Here’s one of the happiest dishes I know – an instant vacation. And I take it for the usual reasons: boredom, restlessness, a desire to show off the pictures when I get back. More specifically, I have a shrimp cocktail occasion and can’t leave well enough alone.
So let’s make a sauce that needs to sit in the fridge and mature for a few days, solo, before it meets its marinee. Because the shrimp will be sticky, slice them in half Chinese-style, so they curl up and make one bite each at the end of a fork or toothpick. Add cubes of plain white cheese for occasional relief. Surround the mound with an hallucinatory escabeche of onions, carrots, jalapenos and watermelon radishes.
Eaters, I adore copious fatty rich appetizers in every way except philosophically. They tend to shut down your appetite. This one will open it up, along with your eyes, nose, mouth, and the nearest bottle of mezcal or tequila. Note, however, that it is puckery and alive, but not really hot.
The basic shrimp recipe here is adapted from the godhead of Mexican cookbooks, Diana Kennedy’s The Cuisines of Mexico. The escabeche is based on a more modern source, Guerilla Tacos, by the food truck genius Wesley Avila – though it’s actually his partner’s recipe. I was drawn to it because it looked just like the contents of the bowls you find balanced on the narrow plank shelves attached to the trucks with the longest lines, and because it contains star anise. Brilliant.
Recipe: Tampico Shrimp
Vibrant shrimp in a pungent chili pickle.
-Full Post-
Remove seeds and veins from the chilis. Powder the peppercorns, cloves, and allspice berries in a mortar and pestle or spice grinder.
Warm oil over medium heat in a saucepan and fry chilis on both sides just until pliable and a shade or two darker - don't let them burn. Scoop out the the chilis as you go, then use the same oil to fry the onions for a few minutes, until pale and soft. Add the ground spices and garlic and saute a minute longer, then remove from heat. Let cool a minute or two, then scoop the fried vegetable and spice mix into a blender jar, reserving the oil in the pan.
Add the sauteed chilis and the vinegar to the blender jar and blend all into a smooth, thick puree. Add a little extra vinegar if you need to get things going, but don't add water.
Reheat the oil to medium high (at most, so it doesn't spatter all over the place), and then carefully pour in the puree. Add the bay leaves, oregano, and an initial quantity of salt. Cook over medium heat for about fifteen minutes, stirring very often, to thicken the sauce and let the flavors blend. It should be about as thick as ketchup.
Store the sauce in a jar in the fridge for a few days to ripen before using - though you can also (sigh) use it right away. It will keep for weeks, especially if the sides of the jar are kept clean and you float a bit of extra olive oil on top.
Let's work with a pound of raw shrimp, poached until just done. For this recipe, I normally buy EZ-Peel shrimp (26-30 to the pound) and completely shell them, consigning the shells to the freezer for stock. I also like to slice the shrimp horizontally, holding the knife blade parallel to the cutting board.
Heat a couple of quarts of salted water to boiling. Add two bay leaves, a few whole peppercorns and whole coriander seeds if you have them, plus a shake of red pepper flakes and/or a half teaspoon of Old Bay seasoning. Have large bowl of ice water handy! Add the peeled, bisected shrimp to the boiling water and raise heat to high, if it's not already there. After a minute or two - the water will likely not have returned to the boil - start testing the shrimp. By eating them, of course, though you can also see if they are uniformly cooked through when you cut them in half.
As soon as the rawness has disappeared, scoop them out into the ice bath. Let them chill, literally and figuratively, for a minute or two. Drain and store in the fridge until ready for assembly.
To serve, toss about 3 T of the Tampico sauce with the shrimp and the cubed cheese. Test for salt. Plate up and garnish with extra coriander and, ideally, a border of vegetable escabeche.
This is an intense and drool-inspiring dish that really does get your appetite heading north. As part of a spread, a pound of shrimp will serve around a dozen, or you can plate this up as individual appetizers for 6 or 8. The extra sauce keeps well, and can be used on any kind of seafood taco, or heated up and served over fish and rice.
