Oh -- and I thought I should post the shrimp fritter recipe here, since it is a tried and true amazing recipe -- I cannot recommend these enough!

Shrimp Fritters � Monica Bhide for NPR Kitchen window, posted by Anna N on egullet

Makes 4 servings

1 pound medium shrimp, tail on and deveined
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 serrano chili pepper (fresh or canned), seeded and minced
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger root
1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic cloves
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Salt to taste
2 medium eggs
3 heaping tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 cups vegetable oil

Butterfly the shrimp. (Hold the shrimp with the rounded back facing you. Using a small, sharp knife, slice along the length of the shrimp, cutting almost but not completely through the shrimp. Gently press the halves of the shrimp outward to flatten it; it will resemble a butterfly.) Set aside.
In a shallow bowl, combine the turmeric, chili powder, serrano, ginger, garlic, lemon juice and salt. Mix well.

In a second bowl, beat the eggs. Place the flour in another shallow bowl.

Coat each shrimp with the spice mixture, brushing off any clumps that form. Then dip the shrimp in the egg, allowing any excess to drop off, and coat with flour (heavily). Place the coated shrimp on a platter. Continue until all the shrimp are coated. Discard remaining eggs and flour.

In a deep fryer or deep pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking � around 350. Lower the heat to medium and, working in batches, place a few of the shrimp in the pan and deep-fry until golden brown.

Remove with a slotted spoon and set on paper towels to drain.

Though actually, after discussing it with my iron-chef partner, we may wind up doing miniature versions of Ginger St. Thomas' (am I right that the recipe is her's originally -- posted here on this board?) gingered shrimp cakes, using lime zest instead of lemon. (We're a little afraid of the deep-frying at the last minute for judges on an electric stove we're not familiar with) But I think the composition idea should still hold -- we could do three mini shrimp cakes per plate...

Oh Dcarch -- its magnificent!!! WOW.(For those of you who didn't know, the person in the high profile ;-) graduate-student iron chef competition is me!) Thank you so so much for the inspiration -- I am just blown away. I love the fan shape across the plate, and the idea of having the shrimp be at the base of each ray. I'll make sure to take a photo of my final plating effort tomorrow -- if it could be 10% of the beautifulness here, I'd be in very good shape.

Thank you so much again,
Emily

Nice, really nice. I'm impressed. My only suggestion would be to leave out the dandelions. I don't care if they're edible, all I know is they're not a welcome sight right about now.

Good luck, Emily, can't wait to see and hear about your results!

The plate is gorgeous and the food all looks delicious. I especially like that there is fresh lime for squeezing over the shrimp as well as the fried lime slices and the crema. The fact that there is a spicy crunchy element contrasted with the smooth and sweet mango and creamy avocado would appeal to me also.

Dcarch - how very kind of you to share your thoughts and create and cook the dish.

Em, whether you do whole shrimps or cakes, I wish you the best. I'm looking forward to seeing what you do.

Lee

WOW!!! Too pretty to eat! I agree with Foodonastump, leave the dendalions out. My mouth is watering....

Intersting plating - really nicely designed, but I would leave out the dandelions too.

Well done.

Alexa

Aside from the wonderful overall effect, which is trademark dcarch, I am always surprised by knifework which is simple but totally original. In this case there are two examples. Out of the hundreds of limes I have seen cut, I've never seen one cut one that way. The same goes for the avocado. Anyone could have done these things, but no one did. dcarch takes nothing for granted.

I like the dandelions. They are whimsical.

Jim

Dcarch, just a thought here.

Since lime is the theme, have you tried to drizzle with thinly sliced Kafir lime leaves (for the green) instead of lime chile? The flavor of Kafir lime leaves should go well with the sliced guajillo chile.

If your local asian stores do not carry Kafir lime leaves, you can order them online. For fresh use (uncooked purpose), chose the young leaves. The young leaves are softer and a better choice to consume them fresh, uncooked.

In our asian cuisine, Kafir lime leaves are used to flavor seafood and poultry dishes. A simple and yet, flavourable dish that I'm very fond of is boiled chicken, cut up in bite size and top with sliced Kafir lime leaves. The chicken is served with a dip sauce, ginger fish sauce.

Ok, I just made myself hungry again...

No.... nope. It's not for the look only but for its theme: Lime. Dendalions just downgrade its theme. I think a better choice of garnish would be lime blossoms or any type of citrus blossoms. The bloosoms are delicate white and their fragrant is wonderful too.

You've mentioned that you were using ingredients you had on hands. My suggestions are meant for next use only. Something to think about.

This is absolutely wonderful. I am still hoping you will share some more tips to beautifully plated food and soon ;)

Well, dcarch, you and I are seriously outvoted re the dandelions. It's time for you to get busy with Photoshop. :-)

Jim

WOW! ! !! !
Every time you post a picture, Dcarch,
It is better than the one before it.

Fearlessem, I am really excited about this for you.
Will be waiting anxiously for the outcome!

And just for the record,
I vote FOR the Dandelions.
They are just the right touch of. . . .
Whimsey?
Contrast?
Difference?
Balance?
Interest?
Not sure what the right word is,
Maybe all of the above.
But they definitely need to be there.
Or, if not available,
Something very similar.

