Moroccan shrimp

Whoops. I guess I’ll need to return my tangine.

For my birthday, my hubby surprised me with a Moroccan tangine. It’s a baking dish with a high, cone-shaped lid (not pictured) that traps the cooking liquid and infuses the food inside with the flavor.

Yeah, I managed to crack it the first time I tried cooking with it. (In my defense, it didn’t come with any seasoning or cooking instructions.) Well, I’m now researching how to season and cook the right way with the tangine. But I still had all of my ingredients ready to go so I made this Moroccan shrimp dish in a skillet, instead of a tangine. I used a recipe I found on The Food Republic as a base and then tweaked it to mirror the flavors of a dish a Moroccan friend of mine made for me years ago.

Recipe

I plated the shrimp with purple kale, just cuz

Prep time: 20 minutes + 20 minutes cooking

Servings: 4-5

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds raw shrimp, tails and shells removed

2 tbsp. oil (I used grapeseed)

1/2 cup chopped canned tomatoes

1 raw tomato, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp. cumin

1/2 tsp. tumeric

1 tsp. smoked paprika (or regular) + more for sprinkling

1/4 tsp. white pepper

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

Salt to taste

2 tbsp. parsley, chopped

2 tbsp. cilantro, chopped

2 tbsp. chicken broth

1 lemon, sliced

Directions:

1. Puree the tomatoes, tumeric, paprika, and garlic in a blender.
2. In a heavy-bottomed skillet (no idea yet if this would also work in a tangine), bring the oil to medium-high heat.
3. Add the tomato mixture to the hot oil and cook until the tomato color begins to darken (from bright orange to red), about 4 minutes.
4. Add the shrimp into the tomato mixture and sprinkle with cumin, cayenne, white pepper, and fresh herbs. Cook for 3 minutes or until shrimp just begins to turn pink.
5. Place the lemon slices on top of the shrimp. Pour over the chicken broth, then cover the skillet.
6. Cook for 5 minutes until the shrimp is heated through and tender.
7. Add additional spices, if necessary (I like to add more smoked paprika and cayenne).
8. Serve over plain rice or Moroccan rice (recipe coming tomorrow).

Kids’ reactions: Thumbs up and clean plates all around. I would definitely make this again EXCEPT Mr. Squid seems to be having bad reactions to shrimp lately so I’m not sure whether we’ll have to cut out shrimp for awhile or altogether:(.