Cajun Shrimp Quesadilla

These days I prefer to try some quick entrees as it will be useful for my blog readers to try them out and also for me when my baby is cranky and doesn't let me cook ;). Although he is a calm baby with very little sleep, he gets bored easily if there is no one to entertain him.
Shrimp quesadilla is one of the quick and easy entrees to try out. You can experiment a lot with the ingredients and try to make as per your palate.

Ingredients: 
Medium Soft Tacos - 4
Peeled and deveined Shrimp - 12-15 medium sized
Red/Yellow/Green Bell Pepper - 1
Onion -1 medium
Sour Cream - 2 tbspn
Store bought salsa - 3 tbspn
Mexican Blend Cheese - 1 pack
Cajun Spice - 2 tspn
Salt & Pepper as per taste
Oil

Procedure: 

1. Cut the shrimp into small pieces and marinate it with the cajun spice and some salt.
2. In the meantime, sautee the onions and bell peppers till they are soft and add salt and pepper as per taste.
3. Now sautee the shrimp till just cooked (make sure it's not chewy)
4. Mix sour cream and salsa and mix it well and keep aside
5. Heat a pan and put a soft taco on it and keep the heat to low. Now sprinkle some cheese on one half of the taco and add the sauteed onions, peppers, shrimp, sour cream and salsa mixture on the same half side of the taco. Now sprinkle some more cheese on top and cover the taco with the other half and heat the other side till cheese melts. 
6. Serve the hot and spicy quesadilla with homemade Guacamole. 

Variations:
You can add any other meat instead of the shrimp or go veggie by completely omitting the meat. I liked the veggie creation as well which I made for my mom.

Conclusion:
Happy tummies and in future baby will be happy too.

Shrimp Jambalaya

I am writing this as I am making the shrimp Jambalaya. This dish came to my mind thinking of the leftovers I had at home and I had marinated Cajun Chicken which was lying in the fridge for tonight's dinner. So to accompany the Cajun Chicken, I thought of making Shrimp Jambalaya (as I had shrimp in the freezer and no sausage or boneless chicken).
We eat this dish very often at The Farmer's Market. The name of the stall is The Gumbo Pot. First of all, I never knew what the difference in Jambalaya and Gumbo was. So I googled and found out that both the dishes belong to New Orleans (Southern Amrica) and both are spicy. The difference is with rice and without. Jambalaya has rice (lot of it!) and Gumbo doesn't! Jambalaya is a little thick, but Gumbo is soup-like with Oakra in it to give it a nice texture (although I do not like slimy Oakra).

Ingredients: 
Onion, chopped - 1/2
Tomato, chopped - 1/2
Bell Pepper, chopped - 1/2
Garlic - 2pods
Cayenne - 1/2tspn
Cajun Spice - 2 tspn
Oregano - 1/2tspn
Parsley Flakes - 1/4 tspn
Rice - 1/3 cup
Chicken Broth - 2 cups
Shrimp, peeled and deveined - 2 cups
Oil
Salt to taste

Procedure: 

1. Heat some oil in a pot and saute onions, bell peppers and garlic for 4-5mins.
2. Now add all other ingredients except for chicken broth and shrimp.
3. Saute for another 2mins and add chicken broth to it and cook it (with lid on) for 35-40mins or till rice is cooked and desired consistency is achieved, on low heat.
4. Now add some salt and shrimp and cook it for 2 mins more. South American flavors are lingering in my kitchen!

Variations: 
You can vary Jambalaya as you want. Add some chicken pieces to it, throw in some sausages and other veggies. It will still taste GREAT!


Conclusion:
I cooked it but had it the day after. The flavors had soaked in well. We relished it with Grilled Cajun Chicken....yummy!

Thai Pineapple Shrimp Fried Rice

This was an accompaniment to the Spicy Chicken Satay I made last week. It is a very tropical fried rice with sweet n' sour taste. The taste of pineapple is the dominant of all.

Ingredients:
Cooked Rice - 2 cups
Pineapple, 1/2inch pieces - 1 cup
Fish sauce - 1Tbspn
Shrimp, healess & deveined - 12-15
Bell Peppers - 1/2 cup
Shrimp Paste - 1/2 tspn (Optional)
Garlic cloves, finely chopped - 3
Soy Sauce - 1 Tbspn
Chilli Sauce - 3tspn
Chilli Powder - 1 tspn
Green Chillies, slit - 2
Sugar - 1 tspn
Salt to taste
Oil

Procedure: 

1. Heat some oil in a pan and add chopped garlic, slit green chillies and sautee it for 1 min. Then add bell peppers, shrimp paste and pineapple and sautee for 2-3mins. (This stinks a lot)
2. Now add fish sauce, soy sauce, chilli sauce, chilli powder and rice to the pan and mix it well. After mixing it well, add the srimps and salt and cook for 3-5mins, or till the shrimps are cooked.
3. Garnish with some cilantro and serve when hot.

Variations: 
Do not use fish oil and shrimp paste if you cannot bear the smell of it. It really smells a lot but definitely enhances the taste of the fried rice.

Conclusion:
It was a spicy fried rice with some sweet pineapple taste. Something new for the taste buds.

Shrimp Stir Fry

Every time I make shrimp I remember 'Bubba' from Forrest Gump. His love towards shrimp and how he spoke about them all the time. I remember that Bubba suggests the shrimping business and Forrest pursues the idea after Bubba's death.
The Bubba Gump Shrimp Company started as an idea between Bubba and Forrest during their war duty in Vietnam. There Bubba proposes the idea of starting a shrimping business and Forrest agress and promises to be his partner after the service is over. But Bubba dies in the war and Forrest is left alone to go into that business. Forrest then goes to plays in the All America Ping Pong team and after his tour, he earns $25,000 enough to buy a boat. He buys a boat and names it 'Jenny'. This is how he starts the shrimping business and Lt. Dan Taylor joins him as his mate on the boat.
It is a pretty nice movie and Tom Hanks has acted really well and so has 'Bubba.' I think pretty soon, I will be called 'Bubba.'

Ingredients: 
Uncooked Shrimp, deveined - 1 LB
Soy Sauce - 2 tbspn
Tomato Ketchup - 4 tbspn
Water- 5tbspn
Red Chilli Flakes - 1 tspn
Ginger Paste - 1/2 tspn
Garlic, Minced - 2 + 4 cloves
Honey - 2 tspn
Cornstarch - 2 tspn
Green Onions - 1/4 + 1/4 cup
Bell Peppers - 1 cup
Brocolli - 1 cup
Mushroom - 1/4 cup
Oil

Procedure: 

1. Mix all the sauces, water, honey, red chilli flakes, 2 garlic cloves, cornstarch and ginger paste and keep it aside.
2. Now heat a skillet on med-high heat and put a tbspn oil on it. Then add garlic and all the vegetables and green onions to it and cook it for 2 mins. Then add the sauce to it and cook for 3-4 mins or till the sauce begins to boil.
3. Now add the shrimp and cook till the shrimp is cooked.

Variations: 
You can make it vegetarian by substituting shrimp with Tofu or Paneer/Cottage Cheese.

Conclusion:
The 'Always-Available-At-Home' ingredients makes it unbelievably awesome stir fry.