gambas al ajillo
During a short summery break at the lovely island of La Palma, one of the Canary Islands, I had gambas al ajillo, one of my favourites. This dish is not very hard to copy in your own kitchen.
Buy large tiger shrimps (about 5 or 6 each person) and keep the shell, but not the heads on (well you can if you like). Devein. Then slice 4 or 5 cloves of garlic, some spring onion, parsley, and get some hot dried chillis if you like this hot. Cut up the parsley and snap the chillis into chunks. Let your guests sit at the table and put nice bread in a basket, they should be ready for eating, as this dish cooks very fast. Also, have napkins ready. Now put in about 1 cm of oil (I used a mixture of sunflower and olive oil) in a pan and heat thouroughly. Add shrimps, preferably dried with some kitchen paper. They will splash and splutter and turn red quite quickly. Turn them over and add the rest of the ingredients. Put in a little salt for extra taste. Then pour this mixture into a nice ceramic Spanish-style dish (or individual dishes) and put on the table. I added a little bit of butter to get the extra escargots-taste. The bread with the oil mixture is exceptionally good! Plan no meetings for the next day, and have this with a chilled white wine. Summer is here!
During a short summery break at the lovely island of La Palma, one of the Canary Islands, I had gambas al ajillo, one of my favourites. This dish is not very hard to copy in your own kitchen.
Buy large tiger shrimps (about 5 or 6 each person) and keep the shell, but not the heads on (well you can if you like). Devein. Then slice 4 or 5 cloves of garlic, some spring onion, parsley, and get some hot dried chillis if you like this hot. Cut up the parsley and snap the chillis into chunks. Let your guests sit at the table and put nice bread in a basket, they should be ready for eating, as this dish cooks very fast. Also, have napkins ready. Now put in about 1 cm of oil (I used a mixture of sunflower and olive oil) in a pan and heat thouroughly. Add shrimps, preferably dried with some kitchen paper. They will splash and splutter and turn red quite quickly. Turn them over and add the rest of the ingredients. Put in a little salt for extra taste. Then pour this mixture into a nice ceramic Spanish-style dish (or individual dishes) and put on the table. I added a little bit of butter to get the extra escargots-taste. The bread with the oil mixture is exceptionally good! Plan no meetings for the next day, and have this with a chilled white wine. Summer is here!
