Conference turris::cooks

    The sauce may very well have been Salsa Verde (or Cruda) made with 
    'tomate verde' and cilantro.  It is not served heated - only at room
    temp.  Depending on what part of the country, Mexican food (as well as
    Oriental) tend to differ.  Casa Mexico may very well have heated the
    sauce a bit which is quite different than how the sauce was intended to
    be served.  This sauce is basically a raw green table sauce.  If this
    is the sauce that was served over the shrimp then I guess everyone's 
    entitled to a little poetic license now and then.  I hope this helps!
    
    1 pound (about 22 medium) tomate verde, husks removed, rinsed
    
    1/2 cup of loosely packed fresh cilantro
    
    1 - 2 large garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
    
    2 tablespoons of roughly chopped white onion
    
    1/2 teaspoon of sea salt (or to taste)
    
    This is NOT intended to be cooked before using.  As an alternative,
    which is common, the tomate and chiles may be broiled and then blended
    as below.
    
    Put the tomate into a pan, barely cover with water, and bring to a
    simmer (or place on a type of cookie sheet and broil) until the tomate
    turn a lighter, faded green and are just soft but not falling apart-
    about 5 minutes (broiling may differ).  Set aside to cool a bit.
    
    Put 1/2 cup of the cooking water into a blender (food processor works
    too), add cilantro, garlic, onion, and salt, and blend until almost
    smooth.  Drain the tomate and add them to the blender (food processor);
    blend for a few seconds, just to break them up roughly.  The sauce
    should have a rough texture.
    
    Like I said, this is the way it SHOULD be done but that doesn't mean 
    restaraunts follow the rules .... I guess rules are meant to be broken!
    
    Hope this helps if not I'll see what else I can come up with.
    
    
    /gail

I recently made a red snapper in cilantro from Dianne Kennedy's Mexican 
cookbook.  One of her notes said her friends made shrimp this way.  

You marinate the seafood in lime juice, olive oil, and slivered onions for an
hour or so.  Then add about 2 cups chopped cilantro and bake, covered.  The 
juices from the seafood provide the moisture.  I suppose if you pureed the 
cliantro first, you would get a smooth green sauce.  The baking mellows the
flavor of the cilantro a lot, by the way.

    I've got one for Camerones Enchipotlados (Shrimps in Chipotle Sauce)
    This is similiar to the red snapper from Diane Kennedy's cookbook
    and looks like something that could be a very good match.
    
    1 pound of large shrimp - peeled, butterflied, tail shell left on
    sea salt and freshly ground peppr to taste
    1/4 lime juice
    1/3 olive oil (golden colored)
    3/4 pound tomate verde (tomatillas as marketed in the US), husk removed 
        and broiled til tender or boiled in water enoguh to cover them
        until tender
    4 (or to taste) chiles chipotles adobados (these are dried jalepe�os
      and are VERY hot- appear to be leathery, like dried tobacco.  In the
      US these can be found in cans as well)
    1-2 garlic cloves, peeled, roughly chopped
    1/3 cup dry white wine
    1/4 teaspoon dried oregano (Mexican if you can find it)
    
    Season the shrimp with salt, pepper, and lime juice and set aside to
    marinate if 30 minutes or so.  heat the oil in a skillet; add the
    drained shrimp (reserving liquid) and sliced onion and fryshaking the
    skillet and tossing aorund the ingrediants.  Remove the shrimp/onions
    with a slotted type of spoon and set aside.
    In a blender (food processor), blend the tomate verde (tomatillas),
    chipotles and the liquid with the garlic to a textured sauce.  Reheat
    the oil, add the sauce and fry over high heat, stirring and scraping
    the bottom of the skillet to prevent sticking for several minutes.  Add
    the wine, oregano, marinade and salt to taste and cook for another
    minute.  Add the shrimp/onion mixture and cook for another couple of
    minutes more.  The shrimp should be cooked ans still crisp.
     

    I'm pretty darn sure that you can replace the chipotles with
    cilantro!!!
    
    Hope this helped!
    
    /gail

A couple of tips:

One way to prevent grilled shrimp from getting overdone or dry is to grill in
the shell and peel and devein later, but this can be a pain in the fingers, 
unless you have Madelaine Kamen's asbestos hands (I think she is still using 
them, tho).

The other thing is to cook them until just underdone.  They will cook a bit 
after they are removed.  Also, if they are butterflied, they will cook faster
and more evenly.  This would avoid the over cooked tail end and rare head end.

 Another way to keep the shrimp from being overdone on the tail end and 
underdone on the head end is to skewer them such that the heads and tails
are intertwined and pushed together. This prevents the tails from getting
overdone by surrounding them with head meat, which keeps the tails from heating
so fast.

 The Doctah

SALSA al CILANTRO

(This was typed as I received it)

1. one onion finely chopped
2. 1 T margarine
3. 10 green chiles (Ortega - whole green chiles)
4. 20 small green tomatillos
5. handful of fresh cilantro
6. salt, garlic, oregano, black pepper
7. juice of one fresh lime

                         -o-

1. chop onion
2. add 1 T of margarine
3. saute onions until tender and translucent
4. add- 10 green chiles, 20 small tomatillos, cilantro, salt, garlic, black 
pepper and the juice of one fresh lime
5. mix well
6. simmer on a low flame until proper sauce concistency is reached
7. blend well
8. for shrimp, fish, scallops or chicken