Thursday, March 18, 2010

Dream On: Enchilada de Mariscos


In the middle of winter sometimes I will dream I am lying on an exotic island. I am wearing a thong bikini (my blumers are probably giving me a wedgie), on the hot sand (I only have about six comforters on top of me), at the water's edge (if my husband nudges me any further, I'll be on the floor). I can feel the ocean breeze (probably the furnace kicking in), and the scent of tanning lotion (my anti-wrinkle cream). I am young and my body is firm and slim (that's when I know for sure I'm dreaming.) I wake up and I think ... SEAFOOD!


Okay, like I've been saying, I'm  in the middle of the country. Landlocked. I'm not going to find fresh shellfish unless it's flown in, and then who can afford it? Forget about it, and good luck trying to find octopus/mussels/squid/cockles, etc. What to do, what to do? We have to make do with frozen ... (my grandmother is rolling over in her grave). 

I happened to come across already cooked frozen snow crabs (large cluster) on sale at my local supermarket. Of course finding frozen raw deveined shrimp is simple enough (1 lb), frozen scallops (1 lb) - ditto.

For this recipe you will need
4 tbsp olive oil
2 large onions, chopped
8-10 cloves of garlic, pressed
2 cups fish or chicken stock
1/2 cup Sherry or dry white wine
3 tbsp ketchup
1/4 cup capers
2 tbsp hot sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp Worchestershire sauce 
salt and pepper to taste

We start by defrosting it all, peeling the shrimp and cracking the snow crab. Set aside.

Saute the onions and garlic in the olive oil until the onions are translucent, add all the other ingredients except the snow crabs and let simmer until the shrimp and scallops are cooked (the shrimp will turn pink). Remove the shrimp and set aside (the shrimp will harden if cooked too long). Add the snowcrab and let simmer uncovered on low for about 30-40 minutes until the sauce reduces by 1/3 and the flavors meld. Drop your cooked shrimp back in and let simmer another 5-10 minutes. Serve with white rice and tostones. (I'll be making tostones soon, check back.)

3 comments:

  1. Mariscos...mmm making my mouth water!

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  2. U need to tell me the story behind this recipe, like where did u learn it and stuff :) like the soy sauce, hot sauce, worchestershire sauce, hot sauce, and ketchup sound real interesting in there.

    It's like a variation of the Spanish "Zarzuela de Mariscos"

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  3. Although my mother and my grandmother only really knew Cuban products, for some reason there was always the trio of salsa inglesa, salsa china y salsa picante in the refrigerator. They always used these in combination for certain recipes, rabo encendido, cagrejos, etc.

    The ketchup adds tomato and color to the dish, but it also has sugar which neutralizes the acid in the tomato. I use it in place of tomato sauce or in combination with it. Sometimes you don't need a whole can of tomato sauce or you need just a little more than one can, and ketchup is the answer, besides it tastes better!

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