If you've never sliced shrimp in half horizontally (a trick I got from Chinese cookbooks), give it a try. The cooked shrimp corkscrew up like DNA spirals, and make a nice single bite on the end of a fork or toothpick.
The Tampico-style sauce is very much based on a recipe from Diane Kennedy's august tome, The Cuisines of Mexico. The cheese, I will tell you, is my thing, and is a nice relief from the bite of the sauce. I use Greek manouri because it's a much better queso fresco than the queso fresco I can buy in Massachusetts - even in Lawrence, which is essentially Santo Domingo. But use any nice, plain, soothing fresh white cheese. Mozarella works. Even feta, if it's not too sharp and briny.
Ingredients
Directions
Remove seeds and veins from the chilis. Powder the peppercorns, cloves, and allspice berries in a mortar and pestle or spice grinder.
Warm oil over medium heat in a saucepan and fry chilis on both sides just until pliable and a shade or two darker - don't let them burn. Scoop out the the chilis as you go, then use the same oil to fry the onions for a few minutes, until pale and soft. Add the ground spices and garlic and saute a minute longer, then remove from heat. Let cool a minute or two, then scoop the fried vegetable and spice mix into a blender jar, reserving the oil in the pan.
Add the sauteed chilis and the vinegar to the blender jar and blend all into a smooth, thick puree. Add a little extra vinegar if you need to get things going, but don't add water.
Reheat the oil to medium high (at most, so it doesn't spatter all over the place), and then carefully pour in the puree. Add the bay leaves, oregano, and an initial quantity of salt. Cook over medium heat for about fifteen minutes, stirring very often, to thicken the sauce and let the flavors blend. It should be about as thick as ketchup.
Store the sauce in a jar in the fridge for a few days to ripen before using - though you can also (sigh) use it right away. It will keep for weeks, especially if the sides of the jar are kept clean and you float a bit of extra olive oil on top.
Let's work with a pound of raw shrimp, poached until just done. For this recipe, I normally buy EZ-Peel shrimp (26-30 to the pound) and completely shell them, consigning the shells to the freezer for stock. I also like to slice the shrimp horizontally, holding the knife blade parallel to the cutting board.
Heat a couple of quarts of salted water to boiling. Add two bay leaves, a few whole peppercorns and whole coriander seeds if you have them, plus a shake of red pepper flakes and/or a half teaspoon of Old Bay seasoning. Have large bowl of ice water handy! Add the peeled, bisected shrimp to the boiling water and raise heat to high, if it's not already there. After a minute or two - the water will likely not have returned to the boil - start testing the shrimp. By eating them, of course, though you can also see if they are uniformly cooked through when you cut them in half.
As soon as the rawness has disappeared, scoop them out into the ice bath. Let them chill, literally and figuratively, for a minute or two. Drain and store in the fridge until ready for assembly.
To serve, toss about 3 T of the Tampico sauce with the shrimp and the cubed cheese. Test for salt. Plate up and garnish with extra coriander and, ideally, a border of vegetable escabeche.
This is an intense and drool-inspiring dish that really does get your appetite heading north. As part of a spread, a pound of shrimp will serve around a dozen, or you can plate this up as individual appetizers for 6 or 8. The extra sauce keeps well, and can be used on any kind of seafood taco, or heated up and served over fish and rice.
If you've never sliced shrimp in half horizontally (a trick I got from Chinese cookbooks), give it a try. The cooked shrimp corkscrew up like DNA spirals, and make a nice single bite on the end of a fork or toothpick.
The Tampico-style sauce is very much based on a recipe from Diane Kennedy's august tome, The Cuisines of Mexico. The cheese, I will tell you, is my thing, and is a nice relief from the bite of the sauce. I use Greek manouri because it's a much better queso fresco than the queso fresco I can buy in Massachusetts - even in Lawrence, which is essentially Santo Domingo. But use any nice, plain, soothing fresh white cheese. Mozarella works. Even feta, if it's not too sharp and briny.
