05 January 2017

Shrimp, following package instructions

About two weeks ago, around Christmas, I went to SuperU to do some shopping. On the store's main aisle they often set up displays of items that are en promotion — advertised specials. There I saw a refrigerated case of foie gras of all kinds — in jars, in shrink wrap, whole livers, pâtés called blocs, and so on.

There was also a freezer case and what was in it caught my eye. It was gambas, also known as shrimp or prawns. And they were not pre-cooked. Shrimp are almost always sold pre-cooked in France, and that limits what you can do with them, in my opinion.
There they were — heads, tails, legs, shells and all. About two dozen per box, weighing nearly a pound (400 grams). And they were on special for 2.99 € a kilogram. Raw!

I picked up two packages. On the back of the package there were two recipes. One of them was Shrimp with pineapple. Hmmm. Walt said, let's make that.
The photo with the recipe on the back of the package (see below) showed the shrimp split in half with their heads still attached. I tried doing that but it was a lot of trouble to cut them that way, so I (be)headed them and then split them. You can boil the heads to make a good shrimp broth.

The recipe said to baste them with herb-infused olive oil. I decided that sesame oil infused with ginger, cayenne pepper, and Kaffir lime leaves would be better.
First I had oiled a baking pan with the mixture of sesame oil and a neutral vegetable oil (sunflower). It only required about a quarter of a cup of oil. The shrimp first went cut-side-down on the pan and then got broiled at high heat, close to the stove's heating element, for three minutes. Then we turned them all over and broiled them again for about two minutes, cut-side up. The shrimp were done.
Meanwhile, Walt opened a can of pineapple slices. He poured the syrup they were packed in into a frying pan and reduced it over high heat until it started to caramelize. In went the pineapple slices and a big chunk of butter. The pineapple started to glaze and brown in the pan. All it needed was a sprinkle of pepper — both cayenne and black pepper, to taste. It was ready too.


The result is above. We squeezed on some lime juice and served it with a good amount of steamed Thai jasmine rice. Some more sesame oil and a little bit of soy sauce at the table rounded it all out. We ate the shrimp with our fingers...

There's the recipe on the left. It's pretty simple.

12 comments:

  1. At that price I would have snapped them up too!

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    1. I was surprised. We pay much more than that for shrimp at the Asia Store in Blois. There it's 800 grams for about 12 euros, I think.

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  2. Ooooooooo! There is a rumbling noise... and it isn't the cat purring!
    These look so good.... I am going to have to eat something!!
    In the UK the heads are discarded as being poisonous ..... never thought to boil them up......

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    1. The thing about shrimp heads being poisonous seems to be folklore, Tim. Look at these web pages." The heads and shells and tails make a good shrimp stock.

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    2. Grew up with that folklore.... but I think in the UK, that the folktale is associated with crab innards... so any dark stuff and guts in crustacae get 'tarred' with the same brush. It is very rare for us to eat either... too damned expensive! Although, if I'd seen these, you wouldn't have!!

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  3. and the shells don't stick??? to me when they are cut in half that way I would think it would be harder to extricate the shrimp.

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    1. They came out of the shells pretty easily but I don't think I'll do them that way again. I'll just shell and de-vein them, leaving the tails on, and broil them that way.

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  4. I've never broiled shrimp before or cut them in half like you did. That dish looks wonderful- sweet and spicy at the same time.

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    1. The shrimp were really good with the pineapple. And the cayenne + black pepper was good with the lightly glazed pineapple too. As I said to Melinda, I don't think I'll cut the shrimp in half next time.

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  5. Looks like they were destined for the Dutch, Belgian and German market as well, because the labeling comes in four languages: FR, ENG, DUT and GER (in that order) ... I bet they were very good, especially with the pineapple. And I learned a new German word: Riesengarnalen - who would have thought of that. May come in handy the newt time (when???) I have lunch in Germany ;)

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    1. The shrimp were farmed and frozen in India, according to the print on the box. I think this way of preparing and serving such crustaceans would be very good done with Dublin Bay prawns (langoustines) or other large prawns (bouquets in French).

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