David Byrne's Shrimp Tacos!

I am reposting this from David Byrne's Journal

08.13.2012: Shrimp Tacos!

I made shrimp tacos the other night for dinner—mostly from scratch—and they were good.

With this meal, there are a lot of pans going all at once. One has to pay close attention, but it all comes together really quickly. Once everything is prepped, it only takes about 15 minutes to cook and assemble—there’s nothing tricky to it.

This recipe serves 3 people.

Here are the ingredients:

1 lb. of shrimp, peeled and deveined, chopped into ¾ inch chunks

A couple of poblano chilies, seeds removed and sliced into strips. (poblano chilies are a little bit spicy, but not much. When cooked, they have more flavor than a bell pepper.)

½ of a large onion, sliced—but not too thin

A few cloves of garlic, sliced

Fresh cilantro*

Store bought white-corn tortillas (I bought the Tortilla Factory brand—they’re corn, but flexible like wheat tortillas.)

Store bought fresh mango, pineapple and jicama salsa*

Queso fresco (a type of fresh, Mexican cheese—white and crumbly.)*

*Note: The salsa, cilantro and queso fresco are quite perishable. They’ll keep for a few days in the fridge—but once they are opened, they don’t last long.

Here’s how I prepared them:

First, I sautéed the poblano pepper strips, onion and some garlic in oil, with a little salt and pepper. I cooked this over a low-medium heat for about 10 minutes—I learned that peppers burn if cooked too quickly.

While the pepper/onion mix was cooking, I tossed the shrimp in a separate pan with the rest of the garlic. I let this cook for about 4 minutes.

Then, I got the third burner going and tossed the tortillas one by one in a dry frying pan, flipping each after about a minute—just enough to warm them up.

I put some shrimp and the pepper/onion mix on each tortilla, added the salsa, some crumbled queso fresco and a sprinkle of cilantro on top. I had some other salsas available as well, but the mango salsa was the most fun.

That’s it. I will take a picture next time.

DB
NYC