grilled shrimp with black bean & mango salad is so good that you'll take photos of it, too!

Steven gave me this cookbook long ago called “Miami Spice” by Steven Raichlen (cute TV sort of name, I know!) I think that was back when we lived in Astoria. I never really paid much attention to it because most of the recipes call for the use of fruits: lots of fruits! Don’t misunderstand me! It was a thoughtful gift and all. And I do love to cook and I was unfamiliar with Southern Florida style cooking then. The book is very interesting really. It’s just that normally I don’t go for savory recipes that require fruit. I always feel that they’re too sweet for me. Pineapple doesn’t even excite me for cooking… sorry Hawaiians! 🙂

Well on second thought, maybe I’m being a little dramatic because tomatoes are fruits and I eat them all the time. Perhaps I’m making a false statement here. Oops another fruit that I eat in savory dishes is avocado. Oh dear, oh my!

Anyhow recently I have been trying to incorporate other fruits into my cooking. This grilled shrimp with black bean and mango salad was adapted from the above book. I‘ve made it twice and people really loved it so I decided, after some arm twisting—I really am fruit biased, to blog it. I served it with my corn sundried tomato salad most recently at a dinner party. It was a huge hit. Just look at some of the guests photographing the platter!

The recipe has been adapted to my taste, here it is:

grilled shrimp, black bean & mango salad

Summertime Grilled Shrimp with Black Bean & Mango Salad

Ingredients:
20 large shrimp cleaned, deveined tail on
5 bamboo skewers
16 oz of black beans cooked al dente
Juice of 3-4 limes
½ bunch chopped cilantro
1/3 cup olive oil
6-8 scallions (spring onions) chopped
1/3 of a small jalapeño pepper cut ultra thin
4 medium ripe mangoes diced small
Salt
fresh black Pepper
1 tsp of dried fenugreek leaves
1 tsp ground cumin

How to:

Pre-heat grill to high: 500F or more
Marinate shrimp with 1 tsp of olive oil, salt, pepper, cumin, dried fenugreek leaves and juice of 1 lime about five minutes. Grill shrimp on bamboo skewers for about 2-3 min per side (it will burn a bit- worry not, the smoky flavor is good). Remove from skewers. Just before serving combine beans, mango, scallions, cilantro, lime juice, jalapeño pepper, salt, black pepper and olive oil. Give it a good toss, adjust salt and lime. Scatter warm shrimp over the salad and serve on a platter or individual plates. I prefer family style because it’s less food handling for me and more interaction for my guests. It makes about five servings.

shrimp, black bean and mango salad with roasted corn salad, heirloom cherry tomatoes and basmati rice