Laylita's Shrimp Rice

So you may have figured out by now that I am a food geek. I am constantly thinking about recipes, cooking and trying new things.  This is partly because I make sure I keep great food ideas coming my way.  One way I manage this is to subscribe to my favorite recipe blogs, so that recipes just feed into my inbox.  This is the best way to make sure I don't miss anything, especially since facebook loves to arbitrarily filter things these days. 

One of my favorite recipe blogs is Laylita's Recipes. The other day Laylita's Arroz con Camerones ended up in my in box.  This is an Ecuadorian recipe for shrimp and rice cooked in shrimp broth. The picture sold me, and later as I was making it, the wafting scents sealed the deal. This dish smells heavenly.  Maybe one of the reasons I found the scent of this dish so tantalizing was that I got to use a new seasoning to make it.  The seasoning is annatto which is derived form the seeds of the achiote tree.  The taste is described as nutty and peppery. This new seasoning, plus the shrimp broth and wine are wondrous together.

Just to be clear, my posting here is not my recipe, I haven't really even changed it except for a few small changes due to what I had one hand. Therefore, I can take no credit for it; it is here almost word for word as Laylita posted it. But it is so good, I feel the need to share it with you. Plus I put my own twist on it by serving it with some of my favorites: Cuban black beans (that I had frozen and thawed), oven fried plantains (recipe below) and of course homemade salsa.

BTW, Just as I subscribe to Laylitas recipes, you can do the same with mine, just enter your email in the box on the right.

Arroz Con Camarones

(this is almost word for word from Laylita's recipes)

Ingredients:

1 lb raw shrimp, shells on

1 tsp cumin

2 garlic cloves, crushed

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 tbs olive oil

2 cups uncooked rice

3 tbs butter

1 red onion, diced

1 bell pepper, diced

2 tomatoes, peeled and seeded, diced

3 tbs parsley, finely chopped, plus more to garnish

1 tsp ground achiote or annatto

½ cup of white wine

Salt and pepper

Preparation:

Marinate the shrimp with salt, pepper, 1 tsp of cumin, and the crushed garlic, let rest for an hour.

Bring water to boil in a large pot, add the shrimp and boil for about 2 minutes.

Remove the shrimp from the water and reserve 2 ½ cups of the water they cooked in to prepare the rice.

Remove the shells and tails from the shrimp. Chop about half of the shrimp in half and leave the other half whole.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan or pot, add the minced garlic, cook for about 2-3 minutes on medium heat.

Add the rice to the garlic and oil, mix well until the rice is coated with oil.

Add the 2 ½ cups of water that was used to boil the shrimp. Bring to boil, cover  and reduce heat to low.

In the meantime, melt the butter over medium heat in a large sauté pan; add the onions, peppers, tomatoes, parsley, ground achiote, salt, pepper, and remaining 1 tsp of cumin. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring often.

Add the white wine to the vegetable mix and continue cooking for another 5 minutes, until the onions and peppers are tender.

Mix in the sautéed vegetables and chopped shrimp with the rice, which should still be cooking, and cook on low heat until the rice is tender.

Add the remaining shrimp during the last minutes and mix well.

Taste and add salt and pepper if needed.

Sprinkle with chopped parsley.

Oven Fried Plantains

2 ripe plantains
olive oil

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Peel the plantains and slice into 1/2 inch thick pieces.  Coat with olive oil and spread evenly onto a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray.  Cook for about 20 minutes, turning once halfway through.