This week, when we were talking to Effie, we were discussing making Shrimp Pilafi so we could have for Sunday lunch. Effie said, "That is the one dish that I actually know how to make!" So, from her enthusiasm, we invited her to our house to make her version of Shrimp Pilafi.
Shrimp and rice is not uncommon in the Greek culture. In fact, during Great Lent, or other fasting periods, some of the churches will use shrimp in a tomato sauce and serve it over rice to have as a Lenten Luncheon. But, it doesn't have to be a heavy tomato sauce with shrimp and vegetables. Shrimp pilaff can be just that -- shrimp in rice.
Pilafi is a fancy word for rice. It is a style of cooking rice with a seasoned broth. Sometimes with pilaff, the rice takes on a brown (toasted) colour. Growing up, we called rice pilaff and that was that -- nothing fancy. Now, we use the word "pilafi" for any and all rice dishes with some kind of seasoning and broth. This dish has shrimp and some colour from tomato. When Effie makes this dish at home, she calls it Shrimp Rice. So, we are kind of doing the same thing when calling it Shrimp Pilafi.
Effie has mastered several simple dishes to make it through Great Lent without breaking the fast. This is one of them. In the future, we hope that Effie will share with us some of her other easy recipes. For now, we are letting her show her talents with this dish, and we are writing in her words.
For this recipe to feed 4 as an entree, you will need the following:
2 cups rice (par boiled)
2 cups pre-cooked, cleaned shrimp
2 medium or 1 large onion, chopped
1-2 TBSP tomato paste
4 cups water
2 TBSP oil
salt and pepper to taste
lemon juice as needed
After chopping the onion, and measuring all the ingredients, make sure that the shrimp is at least half thawed. If you have frozen shrimp, it will get to half thawed while you get everything else ready and make the first part of the rice.
First, heat the oil and sauté the onions. You want them to cook most of the way through, but try to avoid getting any colour -- you don't want brown onions.
Now, add a little salt and pepper. This will help give everything some flavour.
Once that is mixed well so the salt and pepper spreads all over the onions, then add the rice. Mix the rice very well so it is fully coated with oil, onions, salt, and pepper. The oil will help keep the rice separated so it is not a big sticky mess.
Once the rice is fully coated, add a bit of tomato paste. Sometimes, depending on Effie's mood, she will add a little more or a little less. But, she tells us, "You have to have some tomato paste in there so this dish gets a little colour and flavour. Otherwise, this could be really boring!" We used a large, heaping spoonful of our favourite brand of tomato paste, Greece's top brand - Kyknos (we like it because it has no citric acid added like almost all other brands do, it has a lovely rich tomatoey flavour with no acidic undertones).
Mix the tomato paste well so it is spread throughout the pan. Then, add the water. Mix one more time, and allow this to come to a boil. This is just like making rice of any other kind -- bring it to a boil, then we are going to turn down the heat to a simmer, and put a lid on the pot. This is the point that we let this simmer for about 15 minutes or so to let the rice cook and the water will be absorbed at least half way. You want to take the next step when there is still 1/2 the amount of water in the pan.
Add the shrimp to the half-cooked rice. Effie tells us that most of the time, she has bigger shrimp than we had for her today, so she adds them at the half way point so they cook through and impart some of the flavour to the water. We added the shrimp now, regardless of its size.
Mix the shrimp in the pan and make sure they are fully coated with the tomato water and rice. Put the lid back on the pan and allow this to finish cooking, about another 15 minutes.
Once the rice is fully cooked and the shrimp are hot, check the seasonings. Add salt and pepper as needed. Effie tells us that one of her little tricks to make this dish taste more interesting is to squeeze some lemon juice on it before serving. She uses the bottled lemon juice and gives a generous squeeze. Effie told us, "It just makes everything in the rice taste really fresh."
We believed her and gave a squeeze of lemon juice before serving. We also added a smidgeon of salt to enhance the flavour.
This was good shrimp pilafi. It was not exactly like Mom makes, but it was very good. And, we appreciate that this is a filling, inexpensive meal that can feed a family or be a great side dish with anything. A big thanks goes to Effie for her contribution today! We cannot wait to see what other recipes she will share with us.
"Humility is constant forgetfulness of one's achievements."
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