Rusty

Thank you everyone for your flatteries. I had fun trying to come up with ideas for this interesting dish, and I appreciate each of the suggestions. They are all very valid ideas.

Jim, I cut the lime that way because that's the way you can cut across each cell making it easier to free the juice.

nnt_hou, Kafir lime leaves would have worked great.

punamytsike, I promise I will discuss plating sometime.

Why dandelion blossoms? Two reasons. I thought the mango yellow color needed a chorus to make a melody. I tasted the fried lime slices, it was kind of OK, nothing special. My idea was to have the sauce (made with mango, lime rind, avocado and a few other seasonings) on the fried lime slices and sprinkle dandelion petals on the sauce when you eat them. Young dandelion petals are a little sweet.

I actually failed on my first try. I realized that this one solution looked too much like just an appetizer.

dcarch

You're right, I liked the top one better. I had to wait until I got home from work to see the pictures! The colors are beautiful and spring like, very lovely.

I also vote "no" on the dandelion blossoms, you should be saving all of those to make dandelion wine, LOL. I'm not so sure I like those shrimp looking at me either. I can't help myself, whenever I see whole seafood now, all I can think of is SpongeBob Squarepants, and it ruins my appetite. (grin)

Good luck, Em, you're gonna knock their socks off!

Annie

Ack -- just realized I mis-attributed the recipe -- it is from Wizardnm (Nancy) -- sorry about that Nancy! I think the ginger in the name must have tripped me up!

Hi all --

Well it was an exhausting but very very fun evening! We didn't win or place, though many people around us who tried our food told us we were robbed! :-) And I have to say, the plate of food we put out was SO delicious! I've never served these with a guajillo chile sauce before, and the combination was amazing.

The guaillo chiles were toasted, rehydrated in boiling water, and then pureed with some of the water along with lime juice and a little honey and salt. Amazing. And even though I don't like sour cream, others told me that the cilantro/lime/sour cream sauce on it was great too. What you see on top was a battered and fried lime supreme on top of each shrimp cake -- those were a hit!

Sadly Dcarch, I'm afraid our plating will let you down. I think it looks pretty attrocious -- the circular (very small) plates made it hard to get a visual balance of the items on the plate... The other bad piece was that our sour cream sauce was way too thin, so it just spilled over the plate. If it had been thicker the whole thing would have looked much nicer. We also might have been able to do better if we hadn't been plating in the last 5 or 6 minutes...

Oy -- trying to plate this well just made me even more amazed at your talent Dcarch!

That said, the food was so so good. If you haven't had these Ginger Shrimp cakes yet -- make them! I've relisted the recipe below -- I think the original is from Ginger St. Thomas on this board? One other thing -- its funny, I never noticed before that the originally recipe calls for cooked shrimp. I've always used raw shrimp, and the shrimp cakes turn out amazing -- so moist, and they actually reheat *really* well the next day! (Thats why I've changed it to say raw shrimp in the recipe) Actually, this time I also made some little tiny ones for tasters for people, and they were a great appetizer size, dipped in the chile sauce. Everything was good in that chile sauce though -- especially the mango slices.

Gingered Shrimp Cakes
1 lb. large shrimp, uncooked
4 scallions, sliced, green parts included
1 Tbsp freshly grated ginger
Grated lemon zest from 1 lemon
2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1/2 C fresh corn, cooked, cut off cob (frozen works)
1 lg egg
3 Tbsp mayonnaise
1/2 tsp hot pepper sauce
1/2 tsp salt
Pinch of ground black pepper
1 1/2 C fresh bread crumbs or panko (divided)
2 Tbsp olive oil (or more, for frying)
1 Tbsp butter (with the oil, for frying)

Coarsely chop shrimp in bowl. Add scallions, ginger, lemon zest, parsley and corn. Combine mayonnaise, egg, hot sauce, salt and pepper and fold into shrimp mixture.

Add 1 Cup breadcrumbs and gently mix.

Form into 8 patties and gently dredge in remaining 1/2 C breadcrumbs, adding more if necessary.

Put on a plate, cover with plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 min and up to 4 hours. [I also discovered tonight that this step isn't really necessary...]

Heat oil and butter in large skillet over med-high heat. Saute cakes until cooked through and golden brown on both sides, adding more oil to skillet as needed, about 8 minutes.

Anyway, thanks for the encouragement everyone, and thanks again Dcarch for your generosity and inspiration! It makes me want to practice my plating on my regular meals at home!

Emily

DC:
I like the setup, along with the Dandelions.

Thought they looked like Ballet Dancers at first.

Emily:
You know what they say " If at first you don-t suceed "

Can you try again ???
Lou

Em, I agree, the sauce ran all over and affected the plating but I have to tell you, I'd eat that in an instant, how can you go wrong with shrimp, avocado, mango and that looks like grapefruit? Oh yum.

Now, understand, I'm way more excited about how something tastes than about how it looks, but I also understand that I'm in the minority.

There are lots of beautiful pictures of food here, I totally think you should borrow some of the ideas and just keep practicing.

Annie