This week’s Goop newsletter is another how-to recipe, Goop-style. Previously, Gwyneth Paltrow has showed us (in videos) how to debone a whole chicken, as well as some Asian Goop. Today’s cooking lesson is shrimp tacos. “Baja Style Shrimp Tacos” to be specific.
It is possible to make a quick and easy dinner for the family that everyone loves. Make it your own; set up all the parts separately and then explore variations on a theme. The kids can eat black bean and brown rice tacos with guacamole and pico de gallo without hot chili. The grownups can have grilled shrimp, hot sauce…
Love, gp
[From Goop]
If you’re a reader, the recipe and explanation is here. But there’s a video! And since I don’t really have a problem with Gwyneth making videos of herself cooking sh-t, I’m just going to do a beat-by-beat analysis, just for fun!
0:01 – I love how budget this whole thing, but I also love that Gwyneth has music playing over her cooking video. It’s very jazzy and kind of cute.
0:03 – Oh, she’s throwing an avocado up in the air and catching it! The laws of gravity apply even to the Goop.
0:30 – She knows her way around a kitchen, I’ll give her credit for that.
0:41 – “Donesville”! She’s such a cheeseball.
1:05 – She’s good with a knife too. I like how easily she scored the avocado, you can tell it’s been a long time since she accidentally cut herself.
1:20 – Ha! “If you have serious guacamole fiends… you might want to up the avocado.” And then she laughs at her own avocado joke.
1:40 – The dishtowel just appeared on her shoulder – that’s probably significant. The dishtowel was probably sent to her from her “very special friend” Paul “Dishtowel” McCartney.
1:48 – Her manicure is gorgeous. She has lovely hands. Oh, her wedding band! Sparkly.
2:06 – If she wants to cut an onion like a real pro, I’ve seen professional chefs use their knuckle to hold the onion, rather than the fingertips.
2:11 – Oh, I just noticed she’s wearing her Kabbalah string too. Shalom, Goopy.
2:23 – Wait, are the shrimp de-veined? Goopy eats shrimp poop.
2: 40 – “Yum-yum.” God, she really is a dork. It makes me like her a little.
3:21 – Goopy pontificating on grape tomatoes is kind of awesome.
3:41 – Gwyneth just gave the grape tomatoes a Goopy snarl. I think she’s pissed that cutting them is taking so long. Grape tomatoes = peasants.
3:54 – Damn, she’s using a lot of Cilantro. It really isn’t that awesome an herb, Goop.
4:15 – Did she take the seeds out of chili before she chopped it up? Damn, Goop likes it spicy.
4:43 – Oh, the shrimp look de-veined. She probably bought them that way. Dame Goopy will not touch shrimp poopy.
4:56 – She needs to stir the beans.
5:15 – Oh, now she’s “from California” huh? I thought she always got on her high horse about being “from New York”.
5:45 – “Delish.” Dork.
6:13 – “Schmear.” Once again, shalom, Goopy.
The end – so, every person gets five shrimp? That’s a pretty good deal. But although the shrimp did look de-veined, they still had their tails, right? Ugh.
Goopy is awesome! I love GOOP Thursdays.
She took off the tails eventually!
I like that she had you make your own salsa, but didn’t ask you to cook your own beans: it’s a good compromise. Yeah for the Goopster.
I seriously look forward to GOOP Thursdays, and this week’s was awesome, made even awesomer by your commentary.
Goopy? Maybe. Puky? Yep!
She drives me.
Those do look good!!And now I’m hungry!! 😀
i’m surprised goop didn’t make salsa the traditional mexican way. you roast your tomotoes first to get a smoky flavor and then you grind up all the ingrediants in a molcejate. i bought one the last time i was in mexico and it makes all the difference in the world. goop, you disappoint me.
“Goopy Shrimp Tacos” ????
