dinner 6 december 2008

i've been devoting a lot of time to essays, studying and homework... so i haven't had much time, but on this night i was really hungry and there was nothing in the house. so i came up with making shrimp, ham and rice fritters with a garlic aioli. they make them at one of our favorite restaurants here, san chez and they're soooo good. these turned out okay, but not super awesome. next time, i'd cook my own shrimp and use that (i used canned, salad shrimp). anyway, here is the pic... i'll post the recipe later.


so...
the recipe for this recipe is actually pretty easy.
i made a pot of rice, with chicken stock instead of water and then tumeric, curry powder and cumin. i would have used some saffron, but i just didn't have any (blast!).
then, to make the fritters, i combined the cooled rice, a can of small salad shrimp, drained, some garlic, an egg, a bunch of ham that i cut into pieces and fried in a skillet, cayenne pepper, paprika, thyme, salt and pepper and about a half of a cup of italian seasoned bread crumbs. all i did was combine into small balls and rolled the balls in some more bread crumbs. at san chez, they are deep fried, but for lack of a deep fryer and a desire to stay below 400 pounds, i just sauteed in a little olive oil in med-high heat. i just turned them every once in a while.

i wish that i had made the shrimp myself and used that. the fritters did not have a very shrimpy flavor... which is probably due to the fact that those canned salad shrimp really aren't very flavorful. oh yeah, and the aioli is just mayo, salt, pepper, lemon juice and some garlic cloves i roasted in a small sautee pan for about a half hour on low and then smashed... mix it all together, it's really good for anything! especially fries! (ever had the garlic aioli at graydon's crossings? same thing!).