Missing Santa Fe and it's food!

I miss Santa Fe. It only took 1 visit there for me to fall in love with the bright colorful scenery and food. We were there brokering discounts for the company we worked for and gathering photos and information for our company newsletter . Ooooooh the food, oh the lack of beanoooooooo! Not kidding, we needed Beano, it was mid April and after a day of at least 3 restaurants we literally had to leave the french doors to the condo open all night, it was freezing cold! There wasn't one restaurant there that my friend and I ate at that disappointed us. Even our quick late night drive through experience at Burger King was surprising. At that point we had no idea that "green" and "red" sauce ever existed at fast food places. Here in the PNW our only options are restricted to ketchup and mustard for our burgers. 

It was in Santa Fe I experienced my first Vegetarian restaurant meal and it was delicious. The restaurant itself caught our attention with it's strange outwardly hippy appearance, totally out of the norm. I believe it was called "The Oasis". . .the interior decor was quite frankly bizarre, there was a main dining hall, 3 other "themed" dining rooms (Renaissance, Alice in Wonderland and I'm not sure of the 3rd) and a large outdoor dining area which was reaaaaally 60's hippie meets the Mad Hatter who married grandma's garden knome. 

We had so much fun there and I know I'll go back. I was looking at some photos from the trip from so lone ago and decided to make Southwest Prawns with Cheezy grits for dinner. It's an easy dish and my family loves it. 

Ingredients sauce (serves 5-6):

1 lb shrimp, peeled & deveined

1/2 cup of chicken or vegetable broth (can use 1 bouillon cube as substitute but add 1/2 cup water)

1 cup of black or red beans, drained

1 can of diced tomatoes with juice

1 cup of corn, drained

1 cup of your favorite salsa

1/2 medium onion

1 cup green/red/or yellow bell peppers, sliced

1/2 cup of jalapeno peppers, diced 

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

Southwest spice blend:

1 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4 parsley, chopped

1/4 cilantro, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon celery salt
3 tablespoon chili powder

1 teaspoon oregano, dried or fresh

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

juice of 1/2 lime

dash of salt

Ingredients for Grits

4 cups water

1 cup quick grits

1/2 cup cheddar cheese

1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. In small bowl mix together all of the Southwest spice ingredients.
2. In a separate small bowl add 1/3 of the spices and the shrimp. Toss to coat and set aside.
3. Heat oil in pan to high heat. Add the chopped onions and the remainder of the spice mix and saute the onions, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and add the broth, tomatoes, salsa, corn, beans, jalapeno and bell peppers. Simmer with lid on for 20 minutes. Meanwhile make the grits.
4. In medium soup pot, bring 4 cups of water to a boil, reduce heat to medium and add grits and salt. Stir until thicken and blend in the grated cheese. Take off of the heat and cover. 
5. In medium skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of butter on high heat. Saute the shrimp until opaque. Set aside

To assemble: Scoop a healthy portion of the grits onto a bowl or plate, ladle on the tomato blend. Top with shrimp, garnish with a wedge of lime, cilantro and serve.