Shrimp

Industrial shrimp farming takes a heavy toll on coastal areas. Whenever possible, buy fresh, sustainably harvested wild shrimp. These taste the best and are the best for the environment. Shrimp is a delicate food that should be cooked soon after it is purchased. Keep it stored over ice until ready to use. Shrimp is sold by size (large, jumbo, bay, etc.), and some are labeled with numbers that express the number of shrimp to a pound (16-20 means a pound will yield 16 to 20 shrimp, for example). Either peeled or left in the shell, shrimp can be grilled, baked, steamed, boiled, or sautéed. As they cook they turn bright pink or red, depending on the variety. This change of color is the sign that they are done. In their shells, most shrimp will cook in three or four minutes; when peeled, shrimp cook in just a minute or two. Keep a close eye on shrimp while they are cooking. When cooking shrimp in the shell, season it generously; the seasoning needs to penetrate the shell to flavor the meat inside. (The shell itself also flavors the shrimp.) Leave unpeeled shrimp whole when boiling or sautéing. When grilling, baking, or broiling unpeeled shrimp, you can first butterfly (or split) them. Turn the shrimp on its back and cut lengthwise, through the underside to the back shell, leaving the two halves connected. Flatten the shrimp. For easy grilling, skewer the butterflied shrimp, season them, and brush with oil or butter. To peel shrimp, split the shell by gently prying it apart and away with your thumbs, from the underside out. The last joint of the shell and the tail can be left on for color if you want. All shrimp have a sand vein that runs the length of the tail on the dorsal side. The sand veins of large shrimp are sometimes gritty when full. When full, the vein will look dark and should be removed (it is not necessary to remove it when empty). Without cutting too deeply, run your knife down the center of the back of the shrimp, scrape the vein out of the cut, and discard it. I prefer shrimp sautéed in their shells. Peeling with your fingers at the table is a bit messy (some would say fun), but the flavor the shells impart makes it all worthwhile.

This is a simple dish with an impressive presentation, and it works with any combination of grilled meat, fish, poultry, or vegetables. A molcajete is a mortar made of lava rock that is usually used with a pestle (also made of lava rock) to make fresh salsas. Because it is made with a natural rock, it has an excellent ability to preserve heat and keep a dish hot, and that’s how I use it in this recipe. If you do not have two molcajetes, ovenproof earthenware bowls (about the size of cereal bowls) are an acceptable substitute.

Nopales are cactus paddles. They may be hard to come by if you don’t live in a border state or have access to a Mexican market. If you’re lucky, you’ll find prickly pear cactus paddles, which are packed with soluble fiber, vitamins, and minerals and reduce the glycemic effect of a meal. The stuffing is the star of this recipe, so if nopales are nowhere in sight, you can use corn tortillas for equally delicious (although not as pretty) results. At my house, we grill plain nopales until they are tender and a little charred and serve them with some lime wedges.

Serve this over rice, which will soak up the rich cream sauce. This dish is for the spicy-lover in you; if you want to prepare a milder version for guests or kids, you can use just the adobo sauce that accompanies the canned chipotles, and save the chiles for when you are preparing it for yourself. They’ll last for months in a covered container in the fridge.

This refreshing seafood salad is inspired by one I had at an outdoor café in Yucatán, where the cuisine is influenced by Mayan, Caribbean, Mexican, French, and Middle Eastern cultures. Mango and papaya add unexpected sweetness and a tropical twist. I make it for brunch with friends, and serve it with tall glasses of guava iced tea.

I had to include Baja sushi because I think the fusion of Asian techniques and Mexican ingredients is phenomenal! This recipe, which uses a spinach crêpe as a wrapper instead of nori (seaweed), comes from my friend Andres Brambila, who owns Negai, a wonderful sushi restaurant in Tijuana.

Fresh rosemary grows rampant in my backyard, which is only part of the reason these skewers top my list of favorite appetizers. Rosemary adds smoky flavor and a decorative flourish to a simple shrimp starter. Check the USDA plant hardiness zones to see which herbs thrive in your area. Fresh herbs make a huge difference in any dish, and you’ll save money by growing them at home instead of buying them. The Mediterranean rosemary pairs nicely with the smoky chipotle and fresh cilantro.

Chimichurri is the A1 sauce of Argentina, and no self-respecting steak there would be served without a dose of this herby green sauce. But chimichurri also has a lot in common with an Italian salsa verde, which gave me the idea to pair it with the more delicate combo of chicken and shrimp. I add oregano for a deep earthiness, and crunchy bites of pancetta put it over the top; you’ll want to serve this sauce over everything from broiled fish fillets to sliced tomatoes or even crostini.

