Recipe Reduction 175-6

Yuzu Glazed Shrimp Fried Rice
from Roy Choi

(sorry no pictures this time. I PROMISE to have pictures for the next one. Already took them.)

I didn't have yuzu, so I didn't really make this dish. You could call it in the spirit of yuzu-glazed shrimp fried rice.

It was awful.

The fried rice was okay but very fattening. Four tablespoons of oil for two cups of rice--wow. The "glaze" was the problem. Yuzu are supposed to be the size of a small tangerine; I was substituting limes but there were exceptionally large, juicy limes. There was so much liquid that I had to pull the shrimp out--not soon enough; they were way overcooked--and try to reduce the liquid into a glaze. As it reduced it became very, very salty, and since I'd already salted the shrimp the end result was like sprinkling salt on a half lime and sucking out the juice.  (Which I've done. But not in many years.)

It probably wasn't a bad recipe, just bad execution. But it would have helped if he'd specified exactly how much juice and warned about over salting. Now that I know, I could do it correctly--but I don't want to. Too little time, too many recipes. If I get my hands on some yuzu, maybe.

By the way, what's the obsession people seem to have with making everything taste like citrus fruit? I just saw a recipe for lemon-herb turkey with lemon-garlic gravy. Why should a domestic fowl taste like a tropical fruit? I want my turkey to taste like turkey!

Thai Green Curry Guacamole
from Yup, it's Vegan
I wonder if this was invented as a way to use up slightly spotty avocados. It certainly worked well for the purpose.  My avocados were spotty but still flavorful--or I wouldn't have used them. You don't make that mistake twice. But they weren't pretty.

So this recipe loads them up with green curry paste (hot!), cilantro, lime juice, jalapenos or Thai Bird chiles, green onion and shallot and I don't remember what all.  Very hot and would be great on a taco salad. 

I want a taco salad.