Laura Banford: Easy International Cooking, where I will show you how to go around the world without ever leaving your kitchen. Today's destination is Cuba and I am going to make a dish that is evocative of that island. This dish is called Mojito Shrimp and it's a delicious Islandy dish with lots of great ingredients like coconut milk and rum and lime juice.
In order to make this dish, you want some jumbo or colossal shrimp. These beauties are Key West King shrimp, Key West as you probably know is only 90 miles from Cuba, so we here right in the area right after that. The ingredients you will need are jumbo or colossal shrimp, garlic, scallions, diced jalapeño pepper, cilantro, mint, two tablespoons of butter, a third of a cup of rum, a quarter cup of lime juice and a half cup of coconut milk.
The pieces of equipment you will need are a large skillet, a pair of tongs and a couple of sharp knives. You are going to want to devein and butterfly your shrimp. First you have to peel it, lift it, peel there and we want the tails off for this recipe. Pull them off. Preserving as much of the shrimp as possible. I am going to cut down on the side and I am going to butterfly this, so I am going to cut deep down the middle and we just pull out the vein.
I am also going to chop some scallions. Everything else is already prepped, I am just going to slice it down the center. Patch them up. We don't want it minced, we don't want it too small and now we are ready to get cooking.
Preheat the pan and melt butter. That is two tablespoons of a good quality butter. The butter starting to froth, that means it's getting up the temperature. You can see the bubbles and in go our beautiful pink colossal shrimp from Key West. You hear the sizzle that means that the pan is hot enough and you see they turned bright pink virtually right away. Shrimp, more than most shell fish really requires very little cooking for it to be done and I am going to add some garlic. What we are going to do is we are going to just get the shrimp, just fairly cooked and we are going to take it out and we are going to continue to make our sauce and after that we are going to put the shrimp back in just to finish.
Add some diced jalapeno and some mint leaves and I am going to just tear them. If you are making a Mojito drink which would be a great accompaniment to this dish. You would grate them or muddle them. I am going to add some lime juice and some scallions. Temperature up a little bit. You see how quickly this is going. Stir that well. Pepper and salt. Add our rum. And that goes to a simmer. I am going to add our coconut milk and we are going to let that simmer for about two minutes until it reduces.
Okay, see our sauce is bubbling. I added a little bit more coconut milk and butter. Essentially, a coconut butter sauce with rum, doesn't it sound delicious? Now, we are going to add our shrimp back in, so they absorb all that wonderful sauce. A creamy delicious sauce with lime and rum and scallions and a little bit of jalapeno for heat and I am going just top it with some delicious cilantro leaves.
Now, we are going to take this delicious dish, these colossal Key West shrimp with rum and mint. It is like a Mojito, that's why we call it Mojito Shrimp and lime juice like a Mojito and the addition of scallions and cilantro and coconut milk and that's what makes it a delicious Cuban island dish. Great for an appetizer or as an entree with the side salad. It's going to be delicious and no matter where you are, you will think you are in the Tropics.
Join me next time on Easy International, where we take another culinary adventure without leaving our kitchen.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services