Randy Wayne White. I discovered this guy in my twenties, when I was starved for Florida fiction and he happily provided. A few years back, he published a cookbook, and it has (among other things) one of the best recipes for a shrimp curry you will ever taste. I’m not posting it here because I feel strongly you need to buy his Gulf Coast Cookbook and test the recipes yourself.
White lives in Pine Island, which is near Sanibel without being anything like Sanibel. I wrote a piece about the cluster of small coastal towns that exist on the island once in 2009, for Visit Florida, and I called it “The Florida Time Forgot.” I wrote about it again on my non-food (mostly) blog, Just Keep Swimming, in 2010, and in my soon-not-really-soon-to-be-a-bestseller-book about Florida, I describe Pine Island as the tomboy little sister to Sanibel’s prom queen appearance. Lots of fishermen here, so of course I wanted the shrimp recipe when I saw it in The New York Times Magazine in 2010.
Of course, I didn’t make the Yucatan Shrimp (but I will) – I actually used the pork recipe beneath it. And, me being me, I modified it, and you can find my version of the pork with pineapple salsa below.
Pineapple Salsa
1 1/2 cups fresh pineapple, peeled and diced
1 jalapeño, seeded and diced
2 tablespoons ginger (I used the jarred stuff)
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon fish sauce (You can add more if you want more heat)
Juice of one lime
Pork
One pork roast, cut into 3/4″ thick slices (the salsa will top eight pork steaks)
Salt and pepper (I use kosher salt and grind the pepper)
Mint
Cilantro
1. Season pork with salt and pepper and sandwich pieces of mint and cilantro between them. Set aside while you…
2. Mix salsa in bowl.
3. On a quite hot grill – makes no matter to me if you use charcoal or gas; we used gas this time but will use charcoal if the mood suits us and we aren’t too hungry to wait for the flames to start to die – grill pork about 3 minutes per side.
4. Top with salsa.
5. Share and enjoy!