Italy is best known for its short-grain rice dishes, like risotto, but long-grain rice is popular there as well. My grandmother Nonna Luna loved to cook rice, and her secret was toasting the grains before adding the broth and a tablespoon of hot sauce. Unlike in a risotto, the grains stay fluffy and separate, not starchy. This dish is super easy to make—the only trick is taking the full six to seven minutes needed to toast the rice grains. That step gives the dish a nutty flavor that takes it from good to great, and the shrimp make it a full meal.

The sight of a platter of jumbo shrimp at a party always makes guests happy, but the usual shrimp cocktail is served ice-cold and, in my opinion, is pretty flavorless. I think shrimp taste so much better served warm—especially with this simple and colorful dipping sauce to dunk them into. The ingredients are an interesting combination, and their unique flavors, along with the color of the turmeric, yield a creamy, tangy, and slightly sweet sauce.

Here’s my take on Pad Thai. There are a lot of ingredients here, but most of them keep well in your pantry, and substituting is easy—you could use finely chopped cabbage in place of the bean sprouts or substitute soy or hoisin sauce for the nam pla.

Bouillabaisse, the Mediterranean fish stew that is more difficult to spell than to prepare, is traditionally neither an idée fixe nor the centerpiece of a grand bouffe, but a spur-of-the-moment combination of the day’s catch. The key to bouillabaisse is a variety of good fish of different types, so use this recipe as a set of guidelines rather than strict dogma and don’t worry about duplicating the exact types or quantities of fish.

Some people argue that a true paella must contain only meat or seafood, never both, that a true paella can be prepared only in a paellera, or that true paella must be cooked outdoors over wood. Perhaps they’re all right. What’s clear to me is that you can produce a fabulous rice dish I call paella in just over half an hour, which makes it a great option for weeknights.

Leeks, one of the first legitimate spring vegetables, are the highlight here (in fact this recipe is great without the shrimp; see page 230). In place of the shrimp, you could use scallops, tofu, chunks of chicken or pork, or slices of beef.

Many people will find this their idea of paradise: simply grilled shrimp in a strong-flavored soy dipping sauce.

This is a Southeast Asian–style preparation, mildly sweet and mouth-puckeringly sour. It’s also ridiculously fast; if you start some rice before tackling the shrimp, they will both be done at about the same time, twenty minutes later. (This assumes your shrimp are already peeled, a task that will take you about ten minutes and one that should be undertaken before cooking the rice.) For best flavor, see if you can find head-on shrimp; they make for a more impressive presentation, and it’s fun to suck the juices out of the heads themselves (which, I realize, is not something that everyone enjoys). But none of these assets is worth making head-on shrimp a sticking point. Note that this technique will work with scallops or cut-up squid; each will take slightly less time to cook than the shrimp.

Dealing with the lemongrass is the sole challenge of this dish, and only if you’ve never done it before. Maximum flavor is released from whole lemongrass stalks when they are beaten up a bit; bruising the length of each stalk with the blunt edge of a knife takes care of this in seconds. But to include lemongrass in a sauce you must first remove the tough outer layers—this is not unlike peeling a woody scallion—and then carefully and finely mince the inner core.

Thai Dishes called curries contain curry powder and a combination of herbs and aromatic vegetables. A typical dish might feature a mixture of garlic, shallots, chiles, lime leaf, sugar, and galangal or ginger. This curry, which features coconut milk, is just such a dish. Serve it with white or sticky rice.

Despite its name, this dish isn’t fiery hot, but the addition of a fair amount of paprika gives the shrimp a bright red color that makes people think they’re eating spicy food. The real key here is fresh paprika, not that tin you inherited from your mother. After you buy it, taste it; if it is hot, use half a teaspoon. You can let the shrimp sit in the spice paste for hours. (In fact, I like to dump both shrimp and paste into a covered plastic container, shake them together to coat the shrimp, then carry the container to a party and grill the shrimp there.) But you can also mix the two together right before cooking.

This Shrimp dish is based on a combination of ingredients traditionally used to cook tripe in and around Rome. It’s a simple tomato sauce spiked with the powerful flavors of browned garlic, chiles, and mint. When you make it with tripe, it must cook a long time for the tripe to become tender; when you use shrimp, the dish is practically done as soon as the shrimp are added.