Shrimp tacos with green and pink tomato salsa

Big chunks of feta

Down here a lot of people get second crops of tomatoes and some green ones can hang on pretty long. We’re not lucky enough for that to have happened in our garden, but we are lucky enough to have a friend who well into November gave us some of the last of her tomatoes, an assortment of small green ones and a few that had just started to turn red. They were a shade of pink you normally see only in grocery store tomatoes in February, but were far better tasting. She also gave us a bunch of green peppers, the last from her garden. She owns horses and says she has a mystery fertilizer and we’ll leave it at that.

Shrimp tacos with green and pink tomato salsa

For Shrimp 

• 1 pound large shrimp, deveined (16-20 count)
• 1/2 green bell pepper
• small jalapeno
• 1/3 bunch cilantro, washed, stems intact (they taste fine blended)
• 1/2 medium onion chopped, (about a cup)
• juice from one lemon
• 1-2 tbsp olive oil
• salt/pepper to taste

Put shrimp in a large bowl. Pour lemon juice and one tablespoon olive oil in a blender and throw in the rest of the ingredients. Blend until pureed, pulsing and adding additional tablespoon of olive oil as needed at first. Pour over shrimp and marinate in refrigerator two to four hours. Grill over a hot fire until done. If you’re in Chicago or New England and there’s four feet of snow on the ground, you might need to shovel first.

For salsa

• 4 cups diced green and pink tomatoes (about 3/4 of ours were green)
• 2-3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 cup diced onion (about half a medium onion)
• 1/2 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 small jalapeno, seeded and diced
• 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped coarsely (or finer if you don’t want it in your teeth)
• juice from half an orange or one lime
• salt/pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients and allow to set for a few hours. (Yes, you can serve immediately if you want.) Make sure to taste the salsa. If you’re using more green tomatoes or all green tomatoes you may need to add more citrus juice or olive oil. Green tomatoes can be sour.

To assemble: Divide shrimp among warm flour tortillas, top with feta or your chosen cheese and salsa.