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Shrimp Rougail

Originally from tiny islands in the Indian Ocean, Shrimp Rougail is one of many exotic taste treats found throughout Paris.
Course Main Course, seafood
Cuisine French
Servings 2 to 3

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon grapeseed or other neutral oil
  • 1 small onion, finely chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1- inch piece (about 2 tablespoon) fresh ginger, peeled and minced
  • 1 Thai chili, partially seeded and minced (see Kitchen Notes)
  • 1/2 tablespoon ground cumin
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
  • 1 14-1/2 ounce can diced tomatoes
  • 1 pound uncooked shrimp, in the shell (or not—see Kitchen Notes)
  • 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
  • steamed white rice

Instructions

  • Heat a large, heavy, lidded saucepan or skillet over a medium flame. Add oil. When it is shimmering, add onion, garlic, ginger and chili; sauté until onion is soft, about 3 to 4 minutes, stirring frequently.
  • Sprinkle in cumin, salt and pepper and stir, cooking until fragrant, about 45 seconds. Stir in tomatoes, cover and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  • Raise heat to medium high and add shrimp, stirring to coat. Cook until just done, 3 to 5 minutes, turning shrimp to cook on both sides. DO NOT OVERCOOK or shrimp will become tough.
  • Remove from heat. Stir in fresh cilantro and serve immediately over rice.

Kitchen Notes

How hot is hot? Susan over at Food Blogga recently did a great post on the hottest of the hot peppers, the habanero. Being mainly a user of jalapeños, it put heat in perspective. On the Scoville Heat Scale, a red bell pepper is rated 0 for heat. The jalapeño ranks from about 3,000 to 5,000, depending on who's counting. By comparison, the habanero is a scorching 200,000 to 350,000! The original recipe calls for an African bird's-eye chili (aka African Devil), which comes close to the habanero for heat. I went for the easier to find but still respectable Thai chili, a mere 70,000 to 80,000 on the Scoville Heat Scale.
Taming the heat. The heat in peppers comes from capsaicin, found in the seeds and veins, or ribs—the whitish ridges inside the pepper. By removing the seeds and ribs, you take away virtually all of the fire. With the fiery little Thai pepper for this recipe, I removed all but about 1/3 of the veins and kept only a half dozen or so seeds. Even that little bit made the dish respectably hot. I might up it a tiny bit next time, but these tiny peppers definitely pack some heat. You could also substitute a jalapeño and use however much of the seeds and veins you usually do. The dish calls for heat, but you can control what that means for you.
Shells on, shells off on the shrimp? Chef Rafiq Hamjah, owner of Paris restaurant Comme Sur une Ile and creator of the original recipe, insists on using unpeeled shrimp for this dish. Leaving the shells on definitely boosts the flavor of the shrimp. It also makes this a hands-on meal, one I would classify as "not first date" food. On the other hand, you may view it as a first date litmus test, seeing just how messy a potential partner is willing to get in pursuit of good food.
Shelling and deveining uncooked shrimp is a semi-pain, so I applaud a recent development I've been noticing in the stores: Shrimp with shells intact, but split down the back with the "vein" removed. It's easy to shell them before cooking, or you can cook them in the shells (as I did here—and yes, it upped the flavor), knowing they'll be easy to peel as you eat and that no gritty vein is lurking within.