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Grilled Shrimp with Mango Salsa and Cilantro Rice

Ingredients

  • 12-20 Medium or large shrimp peeled and deveined

For the Marinade

  • Juice of one lime
  • 1 shot of tequila if you don’t have tequila add juice of a second lime
  • 2 tsp fresh cilantro diced
  • Half a diced and seeded jalapeño
  • 1 tsp Adobo season salt
  • ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1 tbsp olive oil

For the Mango Salsa

  • Juice of half a lime
  • 2 tsp fresh cilantro diced
  • Half a diced and seeded jalapeño
  • 2 mangoes
  • 2 Hass avocados
  • ½ cup of jicama diced
  • ½ cup purple onion
  • 1 to mato seeded and chopped
  • Small drizzle of olive oil
  • 1 tsp Adobo season salt
  • Salt and pepper to taste

For the Cilantro Rice

  • 2-4 servings of brown jasmine rice white jasmine rice would work too
  • Juice of half a lime
  • ½ cup of cilantro diced

Instructions

Marinate the Shrimp

  1. Clean your shrimp being sure to remove the vain on the back of the shrimp. Dry them well and transfer them to a non reactive container.
  2. Mix all the ingredients for the marinade together and pour over the shrimp. Give the shrimp a quick toss coating it in the marinade. Let the shrimp marinate for no more than 10-20 minutes, be careful any longer as they will start to cook from the acid in the marinade. If the shrimp start to turn white and pink they are becoming ceviche get them out of that marinade and on to the grill. I normally clean the shrimp before I start the salsa, and about half way through making the salsa I will add the marinade to the shrimp.
  3. To grill the shrimp place them on a very hot grill for about 3-5 minutes a side. Shrimp cook very quickly especially if you have a nice hot grill so keep an eye on these guys. As soon as they are pink they are cooked.

Mango Salsa

  1. The salsa is pretty simple you just chop everything up and toss it together. Be gentle so that the avocado does not bruise. I try to chop things close to the same size so it’s easy to eat. Not everyone uses jicama often, so remember these suckers are hard, be careful you don’t get cut if your knife slips. Cut away all the rough outside skin on the jicama before you dice it for the salsa. If you can’t find jicama you could use apple, Asian pear or cucumber as an alternative.
  2. If you are not accustom to working with mangoes they are wonderful fruit you should try to use them more often. Some people find the sap irritates the skin so be careful to wash the fruit well especially if any sap is still around the stem. You can tell they are ripe when the skin is no longer green but has changed to yellow/red and the flesh is tender. To clean the mango start by standing it up balanced on the narrow end then slice down each side about one third of the way from center. You have to cut around the large almond shaped pit in the center of the fruit. Repeat on the other side. The two halves you have cut have about 80% or more of the useable fruit in them. Slicing carefully so that you don’t pierce the skin, cut across and down the inside of the halves making the size pieces you will want. Once you are done use your fingers and pop the mango inside out so that you can use a small knife to detach each cube from the skin . If you don’t like mango or can't find any ripe ones you could opt for pineapple as a substitute.

Cilantro Rice

  1. Cook the rice per the package directions. If you are using long grain conventional rice you might need to start the rice cooking before you do anything else in this dish so check your cooking time. Mix the lime juice and cilantro into the cooked rice right before you serve it so that the herbs don’t wilt.

Assembling the Dish

  1. I served the salsa and shrimp arranged over the bed of brown rice. It looked so pretty and the photos for this post came out great, totally better than what most restaurants will serve. Enjoy this meal all summer long with a light wine like a sparkling white, a clean rosé, or even a sweet Riesling.
  2. My husband also reminded me that I have to tell everyone that any leftover salsa you have goes great on tortilla chips as a snack. And, I will add my thought that this salsa would make a rocking fish taco topping too.