Cooking at Whole Foods

So, yesterday (false) a few days ago (false) a few weeks ago (false) 4 months ago (ding ding ding, yep, it's been a looong time since I started this post!), my work team went to Whole Foods to participate in a cooking class! I had no idea Whole Foods even offered this....but they do! Before we got there, it was decided that we would do the "Pacific Rim Fusion" menu, which consists of:

Waterfall Salad

Firecracker Shrimp

Thai Chicken Green Curry


Five Spice Beef Sate

Sesame Rice


Grilled Plantains with Coconut Milk over Ice Cream

Believe it or not, I actually worked on the Five Spice Beef Sate. Obvi not my first choice, but honestly, I didn't really care too much. Anyway, unfortunately I don't have too many pictures of the "during" phase....I thought I would look like a freak in front of my co-workers if I pulled out my camera and started snapping away at the food. Well, by the time everything was almost done, I ended up doing it anyway, because I had to have some pictures!

The recipe I'm going to share with you is the Firecracker Shrimp. It was by far the best thing we had! The beef sate that I made, with the help of others, was tough and not well flavored. I mean, how could it have been? The marinade soaked in for all of 5 minutes, when it should have been AT LEAST over night! And the chicken curry....not much flavor, unfortunately. Oh, and I should mention that I did not try the dessert for two reasons: 1) Lent and 2) plantains (vom). Ok, so here's the recipe for the shrimp:

Firecracker Shrimp
-1/3 cup sliced or whole almonds
-2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and halved
-1 bunch cilantro
-6 scallions, cut into 2-inch lengths
-3 garlic cloves
-2 tsp cumin
-1/8 cup olive oil
-1/4 cup water
-2 lb medium to large shrimp, peeled and deveined
-1 tbsp olive oil (for the pan)
-1/8 cup lemon juice
-sea salt to taste

Place almonds, jalapenos, cilantro, scallions, garlic, cumin, olive oil, and water in a food processor and blend for 1 minute, until a smooth paste is formed. Marinate the shrimp in the refrigerator in a covered container for at least 1 hour in the paste (this definitely did not happen when we were cooking, and they still tasted super yummy!).

Heat olive oil over moderate heat in a large saute pan. Saute shrimp, stirring continuously for 4 minutes, until pink and opaque. Deglaze plan with the lemon juice, and season with salt.

The recipe is taken straight from the pamphlet we got from Whole Foods. Since I didn't actually make this dish myself, I can't offer any insightful hints. But the shrimp was definitely the favorite!

Ok, so clearly I haven't been blogging much in the past few months, but I'm going to try to pick it back up because I have a few more yummy recipes to share, a few scrapbooking projects, and, of course, plenty of info on my upcoming Europe trip (21 days until I leave)!!