facepaaaalm.

[alexseanchai]

Shrimp pilaf, recipe out of Greek Cooking for the Gods. Substitute apple cider or something for the sherry, substitute water or chicken broth for the clam juice (because where in fuck am I going to find clam juice, and I can't be bothered buying sherry), halve the shrimp to cut the cost (because shrimp is by far the most expensive food I'm willing to buy), et voila. Won't be as tasty as the original recipe but should be tasty enough, right?

...Recipe calls for raw shrimp. (One cooks the shells to make a broth and separately cooks the shrimp with the veggies and spices.) I must not have read this too closely, because I bought precooked frozen shrimp.

I don't want to go back to the store. Which means now I have no idea what work lunches this week are or what I'm doing with a pound of shrimp.

Comments

[jelazakazone]

Or just make the thing and know it won't be as tasty as the original. Honestly, subbing chicken broth for clam juice is fine. You could just leave the sherry out. You'll just be missing the broth from the shrimp shells (which is tasty), but you know. Food is food.

Also, I'm entirely out of fucks.

[alexseanchai]

Food is indeed food.

Thanks.

[jelazakazone]

<3 Hey, if the choice is making food that you can eat all week or have no plan, I vote for the plan to eat all week.

For future reference

[redbird]

I haven't needed it in ages, but the supermarket I used to shop at in New York had clam juice in with the chicken broth and such, so that would be a place to start if you wanted to make a recipe that used it. Also, a lot of recipes explicitly say "clam juice or chicken broth," and if what you had was vegetable broth, that would probably work too.

Re: For future reference

[alexseanchai]

Thanks!

Clam juice is an abomination, LOL!

[dialecticdreamer]

USUALLY has MSG in it, which is right out. NEXT time you need an equivalent, buy a plain whitefish/tilapia/cod fillet on sale and throw it in the freezer. Leave until you need "clam juice" or "fish broth" or just plain LUNCH.

Simmer in water with a pinch of white pepper (salt if you don't care whether the fish isn't as flaky as it could be) and a bit of marjoram IF you like it, and use equivalent volume. Since it probably called for 1/4 cup or so, you're going to have more than you need.

For the CURRENT week, make up some fried rice and use the other half of the precooked shrimp. Just take a minute to saute the shrimp in oil with the onions, garlic and shallots (expensive splurge around here, too) if you use them, and use that oil to make the fried rice, to maximize flavor. Cooking the shrimp in a new dish will NOT change texture much if you need to re-freeze the fried rice in lunch-size portions.

Enjoy the lunch, and don't worry about improvising! Btw, if you don't want to use sherry, and you DO drink alcohol, a tablespoon of anything except scotch will work to deglaze the pan and maximize broth flavor. Scotch is out because it's, apparently, a "crime against nature" to use it in cooking according to my husband. Shrug. Do me a favor and don't tell him about the last batch of barbecue sauce I made, will you please? *GRIN*

Re: Clam juice is an abomination, LOL!

[alexseanchai]

:) thanks!

lol @ last line

Re: Clam juice is an abomination, LOL!

[niqaeli]

...has the man really never encountered the existence of terrible Scotch, is my question. Like, if you used a really good Scotch or something, sure, that'd be a crime against nature, but also it'd be a crime against nature to use, say, Botanist gin or DeLeon tequila to deglaze. Basically: don't use excellent liquor for deglazing! DRINK the excellent liquor. Use mediocre or terrible liquor for deglazing. *g*

(i mean, context, we have a bottle of Jack Daniels that literally lives in the kitchen by the stove, along with all the other cooking liquor. not a one of us will drink that shit, but it's great for cooking!)

Re: Clam juice is an abomination, LOL!

[dialecticdreamer]

Uh.... why buy BAD liquor for any reason? It has to be DRINKABLE to even make it into the kitchen!

But scotch is his favorite, so every five years or so I buy a SUPERIOR bottle as an anniversary present.

Even the vodka I use to make vanilla extract has to be minimally tolerable to me, and I just don't have a taste for alcohol.

[madgastronomer]

Clam juice is usually found near mixers for drinks, btw, or in the canned seafood section.

The above folks are right, just fucking skip it.

Use sweeter vinegars rather than juices to replace cooking alcohols. You want the acid for deglazing. So cider vinegar, not cider. I tend to keep half a dozen vinegars on hand. My favorites for this kind of thing are Japanese rice vinegar and champagne vinegar (which makes the BEST vinaigrette). Sherry vinegar also exists and is a thing. Vinegars keep longer than wines and fortified things like port, so they're good to keep around for this stuff.

[alexseanchai]

Gotcha, thanks!