Skewered Shrimp with Fennel and Orange

Another occasion t cook a special meal! Bob decided on Shrimps Kebabs with Fennel and Orange. This is a meal that we used to prepare often when we lived in Naples, Florida. It is acutally quite easy to make, but a bit labor intensive! I would suggest that you make the marinade the night before to let all the flavors develop.

For dessert... Our daughter Julie took charge. She made a Lemon Pie out of a recipe book (from Parisian pie expert Eric Kayser)...in French. She of course speaks it fluently and reads and writes it, but some culinary terms were quite foreign to her and since both Bob and I were spending yet another morning on the soccer field (our son's Dylan team was in a playoff), she had no one to turn to and improvised! The term was "Bain-marie" which is a cooking method most of us know: double boiler. To make a long story short, when we got back from the game, she had the pie in the freezer, and the custard was quite liquidy. We fixed it by baking the pie. She then put on the candied slices of lemon she had prepared, refrigerated it, and the result was excellent!

Skewered Shrimp with Fennel and Orange

1/2 cup Olive oil
2 Tbsp ground fennel
Zest of 3 oranges
Zest of 2 lemons
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
35 large shrimp, shelled and deveined
2 fennel bulbs cut into 1 inch pieces
2 red onions, pelled and cut into 1 inch pieces
3 oranges, quartered
Salt

In a small bowl, combine the olive oil, both zests, the ground fennel seeds and crushed red pepper.

Pour the marinade over the shrimp and refrigerate for about 4 hours.

Thread the orange pieces, fennel, red onion and shrimp onto skewers.

Grill a few minutes on each side, until shrimps are cooked.

Serve with rice or grilled polenta.