Roasted Mango Chipotle Shrimp w/Rice & Chilled Blackbean Salad

Second entry in my “Chipotle Theme” week. I can't rightly remember how I got the idea for this one, surely a rift off of something but I made it my own. Roasting the mangoes added a sweet complexity to the sauce in this dish, exactly what I was aiming for.

I really would have rather used raw fresh shrimp for this dish, and certainly will the next chance I get but.. the only shrimp I had available was pre-cooked frozen or arabian gulf shrimps. And if you've heard anything about Kuwait's recent-ish leaky sewage issues, you'll understand why I bolted for the frozen. But I believe the sauce would have penetrated the raw shrimp much better, making for a more comprehensively flavored dish.

Roasted Mango & Chipotle Shrimp

2 dz. Jumbo Shrimp – peeled & deveined
2 med. Mangoes – cut into strips
4 canned Chipotle Peppers + 2 T. Adobo sauce
1 Lime – juiced
¼ c. Olive oil
Salt – large pinch

~ Roast mangoes under a broiler for 10-15 minutes or until they just begin to char – Combine these in a blender with the chipotle + adobo, lime juice, olive oil and salt. Puree til smooth & let cool to room temp.

~ In a shallow dish, coat shrimps with mango/chipotle puree, cover and let marinate in the fridge for at least an hour. In the meantime, soak 8 bamboo skewers in water.

~ Skewer 3 shrimps to a bamboo skewer & grill shrimps for 2-4 minutes on either side or until the flesh turns milky white. Serve with Garlicky White Rice Pilaf.

Serves 4

Garlicky White Rice Pilaf (per Rick Bayless)

1 ½ c. med. White Rice
1 small White Onion - diced
Olive Oil
2 Garlic cloves – minced
1 ¾ c. Chicken Stock
1 Lime – juiced
Salt TT

~ Preheat oven to 350*F

~ Heat an oven proof 3qt saucepan over the stovetop - saute rice and onion in a swirl of olive oil for 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic to the pot and saute another minute. Add in stock & cover with lid. Place the pot in the oven and cook for 25 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes before seasoning with lime juice and salt. Fluff with fork.


In addition to this I made a chilled blackbean salad. It's got a few things going on in it but for simplicity sake, I'm just going to call it a blackbean salad.

Chilled Blackbean Salad w/Lime Cilantro Dressing

2 cans Blackbeans – drained & rinsed
1 c. fresh Corn off the cobb
2 vine ripe Tomatoes – diced
1 med. Chayote – diced
1 small Red Onion – thinly sliced
1 Bell Pepper (yellow, orange or red) – diced
2 lg Limes – juiced & zested
1 lg Jalapeno – seeds & membranes cut out & diced
½ c. Cilantro
¾ c. Olive Oil
Salt TT

~ In a large bowl combine blackbeans, corn, tomato, chayote, onion & bell pepper.

~ In a blender, process the lime, jalapeno, cilantro and olive oil til smooth. Toss with the diced vegetables and blackbeans and season with salt. Cover and chill in the fridge for at least an hour.


Mise – I love these indian alfonso mangoes. They have a certain creamy quality to them that I think make them stand out from other varieties. However, do with what you have. Any mango is a good mango in my book! Look for mangos that give a little when you squeeze them, to denote their ripeness. And generally when they begin to yellow and/or redden a bit like the ones pictured, that's another indicator of ripening (though not true for every type of mango).



Roasted mango slices


Sittin' happy – drinking up that spicy mango-ey goodness


Let ch'ya see my grill..


What you need for Garlicky Rice – tres simple


Mise for Blackbean Salad



Not a bad meal at all if I do say so.. This meal was made only for adults so I didn't skimp when it came to the spiciness of the chipotles. Went full strength on that. Admittedly though, the heat punch of a chipotle/jalapeno is not that hot. And funnily enough, I am one of those kinds of people who don't enjoy a very high level of heat in their food but I looove chili peppers and their flavors. So much so that they're the theme of my home kitchen.

But back to what I was saying about chilies and their heat, and I was talking with a friend about this a bit today.. Most chilies hold the hardest-hitting part of their heat in the seeds AND the white membrane/ribbing that anchors the seeds to the flesh of the chili. Some level of heat IS present in the flesh but for the most part, you can really cut down on the heat by discarding the innards of the chili.

And that “heat” I keep mentioning has a proper chemical name – Capsaicin. This was discovered by Christian Friedrich Bucholz in 1816 - and almost a hundred years later, in 1912, a man named Wilbur Scoville created a “scale” by which we could measure the spiciness of every variety of capsicum (pepper) family member known to man.

Mr. Scoville's test's accuracy however, is subject to the human palate as this is the medium by which his test registers heat. Some found this to be in error – not illogical since as humans we are apt to inaccuracy. Another unit of measurement was created by the American Spice Trade Association, using something called “High-Performance Liquid Chromatology”. Basically science science science and hey, I majored in food not chemistry so you're on your own figuring out the rest.. But essentially, Scoville's unit of heat measurement is still used in conjunction with the ASTAHU – they multiply their findings by 15 and come up with a number very close to what would be found on that pepper according to the Scoville Heat Unit (SHU).



