Caribbean Shrimp with Chile Aioli and Mango-Papaya Salad

Ingredients:
¼ C Olive oil
4 Tablespoon lime juice
4 Tablespoon light rum
1 Clove garlic, chopped
2 small dried red Chile peppers
2 Teaspoon sugar
1 Teaspoon salt
¾ Teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
24 jumbo shrimps, de-veined and shelled
3 mangoes, cut into ½ inch dices
Papaya, cut into ½ inch dices
½ red bell pepper, cut into ¼ inch dices
¼ C chopped red onion
1 Large jalapeno, seeded and minced
2 Tablespoon chopped cilantro
Ancho-Chile Aioli

Directions:
In a large bowl, combine oil with 2 tablespoon of the lime juice, rum, garlic, dried red chili, 1 teaspoon sugar, salt and ½ Teaspoon of the black pepper. Add the shrimp, toss to evenly cover the shrimps with the marinate mix. Cover the bowl and marinade for 2 to 3 hours.
Light the grill or heat the broiler. Get the marinated shrimp and grill until each side is well-cooked. Cool and refrigerate until ready to use.
Reserve ¼ C of the mango for the sauce. In a bowl, combine the rest of mango, papaya, bell pepper, onion, jalapeno, cilantro and the remaining 2 tablespoon lime juice, 2 tablespoon rum, 1 teaspoon sugar, salt and ¼ teaspoon black pepper. Chill until ready to serve.
Serve the shrimp with the salad and Chile-Aioli.

è For Chile Aioli: 1 dried ancho-chile (I just used ground pepper here), ½ C boiling water, ¼ C reserved mango (from the mango-papaya salad), 1 small clove garlic-chopped, ½ C mayonnaise, ½ Tsp. lime juice and salt to taste. Puree all ingredients together in blender and ready to use! If you use real ancho-chile, then soak it in the boiling water until soft, stem and seed it and scrape the inside to get the pulp.

Mussels on the half-shell in Cilantro

It was in 2006, on our anniversary and I was huge, huge pregnant so we couldn't go anywhere to have a special anniversary dinner or celebration. So, I decided to cook special. Yep! It was only (apparently) 12 days before our beloved child was born and I was so heavy, watery, swollen, and hard to move, yet I cooked.

I dug into my recipe bank (which was not as 'much' as now) and found one of the recipe books we got as our wedding gift. It's called "Romance Without Reservation" by Lori and Michael Fagien (I put this link in case you're interested, but this is the only site I could find).

Anyway it's simple and so exotic and you can have it at your own home... enjoy!

Ingredients:
4 dozen mussels, scrubbed and de-bearded
¼ C olive oil
¼ finely chopped cilantro
2 tablespoon minced shallot
½ Teaspoon salt
½ Teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper

Directions:
Discard any mussels that have broken shells or that do not clamp shut when tapped. Pour 1 inch of water into a large pot. Add the mussels to the pot. Cover, raise the heat to high and bring to boil. Cook, shaking the pot occasionally, just until the mussels open, about 3 minutes. Remove the open mussels. Continue to cook, uncovering the pot as necessary to remove the mussels as soon as their shells open. Discard any that do not open.
Heat the broiler. In a small bowl, combine the oil, cilantro, shallot and salt.
Pull off and discard the top shells of the mussels. Arrange the mussels on a baking sheet. Spoon the cilantro mixture over them and sprinkle with pepper. Broil just until heated through, about 1 to 2 minutes.