Sounds like the punchline to a dirty joke lol
Ok, one thing I like about this woman – she really believes in everything she tells us. She isn’t taling pants. She clearly is a full time mum as much as any other who works. She clearly cooks for her family. She knows what shes talking about.
Unlike someone like say SJP who babbles and babbles about her life that she clearly isnt living while using ridiculous words.
So, number one, I kind of want to go to dinner at Gwynnie’s house. Number two, I totally just learned something about chopping onions. Who’d have ever thunk it?
Being from Texas and also someone who makes Mexican food on a regular basis, that was a cute effort at making Mexican food….. but no gold star. And sorry to break it to GP, but that is not salsa, more like pico de gallo.
OK Ive watched one of her cooking videos where she baked a chicken with carrots and fingerling potatoes and it looked good! I would totally make that recipe. I liked that she made her salad dressing herself which is something I try to do but never remember. I like fish tacos so I bet Id like this.
Im talking about the salad dressing she made when she baked the chicken (she made a salad as well) not with this shrimp taco video. Sorry guys!
I love Cholula. I guess that means Goopy’s my new bff.
Dammit.
I don’t like Goopy’s public persona very much and her inane comments bug me but she seems nice enough-kinda dweeby which is cute.
Lisa: Get off your smarty-pants high horse about Mexican food because, seriously, pico de gallo IS salsa. Pico de gallo = salsa fresca.
“Dame Goopy will not touch shrimp poopy.”
*chuckle*
Lilias: NO, Pico is not the same as salsa. Take a cooking class before you speak about things you know nothing about.
And I was not on any high horse, but if you are going to try and teach people how to cook, try and show them something a bit more complex.
Looks good to me. Who’s making the margaritas?
What happenned, did the real Gwynneth P. get abducted by aliens or something, because she seems almost human and is totally likeable in this video.
I love watching her cook. Too bad she doesn’t have her own cooking show!
On the Goop site it is actually called Pico de Gallo, not salsa. She just says salsa in the video.
I didn’t watch past her ‘guacamole’, which looked bland — no tomatoes, no cumin, no white pepper? And why would anyone dump everything in from a can of beans — including the liquid — and just start working? Lose the liquid and wash the beans off! They’re full of salt and sediment. Blech. And your knife skills still kinda suck, Gwynnie. So insufferable.
I like her, she’s a real person and it feels like watching a friend cook for the family rather than a professional person. It’s not gourmet food, it’s everyday family food. Good for picking up a few ideas and tips. We actually use her chicken/fingerling/salad recipe quite often.
I presume she didn’t add tomatoes to the guacamole because it was going in the tortillas with the tomato salsa, rather than being eaten on its own.
As funny as I found the commentary
especially marker 3:41 ” grape tomatoes= peasants!”
I am still chuckling over that one.
I enjoyed watching her cook! She looks so content and fulfilled.Or maybe she is just glad she finally gets to eat something.
ahaha. This play-by-play made me like the writer, a little.
Sure, she is kinda amateur. But this looks pretty good. And she is endearing here.
Lisa: I worked in a Mexican restaurant for a year and a half in college. With Mexican people. Pico de gallo is the same thing as salsa fresca, salsa mexicana. It has the same basic ingredients (tomatoes, onions, cilantro, often chiles of some variety depending on the recipe). Pico de gallo is also just a type of salsa.
“Salsa”, in Spanish, just refers to any type of “sauce”-“sauce” in Mexico and Spain can be roughly chopped ingredients mixed together. There are probably hundreds, if not thousands of salsas out there and pico de gallo is one of them.
Even in English, “salsa” refers to “a spicy sauce of finely chopped vegetables including tomatoes, onions and chiles” aka pico de gallo.
Lilias: Who’s on a smarty-pants high horse now?? Give me a break. Ok done having a silly argument about what is salsa and what isn’t. Goodbye….
I love Gwynnie, she’s adorable.
Her fish taco probably is gooey unless it’s dried up.