It is cold (again) outside, and after giving so many statistics tutorials during the past weeks that a lot of my own things have gone aside, I am having an array of quiet but busy days, reading for and writing on my diploma thesis, only interrupted every now and then by piano playing, some regular work, and going to the supermarket for stocking up on groceries. To keep me warm, my mom has knitted socks and fingerless gloves for me that arrived a couple of days ago, and I wear them all the time.
~ by the way, is this a yoga pose? ~
A habit of mine (I do not think it is a bad one, it is just a habit) is that when my mind is filled with other things so much – social psychological theory and lots of controversial articles at the moment, combined with permanently attempting to structure all that stuff into a meaningful and nice-to-read text – I need to reduce cognitive load in other parts of my life which also shows in that I am not overly adventurous in the kitchen currently and stick to a handful of things I eat a lot and almost exclusively these days: chicken, seafood, kabocha, apples, onions, tomatoes, brown rice, spinach, and lots and lots of tea, of course. (Fortunately, I still have a lot of non-posted recipes and countless drafts to finish gradually. )
Yesterday, however, I was in the mood to try something new, involving one of the oranges I have bought, hoping to finally get into marinating meat and fish. (I usually just throw them into a pan with vegetables, but after seeing things like this or this, I knew I would have to try marinating sooner or later, and using orange juice for that seemed appealing to me.) But given my current busy-mindedness, you can imagine I have not marinated anything yet, because marinating requires thinking in advance, and that does not go well with reducing non-work-related cognitive load. When I am reading or writing and suddenly realize that I am hungry, I do not want to wait for another hour until the marinating has finished, but eat something right now. (I am happy that my almond milk making has become such a routine meanwhile that I do not have to think so much anymore about putting almonds and water into a bowl before I go to bed. It almost happens automatically.)
So, no marinating so far, but instead I made a nice salad with an orange juice dressing, and since I wanted for something warm, given the usual chilliness of January here, I made a warm salad.
Warm Lamb’s Lettuce and Shrimp Salad with Orange-Balsamic Dressing
1 serving
Salad Ingredients
ghee, butter, or olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
150-200 g (5-7 oz) shrimps
2 spring onions, cut into slices
2 handful lamb’s lettuce
Dressing Ingredients
1 orange
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp dried tarragon
salt & pepper to taste
Directions
Heat fat in a skillet and fry garlic until slightly brown, then add shrimp and spring onions and fry until done. In the end, add lamb’s lettuce and carefully mix everything. For the dressing, mix the juice of an orange, balsamic vinegar, and dried tarragon, and season with salt and pepper. Serve the salad with the dressing poured over it and enjoy.
Do you experience your kitchen creativity and adventurousness suffering when your mind is stuffed with other things? Are you an all-time-foodie or a foodie on occasion?