Have you ever had a day where nothing seems to go right? Of course, you have. That's been my whole day today. It's probably because sometimes I try to wear to many hats. It's a Wonder Women complex. I blame it on being a Gemini. We are known for over tasking. You'd think when you know something about yourself, you'd try to correct it. I have but, sometimes I digress.
So, today's meal was supposed to be shrimp enchiladas with a creamy jalapeno sauce. In the mist of my running around like a chicken with its head cut off I didn't make it to the store to get the tortilla shells and some other key ingredients. Naturally, my mind shifted gears to what else I could make because I really didn't feel like getting back out to go to the store. I've got my shrimp unthawed. What else do I have in the pantry or frig. I look in the frig and I've got all kinds of vegetables. Red, yellow, and green bell peppers, snow peas, cauliflower and a sweet onion. I've also got soy sauce, a sesame ginger marinade and lemongrass paste. Stir fry it is!
I grab all my ingredients. a cutting board and my wok. I'm ready. Then the job that I had been waiting on finally emailed me. I had to stop my thought process for cooking and jump back into work mode but, of course I'm going to start something on the stove before I head back to my home office (the Livingroom). I decided since I'm using cauliflower that I'm going to steam it for a few minutes to soften. Just long enough for it to get translucent but still firm. That way it won't take as long to cook in the wok and should cook at the same rate as the other vegetables. Excellent idea. "A" for effort but "E" for execution. What did I do? You guessed it, left the cauliflower on the steamer to long. Now, it's too soft. As they say in show biz, "but the show must go on." I grab all my seasonings. Seasoned my shrimp. Put olive oil and chopped garlic in my wok and got it to a nice medium heat. Woks are made for high cooking temps, but I hadn't cut up my peppers and onions. I threw the shrimp in and immediately started chopping my veggies. Once the shrimp turned pink, I took them out of the wok and placed them in a bowl. Got all the veggies I just chopped, and the snow peas put them in the wok with more oil, lemongrass paste, and seasonings. Now, I have to deal with this over steamed cauliflower. I get in the wok and add the soy sauce and marinade. Go to stir and the cauliflower turns to mush. It's at this moment I realize I haven't started the rice. I'll just be damn! I rush to grab a bowl put in the minute maid rice and throw it in the microwave. I continue cooking the veggies until they are al dente and remove from the heat. Once the rice was done, I returned the wok to high temps and added in my shrimp just to warm everything back through.
My disaster turned out to be Mushy Goodness. All the vegetables were perfectly cooked except for the cauliflower but the flavors were spot on. The one thing I learned about cooking and life for that matter, is things aren't going go right and you may stumble and even fall. But it's how you recover "that matters." I'll list the ingredients below. You know you can swap or add any ingredients that you like. Try this recipe but maybe give yourself a little more time to prepare than I did. Remember, when you know better you do better!
Bon Appetite'
Seasonings- Garlic powder, Onion powder, Ginger powder, Lemongrass Paste
Sauces- Soy Sauce, Sesame Ginger
Veggies- Cauliflower, Snow peas, Onions, Peppers- Red, Green, Yellow
Meat- Shrimp
Rice