Galley PiratesAsian Shrimp

Galley Pirates are taking you back to the USVI for one last meal aboard SV Solitude. The Food Center in St. Thomas was simply a pirate’s paradise. (I keep using that word when referring to the USVI, don’t I? Hmm. Wonder why.) That’s where I found goat meat, and these wonderful shrimp in the glass case…the largest I had ever seen in my life! The ones on the left were about the size of small lobsters. Paradise? Heaven? Pinch me!

And this wonderful gentleman selling the shrimp! We wanted about a pound of them for three of us. If we were to buy the largest, that would have been about one shrimp per person. So we opted with the smaller ones, on the far right….still large by comparison to anything I’d get back home.

I could have hung out at that seafood department all day!

Asian Shrimp

1 lb large shrimp
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 1/2 tablespoons minced ginger
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar

GARNISH WITH
Fresh squeezed lime
Minced scallions
Fresh cilantro

Every great meal at anchor starts out with…you guessed it!…cocktail hour and a beautiful sunset. I’m excited to be serving our wonderful hosts, Gary and Torie, this delicious yet healthy evening meal. Fresh shrimp is so easy to prepare that all the prep work can wait until after the sun sets.

This was the galley I got to work in this evening! Wow, the galley of a Hylas 54! Will I ever go back to my little horseshoe galley on my J? I tried to be careful not to mess up the beautiful space of my tofu-eating companion, Torie, the little Sandpiper. We had great fun cooking together!

First job was to peel all the shrimp. Save the shells for seafood broth if you’d like.

This is a very simple recipe, with all fresh ingredients to enhance, not overpower the shrimp. In a large skillet, heat up a tablespoon of sesame oil. Add the minced garlic and ginger and stir for a minute or two until fragrant. Then add the shrimp and gently sauté until they just start to turn opaque. Add the soy sauce and sugar and stir fry until the shrimp are pink.

And that’s really all there is to it! Place the hot shrimp mixture on a couple spoonfuls of white rice and top with a squeeze of lime, scallions and cilantro. A sprinkle of sesame seeds would have been fantastic. I’ll remember that for next time!