone had a snack before dinner.

Alongside the kale and shrimp, I cooked up a quick cup of quinoa. We added some feta cheese crumbles to the kale, and topped the shrimp with some cilantro.

It turned out pretty good! I was impressed, even with messing with the spice ratios. I like keeping frozen shrimp in our freezer for a quick meal, and this would make great use of them as well (see below). Paul suggested that next time, we plate the kale on top of the quinoa. I ended up mixing everything together as I ate anyways. 


Update: We made the shrimp recipe again recently for a larger group, and this time used the recipe amounts (1 pound of frozen uncooked shrimp) and the correct ingredient ratios: 1 tablespoon minced garlic, 1 tablespoon minced ginger, 1/2 teaspoon garam masala, 3 tablespoons vegetable oil and 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper (I still kept this a little lower than suggested because I didn't want people to think it was too spicy). We marinated them for about 2 hours and then cooked them up on the grill for about 7 minutes. They went FAST. Our guests really enjoyed them. I love having a quick backup recipe like this that I can make with the ingredients I have in the house or that I am comfortable bringing with us to another party.