Saturday 26 May 2012

Pineapple and Shrimp Tacos


I must have a face that says, 'hi strangers on the bus - in spite of me sitting here, glaring at you, with my earphones in, please sit next to me, interrupt me lovely train of thought involving Ryan Gosling, and tell me incredibly personal stories'.

For the last two days, both times I have been on the bus, people have sat down next to me and talked to me. The first day, one woman asked me if I had kids (um, no, how old do I look thank you very much?) and then told me about her partner and her grandchildren. In detail. The next day a French man sat next to me, pointed at the rain and said something. I smiled and nodded my head which is usually an appropriate response. By the time I realised he was talking about his house being flooded in the horrible Brisbane floods last year, how he lost all his furniture and how he had to be rescued by a rescue helicopter, it was too late to rearrange my face into a look of concern. He then yelled at me for smiling.



I also learnt, the hard way, that just because other people have the ability to jump into the bus when it is raining does not mean I do.

And it has now taken me an hour to write this post because I got distracted. I was trying to prove to my roommate why the Goo Goo Dolls are brilliant and underrated.

But now - about the actual food. This is a delightfully simple dinner - easy, healthy and quick. The shrimp (or as we call them in Australian, prawns) may be expensive but I'm cheap and buy the supermarket brand, and as I cook them, they still taste ok. We have actually eaten this three weeks in a row - it is one of the most commonly requested meals in this house. That's how good it is. Simple and delicious.


Level of Difficulty: Easy
Average Cost: $
Main Ingredients: It’s pretty self explanatory
Recipe adapted from: Foodie.com
Occasion: Dinner, but I’m sure leftovers could make a lovely lunch
Menu Options: You can add whatever you like to it – salsa, mango, other grilled veggies. There is no limit to the veggies you can add to this!

Serves 4

What you need:
-          400 g shrimp (this will make a lot of shrimp – probably more than you need. However as tortillas generally come in packets of 6 or 8, the remaining ingredients should also provide you with a few leftovers so people can go back for seconds if they wish)
-          1 tbsp olive oil
-          1 tsp dried chilli flakes
-          1 tsp dried coriander
-          1 tsp dried basil
-          6 pineapple rings, chopped into small pieces (more or less depending on taste – we like pineapple here)
-          4 wholegrain tortillas
-          4 cos lettuce leafs (or as much or little as you want)
-          2-3 tomatoes, diced
-          ½ avocado, diced (we probably use a bit more)
-          2 tbsp lemon juice (1/2 per person)
-          4 tbsp tomato chutney (1 per person)
-          Salt and pepper to taste


What to do:

Add olive oil to a frypan over medium heat. Add shrimp and season with chilli, coriander and basil. Cook for approximately 20 minutes or until the shrimps are pink and have a ‘grilled’ appearance. Make sure they are no longer pale and see through or slimy.

Remove from heat and keep in a warm spot. Add the pineapple rings to the frypan and cook in the remaining oil for 10 minutes or until ‘grilled’ looking. Add more oil if you wish.

Add the shrimp back to the frypan for another minute or two to ensure both pineapple and shrimp are heated through.

On the four tortillas, make a base for the ingredients with the lettuce leafs. Make sure you put the ingredients on one half of the tortilla, so you can fold the remaining half of the tortilla over the half with the ingredients and nothing will spill.

Divide the tomatoes, avocado, lemon juice and chutney between the tortillas. Do the same for the shrimp and pineapple rings.

Season the tortillas with salt and pepper and other seasonings if you wish.

Serve warm. 


4 comments:

  1. The flavors of this are absolutely yummy!! I love pineapples in dishes, it just gives it such a fresh flavor. Lol, sometimes people just have too much to say and ignore that you just want some personal time. It's quite annoying.

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    1. Haha, it keeps happenning to me on buses! Thanks Julie :)

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  2. Yum... I love prawns and pineapple. What a yum mixture:)

    I've posted a post on my blog about the awesome foodie packaging you sent me:)

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    Replies
    1. Ah, I saw the blog post! Thank you so much - it was beautiful! Glad you liked the package!

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