recipes 46, 47, 48, and 49: Tristan's dad's birthday grilltravaganza

Summer recipes, here we go! The first recipe is adapted only slightly from the skinnytaste website:  http://www.skinnytaste.com/2012/05/bangin-grilled-shrimp-skewers.html. The second recipe is slighted adapted from Ree, the Pioneer Woman, who is both funny and wise: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/03/ginger-steak-salad/ The third recipe is from mine and Tristan's favorite restaurant in Hoboken: http://www.anthonydavids.com/dr/about.html. We ate there last night, had the green bean salad, and loved it so much that we recreated it today (to the best of our ability) for his dad's birthday. It passed muster. The fourth recipe involves bananas, a grill, LBI, and Tristan's friend Mike. Yeah, summer!

GRILLED SHRIMP BANG BANG APPETIZER (serves 6)
Ingredients:
-6 bamboo skewers, soaked in water for 20 minutes
-24 raw shrimp, peeled and de-veined
-ground black pepper
-2 1/2 T mayo
-2 scallions, finely diced
-2 T sweet chili sauce (if you can't find this at the grocery store, check the ketchup section)
-1/2 t sriracha (or more, depending on your spice level enjoyment/tolerance)

Instructions:
1) skewer the shrimp, 4 per skewer, and lightly season with ground pepper
2) grill until they appear cooked
3) make the sauce by mixing all other ingredients
4) remove the shrimp from the skewers, hold by the tails, and dip in the sauce- SO! GOOD!

GINGER GRILLED STEAK SALAD (serves 4)
Ingredients:
Marinade
-2 T soy sauce
-1 T sherry
-2 minced garlic cloves
-2 T brown sugar
-1 1/2 lbs sirloin steak
-2 T olive oil

Salad Dressing
-2 T olive oil
-2 T soy sauce
-2 T white sugar
-1 T lime juice
-2 minced cloves of garlic
-1 half jalapeno, seeded, diced
-2 T picked ginger, finely chopped

Salad
-2 scallions, chopped
-8 oz (at least) of salad greens
-3/4 pint grape tomatoes, halved

Instructions:
1) mix all marinade ingredients together and marinate the steak in a closed container (or ziploc) for up to 24 hours
2) grill the steak to the desired level of doneness
3) while the steak is cooking, whisk together all salad dressing ingredients, and prepare the salad
4) mix the salad and the dressing (or however much of the dressing looks like a good amount) and then plate it
5) top the salad with the sliced steak

SUMMER BEAN AND SOPPRESSATA SALAD (serves 4)
Ingredients:
Salad
-15 oz can of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
-about 15 oz of fresh green beans, cooked al dente, blanched, and cut into bite sized pieces
-sliced soppressata (to taste)
-1/4 of a red onion, coarsely chopped

Dressing
-about 2 T of extremely grainy mustard
-1 T olive oil
-1 T olive tapenade
-a squirt of lemon juice

Instructions:
1) mix the salad ingredients
2) stir together the dressing ingredients
3) stir the dressing into the salad (if it looks like it is too much dressing, you don't have to use it all!)

from left to right: my thumb with its boy fingernail, the bean salad, the steak salad- YUM (minus the thumb)!

GRILLED BANANAS
Ingredients:
-peeled bananas

Instructions:
1) grill the bananas, being sure to get grill marks on all sides
2) eat!