Gourmet Project: Shrimp Rub and Basil Caesar Salad

Before I start, I have to mention Cooking the Books, a website dedicated to "cook-through bloggers." Wow, I had no idea I was in such good company (or that there was a name for this type of effort). These are folks who are cooking their way through entire 1000-page cookbooks, and make my small effort seem puny by comparison... although I must say it's hard enough for me. I've been tempted to bail several times, or switch over to another issue of Gourmet (the August issue has some fantastic recipes). But since part of this effort is to practice the art of commitment, I am going to stick through it even if I have to give away the mushroom burgers I make... because I really don't like mushrooms.

So yesterday, when it was 101 degrees outside and 91 in our kitchen, I worked my way through the shrimp spice rub (#6) and basil Caesar salad (#7).

The shrimp spice rub should have been easy, except once again I didn't read the recipe the entire way through (when will I ever learn?). I added all the ingredients together and then realized that the coriander was supposed to be toasted. It took me about 20 minutes to fish the coriander seeds out of the other spices (it is possible). After that, it was all downhill until I tried to figure out what to actually do with the rub. How do you rub slimy shrimp? Do you rub them before you grill them, or after? Turns out you just mix the shrimp with the rub before cooking them, just like a marinade. I'm not actually a huge shrimp fan (shrimp are insects, after all) but this was pretty good. I will use the leftover rub with fish - halibut would be good.

The basil Caesar salad was great, despite the fact that you have to make your own croutons (which is really easy, but I could have done without turning on the oven at all.) It calls for a raw egg, so I used one of our girls' eggs - Dolly, I think. I figure that if any of us were going to get salmonella from our chickens, we would have already done so.

All in all, a great combination for a hot day. We ate outside on the deck; Melina (as I expected) refused the shrimp and had a lamb patty with bread instead.