Arroz con camarones or Shrimp rice
Arroz con camarones or shrimp rice is a traditional Latin dish made with rice cooked in a shrimp broth and sautéed with shrimp or prawns, onions, peppers, tomatoes, garlic, cumin, achiote and parsley.
Servings 6
Ingredients
- 2 lbs raw shrimp shells on, deveined
- 2 tsp cumin
- 4 garlic cloves crushed
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 2 tbs oil sunflower, avocado, etc
- 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
Instructions
- Marinate the shrimp with salt, pepper, 1 tsp of cumin, and the crushed garlic.
- 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; leave the tails on a few of the shrimp that will be used as a garnish. 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 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 and garnish with shrimp with tails on.
- Serve with avocado slices, tomato and onion curtido salad, lime slices, and of course some good aji or hot sauce.