Spanish Style Shrimp Recipes

Steps:

• Sprinkle the shrimp with salt, toss and let sit for 15 minutes.
• Heat the oil over medium heat in a heavy nonstick frying pan, and add the garlic, bay leaf and chile. Cook, stirring, until the garlic begins to color, about one minute. Turn the heat up to medium-high, and add the shrimp. Cook, stirring, until the shrimp turn pink and are cooked through, two to three minutes. Remove from the heat, sprinkle with the parsley and serve.

Steps:

• Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion and pasta, season with salt and pepper and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until pasta starts to turn golden, about 5 minutes (pasta will break up a bit during stirring).
• Lower heat and add garlic, tomato paste and chorizo, and cook until tomato paste is lightly caramelized, 2 to 3 minutes. Add fennel, clam juice and 1 cup of water and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer over moderate heat until pasta has softened and most of the liquid is absorbed, about 5 minutes.
• Stir in shrimp, peas and Parmesan, cover and cook until shrimp is opaque, about 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in lemon juice and parsley.
• Drizzle with oil and serve with lemon wedges.

Steps:

• 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 you're 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 don't 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 don't. You can, if you like, but it's a thankless task, and there isn't one person in a hundred who could blind-taste the difference between shrimp that have and have not been deveined.

Steps:

• Put the olive oil in a skillet just big enough to hold the shrimp in one layer and turn the heat to low. Add the garlic and adjust the heat so that it barely sizzles; when it colors nicely, add the saffron, chipotle and cumin, and stir for a minute or so. (All of the seasonings can be adjusted to taste.)
• Add the shrimp and season well. Raise the heat a bit and cook, turning once or twice, until firm, 5 minutes or less depending on their size. Garnish and serve.

Steps:

• Preheat the grill over high heat.
• In a medium bowl, combine the olive oil, garlic, shallots, cumin, paprika, about 1/2 tsp kosher salt, and 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper.
• Add the shrimp and stir to coat the shrimp thoroughly.
• Cover and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
• Using a small grate grill rack, grill the shrimp for about 1-2 minutes per side or until pink and just cooked through.
• (If you don't have a small grill rack you can also thread the shrimp on skewers to prevent them from falling through your rack.) Remove from the grill and garnish with cilantro and parsley.
• Squeeze lemon juice over the top of the shrimp and serve.