Goa Cooking : Indian Grilled Shrimp (richeiado)

The other night, quite apropos of nothing, I mentioned to my wife that we weren't getting enough seafood in our diet. This is the kind of thing that strikes me as being quite inexcusable when one lives as close to the ocean as we do. I can't offer you any hard statistics, but I'm willing to bet that the two of us actually consume less seafood living here in San Diego than we did while living in upstate New York several years ago. I can't tell you why this is the case - maybe something to do with the excitement of discovering fresh East Coast clams and scallops, maybe something about the horrible traffic out here, and maybe something about a recurring love affair with the much-maligned chicken - but each time I think about the situation, I feel the urge to rush over to the nearest seafood market and pick out a bucket of mussels to simmer or a whole snapper to grill.

Lately, I've had a hankering for shrimp, perhaps because they're such a perfect late-summer choice - skewered over the grill, roasted quickly on the stove top, or chilled Southern-style. I recently came across this fantastic and authentic preparation, hailing from the Indian subcontinent's small coastal state of Goa. Called richeiado, this flavorful and wonderfully spicy (perhaps even fiery) dish requires little extraneous effort beyond assembling the proper spice paste. You'll need to put your elbow into it, but after that, the marinating time is short, and the cooking process even shorter. The paste ingredients are pretty important - I wouldn't skimp or do too much experimenting with substitutions (with one major exception, as noted below, in the case of fenni). I also suspect that this spice paste would be excellent slathered onto other main ingredients, from chicken wings to tofu.

Spice-Rubbed Grilled Shrimp (richeiado)

1 lb. large shrimp, peeled (leave tail fin on)

Spice paste:
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon peeled & grated fresh ginger (none of this ginger powder nonsense, folks)
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 tablespoons fenni, or gin (you're probably going to have to substitute gin here - fenni (or feni, or fenny) is a type of liquor specific to the Goa region made either from the distillation of cashews or coconut. Drunk straight or over ice with lime juice, the good folks of Goa love their fenni so much that supposedly none is ever left over for export outside of the state of Goa, much less India itself)
1 teaspoon palm sugar (if you don't have palm sugar, you should try and find some. In a pinch, mixing equal parts brown sugar and white sugar will come close to approximating the distinctive taste of palm sugar)

2 tablespoons olive oil (mustard oil would be an even better choice)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
minced cilantro

1) Place the shrimp into a shallow dish. Make the spice paste by combining the garlic, ginger, cayenne pepper, black pepper, cumin, cinnamon, cloves, turmeric, fenni (gin), and the palm sugar. Mix well, mortar and pestle being the best option. Rub the paste evenly over the shrimp. Set aside at room temperature for 30 minutes.

2) In a large frying pan over high heat, warm the oil. When quite hot, add the shrimp and cook, tossing, until they turn pink and begin to curl, about 5-8 minutes. Sprinkle with lemon juice and cilantro. Serve immediately.

The shrimp should have a lovely burnt-red look to them. They should be just spicy enough to make the eyes water and the nose run, in that good spicy-food kind of way. Cold beverages to accompany are a must, preferably of the alcoholic variety (although I imagine a tangy lemonade would be wonderful). I sampled a bottle of Le Freak, the IPA / trippel-style mash-up offered by San Diego County's own Green Flash Brewing Company - fantastic stuff. Here's what a fellow blogger had to say about the concoction.

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As a final bonus for those food lovers out there reading this, I thought I'd include the side dish I chose for the shrimp, a probably-not-at-all-Indian roasted cauliflower recipe that, nevertheless, was the perfect compliment to the dish and a breeze to assemble. This has quickly become our go-to recipe when we have cauliflowers lurking around the house.

Roasted Cauliflower

1 head of cauliflower
2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled & minced
1 lemon
olive oil
salt and ground black pepper
Parmesan cheese

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut cauliflower into florets. Assemble in a single layer in an oven-proof baking dish.

2) Add garlic. Squeeze the lemon over the cauliflower and drizzle with olive oil (the more, the better). Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

3) Place baking dish into oven, uncovered, for 15-30 minutes, until the tops have turned a nice brown. After removing from oven, sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese.

(I've made this dish both with and without the Parmesan sprinkle at the end. It tastes wonderful either way.)