Garlic Shrimp Recipe
Greetings,
Here is a work-in-progress garlic shrimp recipe. My purpose of this recipe is to imitate the famous garlic shrimp mix plates from Hawaii. During a vacation in the beautiful Kauai Hawaii, I was be to experience my first garlic shrimp mix plate from a shrimp truck that was parked near the koloa/poipu fire station. For the next 3 weeks, the shrimp truck was a daily lunch stop! Hopefully on my next Hawaiin vacation, I’ll get to experience the original garlic shrimp from Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck
*If you have any suggestions, please drop me a comment. Thanks!
Posted by: koloa on August 24 2008 | Category: cooking | Comments: 5 |
Step 1, Gather up the ingredients
For the Garlic Shrimp Recipe, I used the following
- Lemon and Limes,
- Kosher Salt
- 1-2 cups of White cooking wine
- 3 Large Garlic cloves
- 1 bunch of Scallions
- 1/2 stick of Unsalted butter, about half a stick
- drizzle of Extra virgin olive oil
- 2 cups or more of Jumbo Large Shrimp
Step 1a, Garlic
For the garlic, I used 3 large garlic bulbs. I simply just slightly crushed each clove with the butcher knife so removing the garlic skin is easy. Afterwards, I just kept crushing and mincing the whole bunch. This is the funnest part of the cooking! It may look like alot of garlic, but after the cooking is finished, the garlic shrimp is sweet.
Step 1b, Frozen Shrimp
I use frozen shrimp simply because of convenience and savings. I can purchase a 2 pound bag of jumbo sized shrimp from the local grocery for around 8 dollars on sale. For authentic Hawaiin style garlic shrimp, be sure to get the shrimp with skin-on!
To thaw the shrimp, just put the shrimp in a container of cold water. Frozen shrimp can completely thaw in ~20 minutes.
After the shrimp thaw is complete, remove shrimp and pat dry with a paper towel.
Step 1c, scallions
Scallions/Green onions provide a nice complement to the shrimp and rice. Just wash and slice it up into small pieces.
Step 2, Lets get cooking
In this step, we are going to slowly melt the butter on low heat, add some olive oil, and some white cooking wine. As the mixture reduces, you can add some more white wine.
Step 3, caramelize the garlic
Add all the garlic to the butter/white wine mixture. This is the longest step in the garlic shrimp cooking process. In order to caramelize the garlic, the garlic should be cooked slowly on low-medium heat. If this step is rushed, the garlic will toast and not sweeten. The garlic should be sweet! This step takes around 20-30 minutes. If the mixture starts to dry too quickly, add more white cooking wine, some lemon, and maybe even more butter. In the last picture, the garlic is much stickier than the beginning and tastes very sweet.
tip
Adding a little bit of gray poupon mustard gives an additional kick.
Step 4, Add the Jumbo Shrimp
After the shrimp is padded dry with a paper towel from thawing, toss the shrimp into the garlic misture and let cook. Cooking the shrimp is fairly quick. Maybe around 7 minutes. I usually let the shrimp sit for ~4 minutes before flipping them to the other side. I also turn up the heat. This seems to allow the garlic to stick better to the shrimp and give the garlic a nice darker brown.
After the shrimp is cooked, toss in the scallions. After a minute or so, the garlic shrimp is ready to eat!
Step 6, Enjoy the garlic shrimp!
When the garlic shrimp is finished, I squeeze a lemon to tang it up. For the garlic shrimp plate, I add a side of rice and green beans. I used a plain can of green beans just because I didn’t have any fresh veggies available. For a more traditional Hawaiian style mixed plate, The garlic shrimp plate should be served with some form of potato/pasta/macaroni salad. I hope you enjoy this recipe, if you have any questions or suggestions, drop a comment.
Comments | Leave Comment?
09.09.09 - Dave: What about the Kosher Salt? You did not mention how much or when to use it?
08.12.08 - goku: you can also try roasting/grilling garlic shrimp over pecan wood and oak. i have a big green egg BGE and it does shrimp really well.
08.04.08 - Oregon: Thanks for the tip
08.26.08 - gohn: looks good. ive tried govannis and it was the best meal on the island. i will try this recipes.
08.24.08 - jessi: awesome, thanks for sharring the garlic shrimp recipe. nice pics!
