When I made 11-9: Fried Jumbo Shrimp, I decided to try to knock out a bunch of recipes at once, thinking I could just buy a few pounds of shrimp and save myself multiple trips to the store. One of the other shrimp recipes I made was this one, 12-21: Luxury Rice with Shrimp.
One of the glaring problems with this theory is that shrimp goes bad QUICKLY, and unless you want to cook/eat a ton of shrimp all at once, you might not end up using all of it in time.
This is what happened to me, and I ended up having to toss a bunch of the shrimp (which was on sale–BIG red flag) before I could even use it and buy more (not on sale this time đź’°đź’°). So much for trying to reduce my environmental and financial impact.
Consider that before you attempt my idea. Also, make sure the recipe is worth it–this one was not even worth rebuying the shrimp, in my opinion.
I should have gone with the crab (or krab) that they suggest in the TIPS–at least that’s cheaper, and goes a bit better with the other parts of this dish. Should we call it Luxury Krab with Rice instead? Nothing says “luxury” like imitation crab, if most of the generic sushi you can find everywhere is anything to go by.
Ingredients. The shrimp you see there is the new shrimp–the old was whisked away to the outside garbage due to the odor. I decided to use some fuller fat Greek yogurt instead of the whipping cream, for lactose-related purposes.
I (for some reason) thought this was going to be a good dish, so I doubled it, hence the 4 eggs instead of 2. *sad trombone noise*
Here’s the shrimp I peeled for this and 11-9: Fried Jumbo Shrimp.
They asked for halved mushrooms–they’ll be lucky to get quarters.
Removing shrimp tails and slicing the pieces into more manageable bites. I like things to be roughly the same size when it comes to a dish like this–otherwise it loses its cohesiveness.
Trimming the asparagus spears down, even though they don’t instruct you to. What, are you supposed to just chow down on one big spear that’s buried in there somewhere?
Sautéing the mushroom quarters.
While I was working on the rest of the filling, I had the rice cooker doing its thing in the background.
Why mess around with extra pans on the stove–rice cookers are worth every penny you pay for them (which isn’t many) and won’t overcook your rice. A rice cooker was one of the first appliances I bought for myself, and I sorely miss them when I cook rice in places that don’t have them (like my parents’ house).
Nowhere does it tell you to get a little color on your shrimp before throwing them in, but I think it’s worth it as long as you don’t leave them in too long. If you leave them in for more than just a minute or two, you’re going to get rubbery shrimp.
At this point, I still had hope. Curry rice, good. Shrimp, asparagus, mushrooms, all good. I should have just thrown a little soy sauce on top (or tamari, if you’re gluten-free) and eaten it this way. Would have made a delicious lunch (these were meal preps for the week).
But those maniacs at Simply Delicious–they just don’t know when to stop.
Whipping egg whites.
I mixed the whipped egg whites with the yogurt and mayonnaise and spread the loveliness on top. And here’s where it goes downhill.
After baking. Mine got much more than “lightly golden brown”, and I can’t even blame the oven because I don’t live in that apartment anymore (thank goodness). I’ll admit–I left them in a bit too long, but even avoiding that error wouldn’t have saved this dish.
Final picture–this was the large portion that was intended to be frozen, while the other smaller portions were meal preps for lunches. Neither were good, and if I made it again, I’d rethink that whole topping part.
Grade: D+
