Cajun Spiced Shrimp with Citrus-Cucumber Salsa
Try this Cajun Spiced Shrimp with Citrus-Cucumber Salsa recipe, or contribute your own.
Try this Cajun Spiced Shrimp with Citrus-Cucumber Salsa recipe, or contribute your own.
- 2 teaspoons sweet paprika
- 2 medium-sized oranges - i used cara cara (you will need 1/2 cup
- 1/4 up super finely chopped white onion
- 1/4 up super finely chopped cucumber (portions without se
- 1 tablespoon, plus 1 teaspoon super finely chopped red or green
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 1 teaspoon each: garlic powder onion powder and ground oregano
- 1/2 easpoon cayenne pepper
- 1/2 easpoon sea salt
- 1- pound (20-count) shrimp peeled with tails on and deveined
- grape seed oil for the pan
- Carbohydrate 0.58527 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 0.135975 g
- Fiber 0.392700016021729 g
- Protein 0.15498 g
- Saturated Fat 0.02205 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (1g)
- Sodium 39.115 mg
- Sugar 0.192569983978271 g
- Trans Fat 0.01365 g
- Calories 3 calories
Step-by-step
- Peel the oranges as if you're going to cut them into supremes -- like this. Then cut them into very thin slices and cut those into a super fine dice, and add them to a medium-sized mixing bowl.
- Now add the onion, cucumber and jalapeño pepper.
- Mix to blend and season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. (Here's How to Season to Taste.) Set aside.
- In a small bowl, mix all of the spices and the salt together. Once they're blended evenly, pour the mixture on a large plate. Gently shake the plate to evenly spread the spices out.
- Gently press each shrimp into the spice mixture, coating both sides evenly.
- Place them on a clean plate as you go.
- Coat the bottom of a large sauté pan with the oil. Once the pan is very hot, add the shrimp, with ample space between them. Sauté the shrimp just until they're cooked through, about a minute per side.
- Arrange about 5 shrimp per serving plate, and then spoon the salsa over and around them.
- Serve!
Swapping Cara Cara oranges for standard navels shifts the salsa profile from floral and low-acid to robustly tart, which alters how much salt the final dish requires to balance the fruit sugars. Small kitchens demand smart sequencing, so chop the cucumber, onion, and pepper down to a uniform two-millimeter dice before turning on any burners. Wet shrimp will steam rather than sear when they hit the hot metal. Pat the 20-count crustaceans thoroughly with paper towels immediately before pressing them into the dry spice blend. Use a heavy-bottomed cast iron skillet or a thick stainless steel pan that holds thermal mass reliably across batches. Thin aluminum pans drop in temperature the moment cold protein touches the surface, preventing proper crust development.
Heat the grapeseed oil over medium-high heat until it shimmers and shows faint wisps of smoke before introducing the shrimp. Overcrowding the pan causes internal moisture to release too quickly, boiling the shellfish instead of frying the spice coating. Maintain a strict one-minute timer per side, watching for the flesh to turn opaque and curl into a loose C-shape. Pull the pan off the heat immediately once that visual cue appears. Residual heat in the metal will overcook the interior if the shrimp linger on the burner even thirty seconds too long.
Raw aromatics like white onion and jalapeño release harsh sulfur compounds if allowed to sit in the citrus juice for longer than twenty minutes before service. Mix the salsa components just before cooking the seafood to keep the cucumber crisp and prevent the salt from drawing out excessive water. Drain any pooling liquid from the salsa bowl with a slotted spoon before spooning the fruit over the hot shrimp. Excess juice will wash away the paprika crust and cool the protein prematurely on the plate.
Leftover cooked shrimp degrade rapidly in texture and should be consumed within forty-eight hours when stored in an airtight container below four degrees Celsius. Reheating cooked shrimp in a microwave makes them rubbery due to uneven protein coagulation. Serve leftovers cold straight from the refrigerator folded into grain bowls or fresh greens where the citrus acidity acts as a natural dressing.
