Mac, Cheese, and Shrimp

Made with vacuum-sealed shrimps found at the frozen section of Robinson’s Metro East Supermarket. The shrimps came shelled, the heads cut off and, most importantly, the backs had been slit and the digestive system (the black thread) removed. Oh, it saved me so much work and the girls had a ball with the pasta. How long to cook this dish? Excluding the time to thaw the shrimp about 15 minutes.

The addition of chopped parsley at the end of cooking time is optional but parsley does add a wonderful note to most dishes. Brightens flavors, as Elise puts it. Contrary to what most people think, parsley isn’t just for ornament. If you can’t find fresh parsley, dried chopped parsley comes in small jars and is available in the herb and spice section of most supermarkets. The contents of one little jar come a long way. Melt the butter in a pan. Add the shrimp and cook just until they change color. Pour in the cream. Add the grated cheese. Cook, stirring, just until the sauce bubbles and the cheese melts. Turn off the heat. Taste the sauce and add salt and pepper, as needed.

Ramen with ponzu sauce

In Japanese cooking, ponzu refers to any of the various citrus juices. If citrus juice is mixed with soy sauce, dashi, rice vinegar, and rice wine, then, it is called ponzu shoyu or ponzu sauce. Serves one. Double, triple, or quadruple the ingredients if you’re feeding others aside from yourself. Or if you can consume what is normally allotted to one person. Those are kombu and bonito flakes in the photo. For further discussion, please refer to the how-to make dashi entry as ponzu sauce starts with dashi.

Place the dashi in a pot. If using water, place the water in the pot and add the bonito flakes and kombu. Add the soy sauce. To assemble your ramen with ponzu sauce, place the cooked ramen in a bowl and top it with the sliced meat and vegetables. Pour in the ponzu sauce. If you want your noodle soup hot, reheat the required amount of ponzu sauce before use.