Lunch on the Rocks

About author / Sara Rae Gore

Our New York dish; actress; chef; cooking instructor. Glam food is her thing and she makes a mean martini.

So many of the top chefs are going back to basics by bypassing the fusion route and stressing simple, fresh ingredients done to perfection so that natural flavors shine through. I am in complete agreement with this fresh ingredients craze. Why use anything else really? In fact, one should make it a rule of thumb to skip right past the canned and dried fruits and vegetables when fresh produce is readily available. And when you feel the need to spice things up a bit, you can still use simple fresh ingredients and combine them to create complementary, yet complex, bold flavors.

I don't know about you, but during the summer I don't want to spend a whole lot of time in the house. So I like to do as much grilling outside as possible. Besides, charring from the hot grill gives your meats and seafood that extra texture and your vegetable that natural sweetness that comes from the carmelization. At the moment, what I'm itching to make is a dish of chili lime shrimp over a grilled corn and avocado salad. One great thing about this dish is that it can be served hot or cold, which is handy when eating outdoors.

The problem is that my fire escape doesn't fit a grill. Well, that and the fact that it's illegal are the actual problem. I'll have to come up with an alternative. With much consideration (well, not really, since I thought of the location first and was merely looking for an excuse to leave this scorching city), I've found the absolute perfect site to make this dish. I will have to take the train for this one. And I'm not talking the 1/9 subway train running along the west side of Manhattan.

Nope, I’m talking about hitching a ride on Amtrak train 286 and heading straight for Camp Kenar. Now, just to give you a visual, calling this a camp is comparable to calling Six Flags amusement park a kiddie ride. It's far from a camp, but the friends who own it like to call it one. They're very humble! This amazing house on Lake George up in the Adirondack region of New York has three outdoor kitchens complete with Weber grills, ice machines, refrigerators, and breathtaking views on all sides. The man-made babbling brook isn't too shabby either. So, I think we’ll spice it up on the grill overlooking the lake and have lunch--on the rocks!

Serves/Makes: 4

• 1 pound shrimp (16-20 count size), peeled and deveined, tails on
• bamboo skewers, soaked for an hour

***Marinade for shrimp***

• 1/2 cup fresh lime juice
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon Thai chili, minced
• 2 tablespoons mirin
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

***Salad***

• 6 ears grilled corn, kernels shaved from cob
• 1/2 cup Vidalia onion, diced
• 1 whole roasted red pepper, diced
• 1 tomato, seeded and diced
• 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 drizzle olive oil
• 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 1 lime, juice and zest only
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and diced small (more or less depending on desired hotness)
• 1 large avocado
• salt and pepper, to taste