Bensonhurst Kitchen: Spanish Chorizo And Shrimp

This Friday brings yet another enticing entree from our kitchen to yours.

This week, my girlfriend Colleen gives us a taste of the good life with a luxurious Latin skillet dish.

Shrimp is not the most inexpensive ingredient but if you are looking for a way to treat yourself, celebrate a great life moment or impress company with your cooking; this is definitely a recipe that will do the trick.

Spanish Chorizo & Shrimp

Ingredients:

4 oz of Spanish Chorizo (usually sold as an 8 oz package), cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 small white onion diced
2 cloves of minced garlic
5-6 small tomatillos, quartered
1 cup of red salsa (choose heat level according to your tastes)
1 lb of shrimp, peeled and deveined with the tails removed
1/4 cup of chopped fresh cilantro

**Optional** Serve with warm corn or flour tortillas, or over rice.

Cooking Instructions:

1. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add chorizo, onion and garlic and cook until the onion is softened.

2. Stir in tomatillos and salsa, cook for approximately 5 minutes.

3. Add shrimp; cook until they are opaque, approximately 5-6 minutes, stirring the mixture frequently.

4. Add cilantro to the mixture and serve immediately.

Tips:

The best chorizo to use is the hard variety, which is similar to salami and usually imported from Spain. A little toughness will go a long way to contrast the softer texture of the shrimp.

Frank and Sal’s Prime Meats, at 8008 18th Avenue between  80th and 81st Streets, usually carries hard chorizo imported from Spain (and charges a lot less than those fancy schmancy specialty stores in Manhattan and northern Brooklyn).