Tiki Tuesday: Tahitian Shrimp

Today we’re hopping an outrigger and heading down to Tahiti, where we’re going to be cooking up “Chevrettes a la vanilla et coco” (or Shrimp in coconut-vanilla sauce). As a bonus, we’re having ”Poulet Fafa” (or Tahitian Taro Chicken).

Tahiti is famous for its vanilla beans. They’re the most flavorful vanilla beans you can get, in my opinion. But to get them at the grocery store is to pay a steep price: our local markets sell one bean for anywhere from nine to fourteen dollars. Yikes! Buy them online and the price drops dramatically, but you encounter minimum orders and shipping costs, so unless you’re running a restaurant or buying for your extended family, probably best to stick to the local shops. Or do what I did: use Tahitian vanilla extract.

For the shrimp dish I used white shrimp, since they have a fairly versatile flavor base. The part I dislike the most about dealing with shrimp is cleaning and deveining. But once you’ve done a few, it goes quickly. The shrimp are simply pan-seared and seasoned, then set aside to finish in the sauce. The sauce itself is the real magic of this dish, brining the flavors of vanilla, coconut and rum together beautifully. The vanilla bean (or extract) is simmered with about ½ cup of rum (be careful here – all rums are NOT created equal! I used Coruba for its rich, tropical taste. Appleton or Meyers would work okay too) until the liquid is reduced by about half, and then unsweetened coconut cream is added and simmered until the sauce thickens. Add salt and pepper and stir in the shrimp. Simmer for a minute or two and serve.

The recipe recommends serving with sautéed spinach. I was not successful in my sautéing of spinach, and ended up making dark green mush instead of the crispy leaves I was hoping for. My mistake was in not drying the leaves well after washing them. The shrimp and the coconut-vanilla sauce was wonderful: not sweet, but aromatic and tropical; the vanilla was not overpowering but complemented the coconut perfectly. The recipe called for 1 cup of heavy cream as well, but I simply omitted that ingredient as I was not desirous of presenting my wife with another heart attack.

The chicken didn’t turn out as well as I’d have liked. I used medium sized pieces of white meat, pan-seared and seasoned. The taro leaves are the key to this dish. If you can find them, you’re fortunate. There are a few Asian markets out there who carry these, so be on the lookout (spinach will do in a pinch). Taro leaves MUST be treated before using them in any dish! Unless you want a mouth full of fire. Chop them up and simmer them for 40 minutes in saltwater to leech out the incendiary calcium oxalate. Rinse and squeeze dry before introducing into your dish.

I sautéed onions, ginger and garlic for a couple of minutes, then added chicken stock and the pan-seared chicken. After it cooked for a bit I stirred in the taro leaves and seasoned to taste, then finished with about ½ cup of coconut cream.

The chicken itself was rather bland, but the taro leaves in the dish gave it a warmth and depth that I was not expecting. In the future I’ll probably cut the chicken up into smaller pieces and marinate with lime juice and rice wine vinegar before searing. The recipe calls for 2 cups of onions, but I think it would work okay to scale that back to about ½ cup, and maybe introduce a small amount of chili pepper to the dish to give it a kick and some color. That, and I’d probably keep the chicken out of it until the last minute to retain the sear.
The two dishes went well together, each presenting a taste of coconut (prevalent in Tahitian cooking) but offering two different takes on it.

Next time I’ll post pictures. Promise.