My Kilimanjaro

A long, long time ago, there was a 28 before 28 post. And no. 12 said "Buy, clean and cook an entire fish (I hate fish. I am petrified of fish. I have never touched an uncooked fish and have hardly eaten cooked fish. Hence, I really have no idea what to do with fish!)."

Now, fish and I have a complicated relationship. In the order of things, of all the things I would be most scared of doing, I would rate "holding a snake as no. 1 and "cleaning fish" as no. 2. Skydiving would be no. 50 I think. Swimming with the sharks and fighting shooting someone would be somewhere in between. 

I still have not cleaned fish, but I bought shelled shrimp (I thought I would ease into the fish territory by starting with seafood) and I cooked it! I'm telling you. This is my Kilimanjaro. Not my Everest, but very, very close. 

The shrimp was fabulous. I made it following this recipe by Five and Spice, and this is what I did:

Ingredients: 

1/2 kg large shrimp shelled and cleaned (there were about 30)
1 tsp paprika (the original calls for sweet paprika and I didn't have any with me.

1 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp mixed herbs (Mine is a mix of rosemary, thyme, marjoram, basil, and oregano,and traces of celery and mustard. I reckon that you can use any of these herbs or a combination of them.)
zest from half a lemon
a glug of olive oil
4 shallots minced
6 cloves of garlic minced
juice of 1 lemon
3  tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup brandy


Place the shrimp in a bowl and add the paprika, pepper, salt, herbs, and lemon zest. Mix well and let it marinate. 


Heat the olive oil in a frying pan (not nonstick). Add the shallots and the garlic, followed by the lemon juice and the Worcestershire sauce. Fry till light brown (about 5 minutes). Add the prawns and saute until they turn pink (about 3 minutes).





Now is the fun part. Pour in the alcohol with a ladle, light it up with a long matchstick, and let it burn. Eventually it dies out. 





That's it! Serve with bread, butter, and a green salad. 


:)  

This dish was yum; the plate was totally licked clean! The original calls for 5 tbsp of butter and even without it, it was awesome. 


And yeah. I'm never gonna be a food photographer, that's for sure.