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Shrimp When I was growing up in London, the epitome of elegant dining was the Iroquois Night Club, a sprawling restaurant and night club who interior was dimly lit and featured an elevated dance floor, live music and to a young boy, the extremely exotic presence of a lobster tank. Even during daylight, dining at the Iroquois was like eating in some underwater cave. Decor notwithstanding, the seafood served there with the exception of the lobster was always frozen and breaded, except for the shrimp, which came plain with cocktail sauce, or sautéed in butter and garlic. Since I was still at an age when I wanted nothing but to imitate my father, I had what he had, shrimp cocktail. While the rest of the family would hunker down over prime rib, I sat perched in an overstuffed chair, cutting my shrimp into delicate morsels, feeling the first stir of Epicurean superiority. Even adolescence didn’t tarnish this affection and more often than not, a large part of my newspaper boy money was spent at the fish market. As I grew up and experienced the luxury of fresh seafood I began to disdain shrimp, thinking it to be a little too common. For a young person, being able to stand out was important and nothing could be more individual than having personal taste. North American’s eat more shimp than any other seafood perhaps with the exception of canned tuna. This immediately excluded me. Instead, I savoured squid and mussels, raw oysters, periwinkles, escargot. By the time I graduated to sea urchin and sashimi, I don’t think my mother would have been surprised to see me begin to take on the world of insects. There is part and parcel, in the world of culinary striving, an appetite for the novel and it was years before I tasted fresh rock shrimp from Maine that I realized that food could be as delicious for what it evokes as for what it is. Eventually I expanded my crustacean repertoire, sampling shrimp from far and wide. Shrimp that is fresh and wild is far more distinguished tasting than the farm raised and flash frozen variety that makes up 98% of all the shrimp that we eat. Its interesting how the memory of food can differ from one generation to another. In fifty years, technology and transportation have so altered the taste of certain basics that I have heard various members of the previous generation discuss fresh butter and milk, cheddar cheese and chicken and countless other staples as if they were extinct species which in many cases is probably true. This became apparent in the case of shrimp on a beach in Mexico several years ago, when the smell of fresh shrimp roasting in their shells could only be described as sweet and kind. The smell made the night seem gentle and comforting and as I stood by the driftwood fire, I understood what that previous generation meant when they talked about shrimp. Curried Grilled Jumbo Shrimp 2 LB jumbo shrimp 4 cloves garlic 2 small red chili peppers, chopped 2 teaspoon sugar 1 tsp. salt 1/2 cup chopped coriander leaves 1 tsp. curry paste or powder 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 4 cups cooked white rice, warm 1) Use scissors to cut down the back of the shrimp, through the shell, to remove the vein. Gently loosen the shell around the shrimp, but keep it in place. Set aside. In a mortar, pound the garlic and chilies to a paste. Add the sugar and salt and pound or chop to a finer paste. Stir in the coriander, curry and oil. 2) Gently pull open the shell of each shrimp and, dividing the coriander paste evenly, push some of it down the back of the shrimp where the vein was and under the shell a bit. Marinate at room temperature for at least 2 hours, or, covered, for up to 4 hours. 3) Preheat the broiler or grill. Grill or broil the shrimp until the shell are charred on one side and the shrimp is cooked halfway through, about 3 minutes. Turn and cook on the other side for about 1 minute. Serve with rice. Note: You can improve the flavour of frozen shrimp by thawing them in the refrigerator and wherever possible cooking them with their shells on. |
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