Toasted Garlic Shrimp Tacos

ed: This is a recipe I made back in August 2005.  Right now I am probably eating lunch in a trattoria in somewhere in Tuscany.

I love being inspired by random and spontaneous food  encounters.  For the most part, I'm influenced by food blogs, inspiring chefs and/or restaurants, TV, etc.  But recently I was inspired by a random taco stand on a street fair in NYC. It was such a home grown operatation dedicated towards simple preparation of a few flavorful ingredients for their tacos.  It was 90 plus degrees outside, but this man was braising pork shoulder in a chili liquid in a vat on the street for all to see.  A grill man was toasting corn tortillas and a woman was accepting money and providing garnishes.  I created an heirloom tomato salad and made some Spanish-style garlic shrimp for a quick and simple summer tacos at home.

My full recipe is below.

Make as much of the tomato salsa as you’d like – it's even better the next day.

Ingredient Shopping List
Recipe serves two people. Assumes 3-4 tacos apiece, as we recommend smaller-sized tortillas. Since I am a total slob, I can eat 4 without batting an eye.

1 lb large shrimp, peeled and de-veined
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3 large cloves garlic
1 bunch mint
1 lime
1 lemon
1 bunch chives (white or red onion instead is great)
2 handfuls or 1 bag washed arugula
3-4 large heirloom or vine ripened tomatoes
1 jalapeno pepper
1 package small corn tortillas (flour OK)

Make the Salsa

Chop the tomatoes into small bite sized pieces. If you want to be fancy, remove the seeds and inner core. Toss into a bowl. Add any leftover juices from the cutting board. Chop chives or onions into a very small dice (about two tablespoons)into a bowl. Finely chop about 1 teaspoon of jalapeno pepper (1/4 of a pepper)and add to bowl. Leave in seeds and inner white membrane if you like it spicy, otherwise remove them. Squeeze 1/2 of a lime and 1/2 of a lemon into bowl and add a 1 sec glug of olive oil to bowl. Add about 1 tablespoon of finely chopped mint. Season everything with salt and pepper. Mix well and taste. Need more onion? Mint? Salt? Adjust to taste.

This simple salsa is best covered and refrigerated for at least a half hour or up to 24 hours to let flavors marinate.

Make the Shrimp

Peel and finely chop 3 garlic cloves. Finely chop about 1 tablespoon mint. Take out your peeled and de-veined shrimp (also remove tails at this point or you’ll need to do it later, either way OK) and place them on paper towels. Pat both sides until as dry as possible. This is important in order to obtain slightly browned shrimp that adds lots of flavor to the dish. Season both side of shrimp with salt and pepper.

Place one glug of olive oil in a sturdy pan on medium high heat. Wait until the olive oil is very hot, to the point that it just barely begins to smoke. Add all of the garlic and immediately after add the shrimp carefully to the pan to avoid splatter. Add the mint right on top of the shrimp. The key here is not to flip the shrimp for about 3 minutes. Flip the shrimp and squeeze lemon on them and turn off the heat. The shrimp is almost done - the heat in pan will continue to cook them. Set aside onto a cutting board after 1 minute or so, along with all of the garlic and mint and some of the olive oil.

After cooling for a minute, chop your shrimp into bite size pieces and reserve.

Toast the Tortillas

It’s best to have all ingredients out and ready for your tacos before toasting the tortillas.

You need a dry pan (non-stick is good, but anything works) on medium high heat. Take the pan we used for the shrimp, waited until it was relatively cool, and wiped with paper towels for this task. (You can also just warm the tortillas in a microwave, which I do frequently to great results.)

When hot, add two tortillas to the pan. Flip when just browned. Set aside and repeat as needed. Make a few extra just in case they break when forming.

Finish the Dish

Carefully fold the tortillas into a taco shape – just barely bend them into shape or they will crack and split. I like to fill them with one layer of arugula at bottom, heaping layer of shrimp, tomato salsa, followed by a couple leaves of arugula at top. This way, you get all flavors in one bite.

Comments

[elizabeth]

Holy, sh*t, I go on vacation, for once, and I miss this! Clearly, I wasn't a regular for the previous posting, but its up again and I have a thing for tacos! Simple, garlicy, spicy, delicious! Shrimp, onion, garlic, masa, it doesn't get better... But I will say, I make my own tortillas, which is time consuming, they are a bit thicker and doughier than the (otherwise fantastic) varieties available in nyc area Bodegas, but for this purpose, worth it. Thick, doughy, corn masa, tortillas add an element of texture. Which reminds me: do not use those huge flour tortillas sold in grocery stores, they are *bad* and can ruin your, otherwise, lovely shrimp taco.
Once again, js,(I know you are on vacation) loving you!!!

[joe]

yeah, those large flour tortillas suck, i prefer the corn better. i have always wanted to make my own tortillas but haven't gotten around to it...

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