The Salads of Casa de Cuisine: Southwest Sauteed Prawn and Portobello Salad

I once had someone tell me salads were boring. I looked at this person, grinned and simply walked away. Then I thought about what they said and you know something, if the person preparing the salad is borning then yeah, that salad can be boring. Salads are most than leaves of lettuce drenched in some God-awful crud from a bottle bought at the supermarket. Salads are the result of your culinary imagaination.

This salad was created due to my love of Southwestern cuisine. It incorporates my favorite textures, tastes, spices and ingredients. True it is not as simple as tossing some leaves on a plate but then again, I'm not a rabbit or a gerbil (save the Richard Gere jokes, please).

You can also make this a grilled salad by simply grilling the prawns and Portobello mushrooms before you construct the salad. If you do decide to make this salad on the grill, marinate the Portobello mushrooms in the olive oil mixture first so you get the full taste of what this salad is all about.

So take a walk on the salad wild side and enjoy the tastes of the Southwest with this healthy, downright delicious brand new salad - Southwest Sauteed Prawns and Portobello Salad!

Ingredients needed to make Southwest Sauteed Prawn and Portobello Salad (serves 2):

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 Tbs. butter
• 1/2 pound prawns (or large shrimp), shelled and deveined
• 2 baby sweet onions, thinly sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• 1 tsp. Chinese chili oil
• 1 Portobello mushroom, thickly sliced and stem-end removed
• 2 tomatoes, sliced
• raspberry vinegar for drizzling

Steps:

1. In a medium saute pan or skillet, melt the butter into the olive oil over medium heat.
2. Add the prawns and saute about 4 minutes per side. Remove the prawns from the pan and set aside.
3. Into the pan add the onions, garlic, cumin and chili oil and saute 3 minutes.
4. Add the mushroom slices and saute 4 minutes per side.
5. Arrange the tomatoes around the perimeter of the serving plates.
6. Remove the mushroom slices from the pan and arrange in the middle of the plate so they are framed by the tomatoes.
7. Place the shrimp atop the mushrooms, lightly drizzle with rasperberry vinegar and serve.

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