Spanish-Style Shrimp
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 3 or 4 big garlic cloves, cut into thin slivers
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin, or to taste
- 1 teaspoon paprika, or to taste
- 2 pounds shrimp in the 15-to-20-per-pound range
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
- Combine the oil and garlic in a 10- or 12-inch skillet.
- Turn the heat to medium and cook until the garlic begins to sizzle, then add the cumin and paprika.
- Stir, raise the heat to medium-high, and add the shrimp, along with some salt and pepper.
- Cook, stirring occasionally, until the shrimp are all pink, no longer; you do not want to evaporate their liquid.
- Turn off the heat, add the parsley, and serve.
- VARIATIONS
- Omit the cumin and paprika; use cayenne in place of black pepper.
- When the shrimp are cooked, stir in 2 or more tablespoons fresh lemon juice.
- Garnish with fresh parsley and serve with lemon wedges.
- Substitute peanut or vegetable oil for the olive oil and cook 1 tablespoon chopped peeled fresh ginger and 2 or 3 small dried red chiles (or to taste) along with the garlic; omit the cumin and paprika.
- When the shrimp are done, stir in 1 tablespoon soy sauce; garnish with minced scallion or fresh cilantro and serve with lime wedges.
- Almost all shrimp are frozen before sale.
- So unless youre in a hurry, you might as well buy them frozen and defrost them yourself; this will guarantee you that they are defrosted just before you cook them, therefore retaining peak quality.
- There are no universal standards for shrimp size; large and medium dont mean much.
- Therefore, it pays to learn to judge shrimp size by the number per pound, as retailers do.
- Shrimp labeled 16/20, for example, contain sixteen to twenty per pound; those labeled U-20 require fewer (under) twenty to make a pound.
- Shrimp from fifteen to about thirty per pound usually give the best combination of flavor, ease (peeling tiny shrimp is a nuisance), and value (really big shrimp usually cost more than $15 a pound).
- On deveining: I dont.
- You can, if you like, but its a thankless task, and there isnt one person in a hundred who could blind-taste the difference between shrimp that have and have not been deveined.
extra virgin olive oil, garlic, ground cumin, paprika, shrimp, salt, parsley
Taken from www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/spanish-style-shrimp-386601 (may not work)