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In the Kitchen

Cilantro Shrimp Lettuce Cups

Ingredients

  • 1 pound of uncooked shrimp
  • French Celtic sea salt
  • EVOO
  • 2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
  • 1/4 cup white wine
  • 8 Boston lettuce leaves/cup
  • 3 Persian cucumbers, diced
  • 2 tomatoes, diced
  • 1/2 avocado, diced
  • 1/4 cup of cilantro leaves, torn
  • juice of one lime

Instructions

Peel and devein shrimp. Heat a cast iron pan. Add EVOO and allow it to heat for 1 minute. Toss in garlic and cook for 30 seconds.  Add shrimp and sea salt.  You need more salt than you think. Add more EVOO and white wine and cook until the shrimp turn pink.  Set aside.

In a bowl, add the diced cucumbers, tomatoes, avocado and cilantro.  Toss in lime juice and sea salt.

Lay the Boston lettuce cups out on a plate. Fill with the shrimp and cucumber mixture. Drizzle with more lime juice as desired.  Serve.

 

She stamped her feet and exclaimed with glee, “OMG…these take me back my childhood in the South France”. This is Katie, my best friend, whom was helping me cook tonight. She was referring to the shrimp tossed with garlic, sea salt and white wine.

This was my first foray into cooking shrimp. Normally, I’d be a New Yorker, and buy the pre-cooked shrimp. Instead, I wandered into the newly opened Foragers in Chelsea and asked if they sold shrimp. They came back with the uncooked shrimp (and a $24 price tag to boot). Too sheepish to return them, I convinced myself that being an Australian I must have shrimp cooking skills in my blood. I was just missing the ‘barbie’.

Fortunately it worked. But I had to play with it. You’ll need more salt than you think and the garlic makes a world of difference. But wow, I won’t go back to the pre-cooked shrimp anymore.

Katie prepared the rest of the ingredients – we used Kumato tomatoes, which are one of my favorites, particularly pre-season, and Persian cucumbers – so much nicer tasting than the continental cucumber.

You could add mango for a hint of Summer, but we kept it Spring-like and used avocado as a taste enhancer.

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