THE SHIITAKE MUSHROOMS LOOKED BRIGHT and appetizing in the Vons produce department. My freezer already had Wild Argentine Red Shrimp (ha. sounds like one of Trump’s WWE cage pals), so dinner planning was easy-peasy. Assembling the fixings, I used my iPhone to document it all here for SimanaitisSays.
The Fixings. The mushrooms get a gentle damp paper-toweling and requisite slicing. The frozen shrimp get a minute in the microwave, enough to peal their shells and tails. (Had I been making a stew, I’d have saved these for enriching the broth.)
This time around, there’s a marinade/sauce of equal parts (a couple tablespoons) rice vinegar, soy sauce, and sesame oil, plus a small hit of La Yu (chili-enriched sesame oil), plus a scant tablespoon of minced garlic and a like amount of brown sugar. Stir them all to combine.
I add color to the recipe with some romaine, carrot sticks, and torn greens (parsley? cilantro? arugula? whichever is handy).
The fixings. Onions and pine nuts to come; I thought of them as I was going along.
Marinate the Shrimp. Stir the marinade/sauce again and dose the shrimp with perhaps a third of it. Let it rest in the fridge for maybe 15 minutes.
Start the Mushroom Saute; Chopped Onion Too. I heat a chunk of Beurre au Gros Sel Marin sprinkled with Graza “Sizzle” Extra Virgin Olive Oil in a large skillet. Once sizzling—the Belgian butter, not the Spanish oil—add the sliced mushrooms together with some chopped sweet onion (one of the afterthought ingredients).
Add the Marinated Shrimp. I used my little wooden tongs to maneuver the shrimp as it candies itself this way and that.
Above, shrimp in. Below, becoming candied.
Then toss in the carrots and greens, and mix them around. There’s no happy snap of this because it’s when I thought of adding the pine nuts. Where’s my handy Japanese toaster?
I bought this in one of the supply stalls surrounding Tokyo’s old Tsukiji Fish Market.
The gizmo is designed for toasting sesame seeds, but works fine with pine nuts as well. I confess this time around I should have toasted them darker.
Once mixed, it made for a tasty plate.
Oishii, desu ne? ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2025