11.15.13: tapas (shrimp with garlic and cava reduction/gambes a l’all amb reducció de cava from El Quim de la Boqueria)

Shrimp with garlic and cava reduction/gambes a l’all amb reducció de cava

The last few weeks have not been particularly kind to us here at The Manhattan (food) Project, thanks to a series of injuries, illnesses, and mounting work stress that inevitably comes at the end of the calendar year. While everyone is physically fine (or at least close to it) now, in the last few weeks I had to deal with a husband who had a nasty sinus infection and a father who smacked his head against a curb when he tripped on a slippery ramp in Danbury during a weekend visit. (They are both fine now, but I feel like my sanity was hanging by a thread there for a while.) Even before all of that excitement I had been feeling discouraged, frustrated, and uninspired, and had it not been for an email exchange with a lovely reader, I’d be a lot crankier right now because I wouldn’t have this dish, straight from La Boqueria, in my repertoire.

Reader Lydia reached out to me asking a question about the sage brown butter sauce we made to go with the butternut squash ravioli Michael and I made for my birthday a few years ago, and in our back-and-forth we started chatting about Barcelona and La Boqueria in particular. She had mentioned that one of the bars in the market had this sublime shrimp dish made with garlic and a reduction of cava–which sounded absolutely delightful to me–and I said that I would definitely play around with it…and then she astounded me and not only reached out to El Quim de la Boqueria to get the recipe, but was kind enough to share it with me.

In a week when I was swimming in nostalgia, it was a wonderful balm to the soul. El Quim was on my list of places to visit in La Boqueria, but we weren’t able to get a stool there on our first visit, so it’s on my places to absolutely go to on our next trip there, if only to not only order this dish, but thank them for sharing the recipe for it.

I’m going to share it as they described here, because this is essentially what I did only I upped the number of shrimp used, and I would season said shrimp before they hit the pan. Our cava did not create large flames, but this can happen when you cook on high heat, so be careful!

Shrimp with garlic and cava reduction via El Quim de Boqueria

Ingredients:

• 8 shrimps
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 chilly pepper
• ½ cup of Cava
• Salt, pepper & olive oil

Preparation:
Cut the garlic cloves in slim slices.
Pour a spoonful of olive oil in a frying pan and when the oil is hot, deep fry the garlics with the chili pepper. When golden, not too toasted, add the shrimps and stir with a wooden spoon or similar. Afterwards, pour the Cava. Be very careful because the pan will burst into fire with large flames!!! Stir for a while so as that the cava and oil emulsify correctly.
You can then serve them with some parsley powder on top. Have a nice meal!

(I think parsley powder was referencing paprika, but I’m not 100% sure on that. Paprika was a lovely addition at the end, though!)