Notes
Recipe: Taco Truck Escabeche
A spicy pickled vegetable fantasia.
-Full Post-
Combine all the ingredients except the vegetables themselves in a large saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar and salt. Let simmer for five minutes, then let cool while you prep the vegetables.
Cut the stem ends off the jalapenos and slice the rest into quarter-inch rounds, including seeds. Do the same with the carrots. Slice the onions in half and then into slim wedges; maybe 10 to 12 wedges per onion. I was very lucky to find a mix of heirloom green and watermelon radishes this time around, but ordinary round red radishes will do - just stem and slice like the other vegetables. Put all the sliced ingredients in a large bowl.
Bring the saucepan liquid to a boil again, if it's not still simmering, and pour over the vegetables. Let steep until fully cooled, then refrigerate or serve. These will keep for weeks.
This recipe by Richard Parks III is lifted, with minor additions (especially the radishes) and tears of gratitude from Wesley Avila's fabulous Guerilla Tacos. If you like this, you need the book.
Among the things that inspire me to make this dish are the presence of multicolored hot peppers in my super, bundles of yellow, purple and orange-red carrots, and heirloom watermelon pickles in the farmer's markets. The latter have a green rind and a tequila sunrise interior. Speaking of radishes, I think daikon would be weird in this dish, but suit yourself. The star anise does add a little Asian flair, but this pickle has the thumping Latin heartbeat of a guitarron.
Hey, btw - if you don't have star anise, add a teaspoon of fennel seed. If you don't have fennel seed, add a half teaspoon of dill seed. But if you don't have any of the above, make it anyway.
This escabeche can and has survived in my fridge, in a big sealed glass jar, for months, but - does it get better with age? Taco truck guys would say no. They want it fresh and crispy, and make it up daily or weekly. They are not wrong, but neither would I ever throw this stuff out, so long as the liquid is clear and the carrots have snap.
Ingredients
Directions
Combine all the ingredients except the vegetables themselves in a large saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar and salt. Let simmer for five minutes, then let cool while you prep the vegetables.
Cut the stem ends off the jalapenos and slice the rest into quarter-inch rounds, including seeds. Do the same with the carrots. Slice the onions in half and then into slim wedges; maybe 10 to 12 wedges per onion. I was very lucky to find a mix of heirloom green and watermelon radishes this time around, but ordinary round red radishes will do - just stem and slice like the other vegetables. Put all the sliced ingredients in a large bowl.
Bring the saucepan liquid to a boil again, if it's not still simmering, and pour over the vegetables. Let steep until fully cooled, then refrigerate or serve. These will keep for weeks.
This recipe by Richard Parks III is lifted, with minor additions (especially the radishes) and tears of gratitude from Wesley Avila's fabulous Guerilla Tacos. If you like this, you need the book.
Among the things that inspire me to make this dish are the presence of multicolored hot peppers in my super, bundles of yellow, purple and orange-red carrots, and heirloom watermelon pickles in the farmer's markets. The latter have a green rind and a tequila sunrise interior. Speaking of radishes, I think daikon would be weird in this dish, but suit yourself. The star anise does add a little Asian flair, but this pickle has the thumping Latin heartbeat of a guitarron.
Hey, btw - if you don't have star anise, add a teaspoon of fennel seed. If you don't have fennel seed, add a half teaspoon of dill seed. But if you don't have any of the above, make it anyway.
This escabeche can and has survived in my fridge, in a big sealed glass jar, for months, but - does it get better with age? Taco truck guys would say no. They want it fresh and crispy, and make it up daily or weekly. They are not wrong, but neither would I ever throw this stuff out, so long as the liquid is clear and the carrots have snap.