The Portuguese Karen Florence

Shrimp Mozambique

One of my very dear friends, Karen Florence, is my dear friend for several reasons: she is supportive, fun to be with, and unique. She is also a gifted Executive Coach and the radio host of On Purpose With Karen Florence, and as a former coach myself, I appreciate that! We first met each other in school, while both of us were working towards our coaching certification.

She is also known and appreciated by me, and many others, for her cooking and, in particular, her signature meal. I can describe it with a few words, but it doesn't do justice to how good it is. It is succulent, addictive, and, perhaps most important of all: social food--the kind of food that is best appreciated when shared amongst friends.

My seventeen-year-old daughter asks me regularly, "When is Aunt Karen going to come here and make that meal for me?"

So, after all that build up, here it is: roasted shrimp in the shell, with cocktail sauce and the best french fries you ever tasted in your whole life, with a decadent blue cheese dipping sauce. I've had that shrimp and french fry meal while watching movies on TV, while drinking shots of tequila with Karen and Joy, and while just hanging out with her alone. It is, without a doubt, one of those comforting, satisfying and decadent guilty pleasures.

As you may know, I write for About.com on the topic of Portuguese cooking. In that capacity, I regularly try recipes here at home, with my daughter as the main guinea pig. Most of them turn out pretty well, and a few of them are dudds.

Sometimes I find that the very best recipes are those I don't think about too much. If I just cook with my gut, instead of my head, it tends to work better.

Friday night was just such a night. I was tired after a long week. My daughter was tired after a week of school and skating. I really just wanted to order out, or buy a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store but I knew I was almost at the end of the payment period for my column and really needed to write a couple of recipes. So I pushed through.

And, amazingly, without even thinking about it, I found myself producing the Portuguese equivalent of Karen's famous meal!

It turns out that Shrimp Mozambique (Camarão Moçambique) and Batatas Fritas (Portuguese Fried Potatoes), while naturally never as amazing as Karen's meal, is pretty darn good, and for the same reasons that her meal is so unilaterally adored.

The shrimp that I prepared are a bit spicy, whereas Karen's are not, other than the bite of the horseradish in the cocktail sauce. The potatoes are round slices, rather than shaped like french fries. There is no blue cheese sauce at all. BUT, both dishes are finger foods, just like hers, and you can't stop eating them. They were addictively good--if I do say so myself! And they are perfect for TV viewing and socializing with.

So, Karen--while I can never hope to compare my meal with your signature meal--I hope you will allow it to be the Portuguese Karen Florence meal.  It would be an honor.