PICKLED SHRIMP

Pickled Shrimp image

Shrimp season is summer and fall in marshy coastal Georgia and South Carolina and in the Louisiana Gulf. If you can find shrimp from any of those places at those times of year, get enough for eating for several weeks, and make this marinated or pickled shrimp, which lasts that long. There is a version of a recipe for this everywhere, over eons, including in Sciappi's "The Works." His recipe is for a fish called gilthead, but the method and result are almost identical. Something very similar to this exact recipe was popular through the middle of last century as Pickled Shrimp, or Shrimp Sea Island. And the Alabama chef Frank Stitt has a recipe almost exactly like this one, in one of his fine cookbooks.

Provided by Tamar Adler

Number Of Ingredients 18

Ingredients

2 pounds shrimp, peeled and deveined, tails on
4 scallions, mostly white, quartered or in eighths lengthwise
2 cloves garlic, sliced lengthwise, very thinly
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup white-wine vinegar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons fennel seed
1 1/2 teaspoons coriander
10 dried chiles, broken once or left whole
1 pod cardamom
1 lemon, quartered and thinly sliced
1 cup olive oil
1/4 cup roughly chopped fresh oregano
a few peppercorns
4 bay leaves
1/4 onion and/or leek
1 clove garlic
a few sprigs fresh thyme or oregano

Steps:

Make court bouillon for shrimp: Put a few peppercorns, 4 bay leaves, 1/4 onion and/or leek, 1 clove garlic and a few sprigs fresh thyme or oregano in a pot of water. Bring to a boil, and let cook 15 minutes. Then add 1 teaspoon salt and shrimp, and cook for 2-3 minutes at below a boil. Remove shrimp with a strainer.
In separate bowl, combine all other ingredients except oil and oregano. Let sit 5 minutes. Add shrimp. Mix well. Add oil, and mix. Add oregano, and mix. Serve at least 5 hours later and ideally the next day, cold or room temperature.

Nutrition Facts : @context http, Calories 276, UnsaturatedFat 19 grams, Carbohydrate 6 grams, Fat 23 grams, Fiber 2 grams, Protein 13 grams, SaturatedFat 3 grams, Sodium 517 milligrams, Sugar 1 gram, TransFat 0 grams