Super Mashers with Shrimp and Chorizo

Last night we had yet another meal from 365: No Repeats. Because of the gang over at One Year Project I've rediscovered this cookbook. This is a recipe I was very excited to make (1) because it used up the odd amount of shrimp and chorizo we had leftover in the freezer and (2) because it combines two of my favorites things - shrimp and mashed potatoes.


The recipe was very easy to make, if a little time consuming. I will never understand how Rachael Ray is able to make these meals in 30 minutes. I expected the dish to be a bit more spicy, so next time I'd use more hot sauce. I couldn't taste the lime juice, which disappointed me, but I know it was because the limes didn't give off enough juice. All in all it was a very good meal, though.

The recipe is pretty basic: I made the mashed potatoes by boiling up a few Yukon golds and then mashing them with sour cream, a splash of milk, butter, salt and pepper. While the potatoes were cooking, garlic and scallions were sauteed in some butter and then added into the potatoes, which turned out to be a very good addition that worked much better than raw scallions. We only had one link of chorizo so I crumbled that into pieces and cooked it in a non-stick skillet until both sides were browned. A red pepper and two poblano peppers were thinly sliced, along with half a red onion, and added to the skillet. Once the onions and peppers were softened I pushed them to the side and added the shrimp. In the recipe it says to cook the chorizo and shrimp first and then add the onions and peppers, but there is no way shrimp should be in a pan for that long so I reversed the order. Once everything is cooked you add the juice of two limes and a few dashes of Tobasco sauce. Since we had so little of the chorizo it wasn't a dominant flavor. I think this would be much better if there had been more of it to go around.

I was all set to blog last night, but our Internet wasn't working. What is it with me and Internet connections lately? SP thought it might have had something to do with the power outage on Monday, but whatever it was it wasn't resolved until this afternoon. I spent the morning making food for our little 4th of July get together with my mother-in-law and her sister. I'll be back later tonight with photos. Happy 4th of July!!