Just how I was saying I'm not a fan of spicy heat, some people are actually hardwired to enjoy the pain that is inflicted by capsaicin via consuming hot peppers/sauces. It is thought that the pain induces release of the euphoria-inducing hormones called endorphins. These neurotransmitters, oddly enough, help reduce pain so it's like this chemical paradox – consume, cause pain, release hormone that dulls pain, repeat. Ahh the human body..

Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoville_scale
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsaicin
http://health.howstuffworks.com/human-nature/emotions/happiness/science/endorphins.html

Raspberry Chipotle Lamb Chops w/Cilantro Lime Couscous

In honor of my great love for "sweet dinners" and piquant Mexican flavors, I've decided to do a 3 part blog on dishes using a fruit/chipotle flavor coupling. First in my series is a Mexican/North African fusion of Raspberry Chipotle Lamb Chops with Cilantro-Lime Couscous. I had found a delectably robust raspberry/chipotle barbecue sauce in the Sultan Center many months back and paired it with Lamb Chops (one of my husband's favorites). It came out so exquisite that I told myself I should try a “from-scratch” version of my own someday. With the abundance of canned chipotles stocked up in all markets here, I figured someday should be today..

Raspberry Chipotle Lamb Chops

2 dz Lamb Chops ½ in. thick – frenched
1 bag frozen Raspberries - thawed (or 2 cups fresh if you can afford/find them)
4 canned Chipotle peppers + 1 ½ T. Adobo sauce
1/3 c. Raspberry Vinegar (or red wine or a flavored balsamic works well too)
2/3 c. Vegetable Oil
2 T. Brown Sugar
2 cloves Garlic
Salt TT

~ In a blender, combine all ingredients aside from the chops (I remove the hot seeds from the peppers when cooking for the kids - otherwise the kick is rawther nice). Puree til smooth.

~ Divide chops between 2 large ziploc baggies or place them in a large container so that they can be arranged in a single layer. Divide puree between the 2 bags or coat the single layer of chops and cover with clingwrap. Set in the fridge to marinate overnight. (When ready to cook, grilling will be the best option but you may also use an indoor griddle or a cast iron pan. Ensure whatever you'll be using is screaming hot, in order to get a good sear).

~ Preheat oven to 350*F – On a white hot cooking surface, sear chops for about 2-3 minutes on each side. Season with salt, place chops in an oven-safe dish and slide into your preheated oven for 8-12 minutes until desired doneness (I like most of my meats on the medium side so around 8 min for me, longer for the kids obviously).

Serves 4-6


Cilantro Lime Couscous

1 ½ c. Quick cooking Couscous
2 ¼ c. Water
1 Lime – zested and juiced
½ c. Cilantro – chopped
1 T. Olive Oil
Salt TT

~ In a medium sauce pan bring water and lime juice to a boil then turn off heat – add couscous to the pot and cover. Let stand for 5 minutes to let the couscous absorb all the liquid,

~ Fluff couscous with a fork and mix in cilantro, lime zest, olive oil and salt. Serve in a warm dish.


Mise – don’t forget the garlic cloves. I did and I know they would have made the marinade that much better.


Frenched/French-style simply means that the rib bones have been scraped clean

That sauce came out smooth – who knew a cheap black & decker blender could be so craptastic and so good @ the same time (R.I.P my beloved red beehive Oster)



It’s too hot out to grill and I just wanted to get dinner done so I didn’t bother doing batches on my griddler. Cast iron it was!



Couscous mise


And eet is done!



The sauce didn't come out looking anything like the bottled one I had bought, and was less intense on the heat and sweetness but this recipe still made for a nice juicy chop.. The kids went YUM for them!



Chipotle Peppers

Chipotles are a traditional Mexican ingredient that is wildly popular in the US, especially the southwestern region that has easier access to the good stuff. Majority of us know their spicy smoky goodness, and we know that they’re peppers, but not everyone I’ve met seems to know that they are the smoked & dried version of jalapeños. (Jalapeños are medium sized chilies (2-3 ½ in.), ranging in color from deep green to bright red and have a medium spicy heat (2500-8000 SHU) according to the Scoville scale).

The ancient Aztec peoples would smoke-dry jalapeños because traditional sun-drying would take too long to thoroughly dry the thick-skinned pepper before it rotted. The drying process has little effect on the heat of the chili.

The product most US consumers are familiar with is the chipotle morita – morita, meaning “little blackberry”, is a description of the black/dark-red/purple dried jalapeño that is produced in the Mexican state Chihuahua.


Most Mexican consumers use chipotle meco (a.k.a ahumado, tipico), produced in south-central Mexico. These dried chilies resemble cigar butts, are tannish-grey in color and have a smokier flavor than their US preferred counterpart. It is known as the “authentic” chipotle pepper.


*Side note, I tried getting a definition on “meco” out of the husband. He thought I was asking about “mecco”, which I won’t even mention the definition here but it was funny. Worth a mench.*

Chipotles are sold either in whole dried form, ground into powder, pickled, as a paste or canned in adobo sauce. They can be used in numerous ways – in salsas/sauces, rubs, salts, marinades, soups/stews and even in some creative desserts for those willing to step outside of their preconceived sweet comfort zone.

..More to follow :)

Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipotle
http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/Articles/Chiles-1024/chipotle.aspx
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-chipotle-pepper.htm