Orange Fennel Shrimp

[Triple Zero]

fennel has been ordered, everything will be fine.

[LMNO]

The fennel plant, not the seeds, right?

[Triple Zero]

yup.

though i got a bit more of the bulb than the leaves, but hey.

also, instead of an orange i'm using a grapefruit, cause i kinda agree with ECH's thought of possibly a littlebit too much orange. also i like grapefruit.

just that i'm not too sure about the peel of the grapefruit, cause it's a bit thing and the zest got a littlebit of white (pink, actually) on it, buuuut i'm gonna blend it anyway so i guess it's not that much of a difference.

[Triple Zero]

what, 0.25 oz is 7 gram?? is that dried fennel leaves or something?

i gotta fennel bulb, i'm gonna use my own judgement

[Suu]

I'm assuming dried...

But...Good luck and tell us how it is!

[East Coast Hustle]

always use fresh fennel.

always.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Fresh fennel leaves are nice, you should get an extra bulb to plant.

[LMNO]

Fennel doesn't really have "leaves" so much as "fronds".

[Wind rider]

It grows like a weed too, it doesn't need much sun and can handle lots of competintion.

[Suu]

Hey Trip Zero...how did it come out?

[Triple Zero]

well, i only had the bottom part of that thing, no fronds (or not much and they were not looking very happy). but i decided i like fennel, so i'm gonna use it more often. it's a bit like anise-flavoured paksoi, kind of.

anyway, it turned out pretty good:

here's grapefruit zest, a partially peeled grapefruit and orange juice being reduced: (the yellow gunk below the pan was from the first try, when the orange juice boiled over and made a huge mess, but i had enough OJ so i just started over again--without cleaning the stove, yeah)



here's adding the chunks of fennel and peeled grapefruit below it



adding the zest and placing it in a long plastic container for blending!



this what the sauce looks like after blending. personally i thought it was still a littlebit too chunky, but then, there weren't any particular "sauce-making" ingredients in it, too. i briefly considered adding some cream, but i was afraid it would curdle, given all the citric acid. i did add a littlebit of sunflower oil for smoothness, though.



potatoes, peeled, sliced and washed, nuked for 5 minutes at 900W, sprinkled with paprika powder on one side, olive oil, salt and pepper on the other side. to be roasted in my oven and served next to the shrimp.



these are the shrimp. they're so pretty!



the good thing about shrimp that is already peeled, is that if you fry them, you can add a bit of garlic and onion to the pan, and it will absorb the flavours. if it's still got the skin you need to stew it in very strong flavoured sauce to get any flavour into the meat. this, and not having to peel them myself, is my biggest problem with non-peeled shrimp (oh and that they always turn out to be half their original size when you peel them :-P).
also check out how they almost immediately turn from grey-blue to orange-pink



and this is what it looks like if you throw it all together on a plate! [yes LMNO, i know, it looks like a baby threw up on my shrimp..]



All Hail Discordia! (too bad the food is a bit overexposed on this pic)



my friend, on these shrimp: "hm, the flavour is .. interesting. and i mean that in a good way!"

and him again: "AAAAHH!"
me: "what?"
him: "it's such a cool taste! it's weird, it's good, it's crazy!"

so all in all, it was good. delicious and good. strange combination, but a good one

[Suu]

I'm sure the grapefruit made it a bit more tart than the orange would. But hey! Thanks for giving it a shot with your own twist. 

[Jasper]

Trip0 delivers. Well done, man.

[hunter s.durden]

Step by step with pics.

000 gets to decide my views on the next political issue that I'm unsure about.

[Darth Cupcake]

Egad. That was awesome.