Recipe Tuesday: Chipotle Shrimp and Fruit Sorbet

Chipotle Shrimp With Pasta:

Ingredients
8 ounces bowtie pasta
2 1/2 cups water
1 pound peeled/deveined shrimp (thawed, if frozen)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
large zip-top bag
1/4 cup chipotle marinade
4 ounces fresh gourmet mushroom blend
1/2 cup pre-diced fresh tomatoes
1/3 cup pre-sliced green onions
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt

1. Preheat 2-sided tabletop grill. Place pasta and water in large saucepan. Cover and bring to boil on medium-high. Remove lid and cook 6–8 minutes, stirring often, or until most of water is absorbed.
2. Place shrimp and cornstarch in large zip-top bag. Seal bag and shake to coat shrimp. Add marinade to bag, seal tightly, and knead to coat; set aside.
3. Stir remaining ingredients gently into pasta. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until thoroughly heated.
4. Place shrimp on grill and close lid (wash hands). Grill 3–4 minutes or just until shrimp turn pink. Serve over pasta.

Easy, right? Not so fast! Wait until you check out the dessert...

Fruit Sorbet:

Ingredients
1 (20-ounce) package frozen mixed fruit (contains peaches, melon, strawberries and grapes)
1 cup lemon lime soda
1/4 cup sugar

1. Process fruit in food processor, pulsing 15–20 times, or until fruit is chunky.
2. Add remaining ingredients and process 1–2 minutes or until smooth. Chill in freezer until ready to serve.

Believe it or not, this thing was a pain in the ass the first time I tried to make it. The store has two food processors, neither of which were designed to hold more than maybe two cups. So I had both of them going, trying to chop up the fruit. When one would finish, I had to dump the chopped-up fruit into a separate bowl, then go through the whole process again. It took about 20 minutes to chop up the fruit this way, and it made a huge mess - chunks of strawberries and melons everywhere. And THEN, when I finally got everything all mixed up together (which was actually a lot easier to do after the fruit was initially broken down), I had to put it in the freezer to...well....freeze. And the freezer I have at my disposal at work is pitiful. Did I mention I had already started the pasta before attempting the sorbet, and that by the time I finished up with this mess, it was stuck to the pot and completely useless? Yeah, I had to throw it out and start over. By the time I finished the shrimp, the fruit was nowhere near sorbet, more just a goopy mess. The lesson: make sure you use a big enough food processor, and that although a watched pot never boils, you should keep an eye on it anyway, or you'll ruin your pasta.