I truly can’t think of anything better to do on a rainy Saturday afternoon than to spend time learning how to make traditional foods from our wise and deeply-rooted abuelitas (grandmothers).

My hubby’s abuelita, who I’ve adopted as my own, is always more than happy for us to help preserve what is culturally significant- her Mexican recipes. 

On a spontaneous visit to Chicago’s La Villita (Little Village) with our digital camera intended to snap numerous photos at the Green City Market earlier that morning, we ended up nabbing more photos of Taquitos de Camarones than anything else that day.

I’m so happy to be able to share the simple, delicate process of making this dish so favored in our family and among many Mexicanos. Abuelita says it’s not specific to any region- just popular all over Mexico.  If you eat shrimp, I think you’ll be able to see just why.    

Taquitos de Camarones

(Fluted Shrimp Tacos, Mexican Style)

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups queso fresco (Fresh Mexican Cheese), crumbled. You could also use feta or another fresh, crumbly cheese.
• ½ red onion, diced
• 1 bag of camarones secos (whole, dried shrimp), which should contain about 30 medium-size shrimp and cost around $5.00
• 2 medium-size chile ancho (dried poblano pepper)
• 9 small to medium size tomatillos (small green tomatoes)
• 1 pack corn tortillas (12-pack)
• Light cooking oil
• ½ bunch chopped fresh cilantro, or to taste

Preparation

1.    Crumble the queso fresco directly into a bowl and add diced red onion. Mix gently and set aside.

2.    Heat shrimp on a comal, turning frequently to warm and brown each side, approximately 15-20 minutes. A cast-iron grill pan will also work just fine.  

3.    Meanwhile boil chile ancho with tomatillo in a saucepan, with water to cover, approximately 15-20 minutes. This step helps to rehydrate the chiles, soften the skins of the tomatillos and to give the red color of the chiles over to the tomatillos.  

4.    When the shrimp are finished, remove from comal and cool for a few moments. Remove the chile/tomatillo mixture from heat, take out of water and allow to cool.

5.    Remove heads (cabezas), eyes, shells and tails (colitas) from shrimp.

    Add to blender and pulverize without adding any liquid. If you must add liquid, add tsp. by tsp. so as not to turn the shrimp to mush.   

6.    Remove stems and seeds from chiles. You can remove skins from tomatillos if you like, but it is optional.  In a blender, mix the chiles with the tomatillos whole and 1 cup of water. 

7.    In a large bowl, add the pulverized shrimp to the chile/tomatillo mixture.

8. Heat ½ Tb. oil on comal/grill pan. When warmed, wet one tortilla with this oil- do not fry!

9.    Dip the tortillas into chile-shrimp mixture, covering each side well.

10. Fill with queso-red onion mixture and roll into long, fluted shapes.

11.    Top with fresh cilantro or more of the queso and onion mix.

*Repeat this entire process with the remaining tortillas, chile-shrimp mixture and queso-red onion mixture.  

12. If the dish is cold by the time you finish filling all the taquitos, you can re-heat for several minutes in the oven or a minute or two in a microwave.

Serves at least 3 hungry people very well!

 I wouldn’t normally make this type of recipe out of the blue or just for having both grapefruit and shrimp somewhere in the kitchen. I made this recipe because a fellow website editor was asking for recipe writers, cooks and cookbook authors to come up with a recipe where ‘grapefruit is the main feature’.

This is my own version of a recipe for a Grapefruit Shrimp Curry recipe I saw in an old Florida cookbook that’s been on my shelf for years. If you would like the information for the original recipe and cookbook, please see the information at the end of this post.

I made this recently, and I can tell you, it is wonderful! It tasted like a restaurant-made dish from a Thai restaurant. It was very filling, but not too heavy. 

I served it on a bed of rice. You might also want to add a small bowl of fish or vegetable soup before/afterwards. 

Grapefruit and Curried Shrimp Sauté

Ingredients

• 4 TB. butter
  3 cloves garlic, smashed
  pinch of saffron
• 1 small yellow onion, finely chopped (about ½ cup)
• 5 TB flour
  2 tsp. salt
  ½ TB. curry powder (1 TB. if you like it really spicy!)
• 2 cups coconut milk
  ½ cup freshly-squeezed grapefruit juice (about ½ grapefruit)
• 2 pounds fresh shrimp, peeled, deveined and cleaned
  1 cup grapefruit meat (skin removed), quartered and cut in half
• 4 Tb.(or more, to taste) fresh cilantro, roughly chopped

Method of Preparation

*Note: Prepare all ingredients ahead of time and organize them well. Once you begin this recipe, the steps go fast and you will not have time to leave the stove lest you burn the butter, dry out the roux or curdle the sauce.

Step 1: Make the Roux

• In a small saucepan, melt the butter on low with the garlic and saffron, approx. 5 min. Do not burn. There is no need to stir.
• Once the butter mixture is done, pour into a separate large sauté pan. Add onions. Over medium-high heat, sauté the onions but do not brown them, approx. 5-7 minutes.
• With a wooden spoon, blend in the flour to make a rough paste, or roux. Add the salt and curry powder and blend. Keep blending to avoid burning the roux, until all ingredients are well mixed.

Step 2: Add the Coconut Milk and Thoroughly Blend

• Turn heat to medium-low. Add coconut milk and blend until the roux is completely free of any lumps. Add grapefruit juice and keep stirring to smooth out the mixture and avoid curdling of the coconut milk. Cook until thick, approx. 3-5 minutes.

Step 3: Add the Shrimp

• Add shrimp and stir, until you see that some have begun to turn pink.

Step 4: Add the Grapefruit & Finish

Next, add the grapefruit sections and continue stirring the mixture to avoid anything from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Turn heat to low, if necessary. Be sure that shrimp is cooking well by turning pink and becoming a bit smaller than when raw. This may be a bit difficult to see through the pinkish color of the sauce, but keep turning the shrimp in the pan to look for this color. Cook in this manner for approximately 10 minutes.
Serve on a bed of white sticky or jasmine rice and top with roughly-chopped cilantro.

Serves 4-6, depending on the appetites!

Bismillah and Buon Appetitto!

The original recipe was for Grapefruit Shrimp Curry, found in Maurices Tropical Fruit Cookbook, by Maurice de Verteuil. Great Outdoors Publishing Compnay. 4747 28th Street North. St. Petersburg, FL 33714. p. 30