Death by natural causes is the most asinine statement I have ever heard. I’m sorry, what is it that constitutes ‘natural’? Oh, you mean like a heart attack? Ok, sure.
But what about taking a bite of shrimp fried rice, feeling your pharynx tighten, strangulation ensuing as a ballooning epiglottis becomes a barrier for oxygen to pass into your thirsting, desperate respiratory system – and you subsequently bite the dust?
How about acquiring an endemic disease that pervades tirelessly throughout your wasted, brittle interior making you succumb to the host of comorbidities that cohabitate in that cachectic, withered underbelly?
What if you kicked a bucket, got an open wound that became a hosting ground for opportunistic bacteria, mounted a response, didn’t take the proper course of antibiotics, became septic and actually kicked the bucket?
Maybe you were having a fabulous time lathering in the shower when you loose your footing and crack your noggin, blood circles the drain as you slowly hemorrhage your way into circling the drain, then slip away under pelting beads of luke warm water?
Perhaps plummeting to your dreary end when the engines fail and the cockpit starts smoking? Declining, falling, dropping like actual flies.
Picture this: You’re in your garden, green as a thumb can get, blissfully planting myriads of fauna & flora, when (unbeknownst to you) you inhale a toxic, fungal spore that nests happily in your pulmonary cavity, replicating and permeating until one tragic day you find yourself the one pushing back up the daisies.
Insulin between the toes? Insulin is as natural of a substance as they come. Can’t live without it. Can’t live with it (in the wrong place or dose).
Or are you telling me that these external circumstances (of really awful timing and luck and fate) are seemingly more of a an ‘artificial’ way to get taken out? It’s nonsense if you ask me.
Do you insist that if someone places you feet first into a chipper that there is anything unnatural about that? It might not be desirable. It might not be something that enthuses you, but I’m finding it hard to qualify as something else.
I see I’ve tired you. You probably came to a food blog to read about food. Pardon my grotesque tangent. I’m an ER nurse you know.
What do you want to make? All this shrimp talk has got me hungry. So how about Coconut Sambal Shrimp Tostadas? (Naturally)
Feeds 4; Takes 30 min (minus marinating time)
Ingredients and Method for Tostadas
- Water
- Cornmeal
Combine water and cornmeal per back of the cornmeal package – Enough to make 8 tostadas.
Once combined, roll out 8 golfball sized rounds. Whip out your tortilla press and 2 sheets of parchment paper. Press each round in the press with parchment on both the top and bottom. The batter will stick if you don’t use parchment.
Heat a dry pan on the stove and ‘fry’ each tostada for about 1 min per side. Set them aside.
Ingredients for Coconut Sambal Shrimp and Extras
- 1 avocado, mashed with salt
- Half of a medium size, English cucumber, diced small
- 16-20 shrimp, deveined and shells removed
- 2 tbsp sambal
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp white sugar
- 1 can of full fat unsweetened coconut milk, divided
- 1/4 red onion, sliced
- 1/8 red cabbage, sliced
- Juice of 2 limes, divided
- Cilantro leaves & sesame seeds for garnish
- 2 oz ricotta salata, finely grated for garnish
- Olive oil, salt
Method
Heat a large frying pan to medium heat with a glug of good olive oil.
In a small mixing bowl, combine half of the coconut milk, sugar, sambal, garlic powder and juice of 1 lime. Taste and add a pinch of salt if needed. Set aside.
Throw the shrimp in the hot pan and cook for 1 min. Flip your shrimp and add the coconut sambal sauce cooking for another 2-ish min, until all the shrimp are just beautifully pink. Remove from heat.
In another bowl combine the second half of the coconut milk and juice of the other lime.
Assemble your tostadas by layering first with avocado mash, slices of cabbage, a few spicy shrimp, sliced red onion, cilantro, cucumber, sesame seeds and ricotta salata shavings.
Drizzle with coconut lime sauce.
Don’t choke.
Other recipes for those of you not concerned with anaphylactic shock:
- Clam and Langostino Chowder
- Slow, Low Roasted Citrus Salmon
- Deconstructed Niçoise Salad with Ahi and Olives
- Midwinter Mahi Mahi with Sheet Pan Veggies
