Salsa Wednesdays!

I recently discovered a wondrous, South-of-the-Border delight on Wednesdays and wanted to share my discovery with the rest of the Southwest Missouri fans of Harter House World Flavors.  I am far to old for the normal club and bar scene in downtown Springfield, and to be honest, sitting around a bar has lost its appeal to me long ago.  

However, imagine my surprise when walking into Cartoons for a little dinner after dance class at Ballroom Dance World, I discovered Latin Dance Night!  The DJ was mixing different flavors of Latin Rhythms to Salsa, Meringue, Rumba, and many other moves, to dance to.  The crowd was much more diverse than most Springfield haunts with ethniticity ranging from Mexican, Brazilian, African American and several other backgrounds, making me the welcome minority.

From what the server informed us, Cartoon's does this every Wednesday night from 9 to close and I will be making this a regular occurrence.  The energy was electrifying, the dances were not intimidating in the least, and the crowd was energized and fun.  Unlike most places around town, it wasn't about the drinking, but about the camaraderie and getting your Latin groove on.   

In honor of my new discovery, here's a little recipe with a spanish flavor:

Shrimp Tacos

serves 2 hungry people

Ingredients:

salsa:

1 ear corn, husked

6 scallions, white and light green parts only (about 5 inches)

1 poblano chile

1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

1 large (or 2 small) haas avocado

1 small bunch cilantro, minced

juice of two small limes

1 clove garlic, minced

1./2 salt

1 T olive oil

tacos:

1 lb shrimp

corn or whole wheat tortillas

Directions:

Heat your grill up to medium high.

Brush corn, green onions and poblano chile with olive oil and place on grill. You want everything to have a nice char to it—to chile should be black and the corn and onion should be charred. This will take about five minutes, flipping occasionally with tongs.

When done, remove veggies from grill and let cool on a plate. When cool, peel the now black skin off the pepper, remove the seeds and chop into small dice. Run your knife down the corn to remove the kernels from the cob and place into a bowl with the pepper. Chop onion and place into bowl as well.

Add chopped avocado, cherry tomatoes and cilantro to the bowl and add lime juice and salt. Season to taste and set aside while you prepare the shrimp.

Wash and devein if necessary then grill only a few minutes until pink. Be careful because shrimp cook extremely quickly! When done, place into tortillas, top with salsa and eat immediately.

Reprinted from http://www.eatliverun.com/shrimp-tacos-with-grilled-poblano-and-avocado-salsa/