This "Prawns N' Pesto" recipe contains three or four things that other "healthy eaters" may avoid, that being the infamous so-called "shrimp scavengers", gluten and grains in bread, and the cheese used to make the pesto. Not me though, I went for it……
I address all of these in my scientifically crafted healthy eating regiment, with my army of nutrients such as papaya enzymes (I make my own capsules), which help digest gluten, meat and everything else, (I pop one or two in my mouth during or after a meal), as well as
chlorella (added to my smoothies), which pulls mercury and toxins from the body, and a host of others I talk about in the "Eat Smart" and "Top Ten Lists" lists of my blog.
That being said, let's put science aside and get to some healthy/delicious eatin'…………………
Prawns N' Pesto
For the Shrimp……
12-16 (large as you can find) raw shrimp, peeled, deveined and tails removed
Unrefined Coconut Oil (AVOID COOKING WITH CANOLA, WESSON, OR VEGETABLE OIL!!!!)
1 teaspoon Pink Himalayan Salt (AVOID COMMON TABLE SALT)
2-6 (depending on your taste) cloves organic garlic, minced
1/3 cup chopped organic parsley
3 teaspoons grated lemon zest from organic lemon
3 tablespoons lemon juice from organic lemon
…these measurements are estimates, in that I don't measure anything when I cook
Directions
Add a generous amount of coconut oil to a baking dish. Add the salt, garlic and half of the parsley. Arrange the shrimp in a single layer in a baking dish. Bake uncovered in a 400 degree oven for 5 minutes.
Turn the shrimp and sprinkle with the lemon peel, lemon juice and remaining parsley. Bake 8-10 minutes more, or just until tender. Be careful, because shrimp can overcook and have a "rubbery" texture
Perfect Pesto
Note: If you want to learn to master pesto, put away the food processor and chop all your ingredients by hand. When using the food processor, the pesto comes out more like a smooth paste, put when chopping by hand, you get that rugged true Italian vibe with your pesto
** 1 large bunch of organic basil, (home grown is best) leaves only, washed and dried
** 3 medium cloves organic garlic
** one small handful of organic raw pine nuts
** A few tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil
** roughly 3/4 cup Grass Fed Parmesan, loosely packed and FRESHLY GRATED (I AVOID COMMERCIAL CHEESE, If you can't find grass fed cheese, at least use USDA organic cheese)
Directions for Pesto
The technique here is: chop a bit, add some ingredients, chop some more (instead of chopping everything all at once). It takes some time, but when you are into the art of cooking and food prep, you learn to be in the moment…Start chopping the garlic along with about 1/3 of the basil leaves (invest in a quality knife set).
Once this is loosely chopped add more basil, chop some more, add the rest of the basil, chop some more. Scrape and chop, gather and chop. At this point the basil and garlic should be a very fine mince. Add about half the pine nuts, chop. Add the rest of the pine nuts, chop.
Add half of the Parmesan, chop. Add the rest of the Parmesan, and chop. In the end you want a chop so fine that you can press all the ingredients into a basil "cake" Transfer the pesto "cake" to a small bowl (not much bigger than the cake). Cover with a bit of olive oil, it doesn't take much, just a few tablespoons
…..about Bread
Personally I think that quality bread has been getting a bad rap over the last decade or so. I try to think "outside the box" with health and wellness, and it seems to me that if bread were inherently bad then it would have been phased out of the human died thousands of years ago.
I think the real culprit behind a lot of the gluten and grain issues people that seemed to "pop up" in the last couple of decades is that the other nutrients needed to balance out grains and gluten have been removed from our diet.
In reality, I don't eat a heck of a lot of bread, and I don't have any gluten issues, so that's why I have no problems eating it occasionally, when the mood hits. The "Ultimate Bread" for me has yet to be found, to the point where I am preparing to start baking my own.
The Gluten Free breads are too hard and bland for me, and the commercial breads have unacceptable ingredients, and too much of a "generic" taste for me.
To a certain degree, I kinda "concede the point" and just grab the highest quality bread I can find, (mainly the ones without Canola and toxic oils), especially if the smell from a bakery draws me in, and as said above, I depend on my papaya enzymes after a meal to digest gluten
Anyhoo, the original recipe from whence I got these photos called for sprinkling pine nuts on the the creation, but I found it irritating that they kept rolling off. However, I did break with "pesto tradition" and add some crushed pistachios to the creation.
I'm a big fan of fresh baked bread out of the oven, so, until I get to that fresh baked homemade bread level, I toss my slices into the oven to heat them up. A little grass fed butter (never commercial butter or margarine, or these "whatever the hell they are spreads") melted on the bread by the oven heat makes it "crazy delicious".
If you hold back on Pink Himalayan Salt when cooking, a topping of Pink Himalayan Salt from a salt grinder, and the same with a coarse ground pepper grinder right before serving, sets this treat out, and gives your guests a salivating visual, and makes you look like you know what you are doing :).
~stay healthy~
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