Sea salt seared shrimps

When you have top quality ingredients the best thing to do is to let them express their qualities by not messing around with them. I got this fantastic shrimps from Argentina, wild shrimps frozen on board... With just some sea salt to conduct the heat it's possible to work magics: the shrimps retain all their flavor and they are still juicy and fragrant and it takes no more than 15 minutes to within preparation and cooking: simple and tasty.

Ingredients:

12 large shrimps

1,5 kg sea cooking salt

3/4 spoons Extra virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons of rice vinegar

Juice of 2 lemons

1 clove of garlic

1 cup of water

5 gr green tea

Method:

In a kettle bring water to boil, add the green tea and let cool. When the tea is about 25/27 degrees put the shrimps in a tray, add the tea and cover with film. Let the shrimps soak the aroma for 10/12 min.

In the meantime, in a marble mortar, crush the clove of garlic to create a soft paste. Then add it to oil, some green tea, lemon juice and rice vinegar in a blender and pulse to create and emulsion. Let it cool in the fridge.

In a cast iron skillet or, even better if you have one, on a stone barbecue, place the salt evenly to create a 1,5 cm layer. Wait till it gets very hot and then place the unpeeled shrimps on top, searing each side for about 3/4 minutes. It is very important to keep the shells on so that the shrimps are going to be moist and tender.

Before serving pour the emulsion on the shrimps

Tip: what to do with leftovers

Some shrimps were left after searing them on the sea salt. So i put them in a pochette, vacuumed it and placed them in fridge over night. The next morning i removed the heads and the shells and i made a shrimp stock enriched with port wine. In the meantime i put the peeled tails to marinate in the emulsion i kept from the previous day. When the stock was ready i've filtered it, put it on a fry pan, added some more port wine, some orange juice and some cane sugar and reduced it.

I have quickly stir fried the tails and then served them with the  reduction and some fresh mint leaves. It made a nice appetizer to enjoy with a glass of Torbato.

Thanks to Marketa Pavleye for the beautiful pics