Ki, where is your imagination? I saute or grill shrimp in massive amounts of garlic all the time. I also often just cook up a pound of shrimp in Old Bay, make my own cocktail sauce and snack on them. The only reason these big, bad boys are "special" is that they were almost the same price I usually pay for "large?" shrimp. I eat a lot of shrimp. Although I normally loath fried fish, I have a really good recipe for beer batter fried shrimp if anyone is interested. I only make it maybe once a year, but it's super yummy. Some where around here, I have a really good recipe for stuffed shrimp. I should try to find it. Did I say I eat a lot of shrimp? I've also been getting large lobster tails for $4 each, every couple of weeks, at the grocery store this summer. Been eating a lot of them too. Lobsters go really well with asparagus. (Kevin, drooling is unbecoming:) Okay, back to the quiche, I think I'll try that. Freezing small amounts is a great idea. However, although I can cook, I don't bake and don't own muffin pans. I don't even own a cookie sheet. Can I buy little pie crusts or something, maybe tart shells, or would they be too sweet? I have phyllo dough, is there some way I can use that? That's a good idea Kevin, about pre- sauteing mushrooms and freezing them but I eat mushrooms the way most people eat chips. I even put them in scrambled eggs. If they go bad, it's because they got "lost" in the back of the fridge. Yum, Vietnamese spring rolls. What is that sauce they give you with everything in Vietnamese restaurants? Now that would be super yummy too. It's the consistency of broth and maybe the color of beef broth. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? I don't think the dip included with Mark's link is the same sauce I'm thinking of. I think the sauce I'm thinking of has fish stock as a base, maybe. Mimi, Arthur can't say anything about buying food in "pounds". They sell everything by the kilo over there (2.2 pounds). The heads of lettuce in the grocery stores there were the size of basket balls. The fish market I would go to didn't sell prawns in small, smaller, tiny, super tiny, and too damn small to clean. They just sold the big, bad, super jumbo sized prawns. Okay, they still had their heads, and that may have skewed my perception of their size. Nah, I didn't eat the heads. Okay, tonight for dinner, I sauteed green onions, garlic, mushrooms, scallops and crab meat. Then I made a Marsala sauce and at the last minute added some fresh spinach leaves and gorgonzola. I served this over wild rice (pasta wasn't doin' it for me tonight, oddly) and had asparagus too. It was pretty yummy but needs some work. This weekend, I'll try the recipes you have suggested when I have more time.

Pranjal - It was absolutely delicious! I halved the recipe and ate the whole thing myself. (In fact, since shrimp is not a leftoverable meal in my book, I summoned the help of a "natural appetite enhancer" to get through the whole pot. LOL!) Thinking my wife was going to at least taste it, I went real easy on the chili using just one seeded serrano. While the raw paste was quite hot, the finished meal had no more than a mild kick. I only had 31/40 count shrimp, so I was real careful not to overcook. It wasn't a problem, and while larger shrimp would be preferable, I certainly don't think it a necessity. A nice bonus was that start to finish, it took just over a half hour to prep and cook. I'll make it again real soon (if not tonight!) to see if DW agrees it should be a new staple in our househole. Thanks so much, and please pass on thanks and best regards to Mama! Safe trip. - James p.s. FWIW the written recipe passed the critique of my UAE/Bombay colleague.

Agreed ! I've just never lived where sumac was exotic and our rural friends live close enough to shop in university towns. When I lived abroad in a tiny town in the back side of beyond, I had to travel to the big city to buy a broom because they were seasonal merchandise, but dozens of spices were available in the town. I wasn't pooh-poohing your story about the guy who had to be talked down from making sumac recipes, just expressing my surprise that sumac was in that category. To me, galangal is that way; less common, so I get it, just surprised. We have more poison sumac here than poison oak, so the word ”sumac” puts some people off, but culinary sumac also comes in little picnic packets. Re the shrimp cakes, I wasn't questioning the method of making a paste to hold them together—that's classic. It was making patties altogether given the price of good shrimp. What you just said about using the tiny, less expensive ones for the paste makes great sense, and turns the project into an extender for the big ones, rather than a ”do what?” I've thought several times about making some pickled mustard seeds, just to try it, after you've posted the recipe, but I've been waiting for other mustard seed jars in the fridge to be done (and remember). Now it's moved way up my must try list. Thank-you, again! I've seen any number of remoulade recipes that sound fine, even if I don't find good enough to eat straight with a fork, but I'm now ready to try to reproduce the star ingrdient!

I really like this recipe and have used it with shrimp as well as the beef. While it doesn't call for Grand Marnier I think it could easily be used in the sauce. Orange-Glazed Crispy Beef - Ricardo For the Batter 250 ml (1 cup) unbleached all purpose flour 125 ml (1/2 cup) tapioca starch or cornstarch 15 ml (1 tablespoon) sugar 2 1/2 ml (1/2 teaspoon) salt 180 ml (3/4 cup) lager or pale ale 125 ml (1/2 cup) water 454 g (1 lb) cold leftover roast beef cut into strips 60 ml (1/4 cup) tapioca starch or cornstarch Oil For Frying For the Sauce 60 ml (1/4 cup) soy sauce 10 ml (2 teaspoons) tapioca starch 125 ml (1/2 cup) sugar 30 ml (2 tablespoons) rice vinegar 3 cloves garlic minced Grated zest of 2 oranges 15 ml (1 tablespoon) chopped fresh ginger 1 ml (1/4 teaspoon) hot pepper flakes or cayenne Juice of 2 oranges Directions: For the Batter 1. Heat the oil, setting the deep fryer to high. Preheat the oven to 100C (200F). Line a baking sheet with paper towels. 2. In a bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. Add the liquid ingredients, whisking until the batter is smooth. Set aside. 3. In another bowl, combine the beef and the starch. 4. Divide the beef slices into 5 equal portions. Coat 1 portion with batter. Drop the battered strips 1 by 1 into fryer to prevent them from sticking together. Fry for 2 to 3 minutes. Drain, transfer to the baking sheet and keep warm in the oven. Repeat for the remaining portions. For the Sauce 1. In a bowl, combine the soy sauce and the starch. Set aside. 2. In a large skillet or wok, bring the sugar, vinegar, garlic, orange zest, ginger and hot pepper flakes to a boil. Simmer until the sugar begins turning gold. Add the orange juice and simmer for 1 minute. 3. Add the soy sauce mixture, whisking constantly. Bring to a boil. Off the heat, add the cooked beef strips and turn it gently with a spatula until well coated. 4. Serve immediately.