- Yield: 4
Seared Shrimp with Sweet Toasted Garlic, Prunes, and Pecans
Grilled jumbo shrimp are paired with a vegetable sauce of toasted garlic and prunes, then served with garlic-laced rice. While this recipe serves four and you can make the garlic-prune mixture in one large batch, the shrimp are best cooked 8 or so at a time, so they do not touch while cooking. The sauteed garlic which begins the recipe is called “mojo de ajo” and could be used on its own drizzled over seared fish. It takes a long time to cook down, but as it does it becomes sweeter with a rich roasted flavor.
Ingredients
- Toasted Garlic and Prunes
- Ancho Pepper - 1
- Pecans - 2 cups
- Olive Oil - 1/2 cup
- Garlic Clove - 15 coves (1 large head of garlic)
- Red Wine - 1 1/2 cups
- Scallions - 3, green ends, chopped
- Prunes - 2, cut into slivers
- Salt - 1 1/2 teaspoons
- Roasted Garlic in Oil - 2 cups
- Jumbo Shrimp - 32, peeled and deveined, tails on
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- White rice - 2 cups cooked
- Roasted Garlic in Oil - 1/2 cup, drained from purchased roasted garlic
- Flat-leaf Parsley - 4 springs
Instructions
To make the toasted garlic and prunes: Stem the dried ancho and tear it open along one side. Shake out all the seeds and pull out the ribs (for more heat, leave in some of the rib). Break the pecans into small chunks with your fingers. Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet and add the minced raw garlic. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Stir occasionally and cook until the garlic is golden in color and soft. Add the wine, minced ancho pepper, green onions, and half the prune slivers. Increase the heat to medium-high and cook, stirring gently, until the vinegar has just evaporated; you hear it start to sizzle. Add the pecans, salt, and roasted garlic and heat until the pecans begin to give off their aroma. Stir in the remaining prune slivers and remove from heat.
Season the shrimp with salt and pepper. Heat a little oil from the garlic in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat and sear the shrimp, 1 minute per side, standing the shrimp tails-up on their thick ends to cook the thick portion. Spoon in one fourth of the prune mixture and heat with the shrimp.
To serve: Toss the rice with the roasted garlic oil and press into four small cups or molds. Place a mold of rice in the center of each plate. Place 8 shrimp on each plate, spoke-fashion, with tails pointing out. Divide the prune mixture among the plates and spoon around the rice. Pour the shrimp pan juices over the shrimp. Garnish the rice with parsley leaves.
