Charleston Shrimp Perloo Recipe 395

Steps:

• Melt 1 tablespoon butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Add shrimp shells, 1 cup onion, ½ cup celery, and 1 teaspoon salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until shells are spotty brown, about 10 minutes. Add water, peppercorns, parsley, and bay leaves. Increase heat to high and bring to boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes. Strain shrimp stock through fine-mesh strainer set over large bowl, pressing on solids to extract as much liquid as possible; discard solids. Melt remaining 4 tablespoons butter in Dutch oven over medium heat. Add bell pepper, remaining onion and celery, and ½ teaspoon salt and cook until vegetables are beginning to soften, 5 to 7 minutes. Add rice, garlic, thyme, and cayenne and cook until fragrant and rice is translucent, about 2 minutes. Stir in tomatoes and their juice and 3 cups shrimp stock (reserve remainder for another use) and bring to boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook for 20 minutes. Gently fold shrimp into rice until evenly distributed, cover, and continue to cook 5 minutes longer. Remove pot from heat and let sit, covered, until shrimp are cooked through and all liquid is absorbed, about 10 minutes. Serve.

Steps:

• Peel the shrimp, breaking off the heads. Place heads and shells in an enamel or stainless steel stockpot. Place the bodies in a bowl, cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
• Roughly chop the carrots and celery and add to shrimp shells. Add thyme. Peel and quarter the onion and add to stockpot. Add water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cook stock uncovered at a steady simmer for about 45 minutes, or until vegetables are soft and stock has been reduced by about one-third. (The stockpot may be covered if the stock appears to be reducing too much.)
• Remove from heat and strain through cheesecloth or a fine-mesh sieve. Discard the solids. You will need three cups of shrimp stock for the perloo. Freeze the rest.
• In a Dutch oven with a tight-fitting lid, saute the bacon over medium-low heat until crisp. Remove bacon, set aside to drain and pour off all but about three tablespoons of bacon grease - enough to cover the bottom of the pan.
• Add chopped onion to bacon grease and saute over medium-low heat 5 to 10 minutes, until onion is transparent. Add tomatoes, red pepper and parsley, stir to mix well and cook another five minutes.
• Add rice, salt and shrimp stock, raise heat slightly just to bring the stock to a simmer, then lower heat, cover pot and leave to simmer 20 minutes. Do not remove lid while cooking rice.
• After 20 minutes, lift the lid and fluff the rice with a big fork while tossing in the shrimp. Cover the pot again and turn off the heat. The perloo will be ready in 5 to 10 minutes and the shrimp will not overcook.
• Crumble reserved bacon and sprinkle over the top of the perloo with the additional chopped parsley. Serve immediately.

Steps:

• Fry bacon until crisp; remove and cook onion in bacon fat until translucent.
• Add tomatoes and rice; mix well, cover and heat to boiling point.
• Lower heat and simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally with a fork to prevent sticking.
• Set in a warm place where there is no danger of scorching for another 20 minutes to allow the rice to become fluffy.
• Add shrimp and bacon; place in a casserole dish and bake at 350F for 15 minutes.