Gambas al Ajillo & Crema Catalana
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Garlic shrimp for dinner, followed by custard with chocolate and berries for dessert
This is the fifth recipe from Cooking Space.
For last week’s episode of Cooking Space, we traveled to one of my all-time favorite regions for food and culture: Spain. As a matter of fact, I love Spain so much, I’m not quite ready to leave yet, so we’ll be sticking around for another week, but this time, we’re making dinner and dessert.
For dinner, we’ll be having gambas as ajillo, a beautifully simple and delicious garlic shrimp, cooked in olive oil in a cazuela— a traditional earthenware dish commonly found throughout Spain and Latin America. But no worries if you can’t get your hands on one. You can always use a saute pan, too.
There’s only a few ingredients for the shrimp, but each one packs a heavy punch in bringing the overall dish together, and it’s unbelievably fast and simple to prepare. The shrimp, homemade garlic oil, and guindilla chiles will be the stars of this recipe’s show.
Dessert is a little more challenging and time consuming to prepare than the shrimp, but trust me, it’s totally worth it. For one, after you make it, you’ll know how to make homemade custard AND creme brulee. We’ll be making a chocolate based custard, and combining it with macerated berries, and serving it up in our cazuelas to tie everything together.
Ingredients
For the homemade garlic oil
2 cups olive oil
8 cloves of garlic, minced
For the gambas
26-30 shrimp, peeled & deveined with tails removed
1 1/2 cups homemade garlic oil
2 lemons, cut in half
4 guindilla chiles, dried & chopped
2 tbsps. flat leaf parsely, chopped
Baguette, cut into 20 slices, toasted with olive oil & butter
pinch of kosher salt
Special equipment: This dish is best cooked in an earthenware cazuela, or comparable cooking device. A large saute pan will also work.
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For the homemade custard
1 cup whole milk, cold
3.5 tsps. gelatin, unflavored & granulated
2.5 cups heavy cream, cold
1 cup sugar
18 egg yolks, room temp.
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 lbs. high quality dark or milk chocolate
For the homemade berry simple syrup
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
4 cups mixed seasonal berries
For the crema catalana
4 pieces homemade custard
4 cups homemade berry simple syrup
1/2 cup vanilla syrup
Zest of 1/2 of a lemon
1 cup raw sugar
Preparation
Prepare the gambas
Make your homemade garlic oil: Combine minced garlic and olive oil together, and steep for 30 minutes. Cover and refrigerate leftovers immediately and save for up to one month.
Place your cazuela on the stovetop, and pour your garlic oil in the bottom of the dish. It should fill slightly less than half of the cazuela. Turn the heat on to medium, and warm the oil until the garlic is fragrant.
Add the chopped guindilla chiles in with the garlic oil, and season your shrimp with salt while the oil continues to warm.
When the garlic oil is hot and begins to move, add in the shrimp in a single layer.
Once the shrimp bubbles and begins to turn pink, they’re ready to flip over. Cook for another 30 seconds, and turn off the heat.
Squeeze in fresh lemon juice and add your chopped parsley. Use tongs to move the hot cazuela onto a serving plate, and serve immediately with your toasted baguette.
If a cazuela is not available, you can use a large saute pan instead.
Prepare the crema catalana
First, make the homemade custard
Combine gelatin and milk and let sit for 10 min. or until gelatin is completely dissolved.
Using a sauce pan and a bowl, set up a double boiler over medium heat with two inches of water in the sauce pan. Once the water creates steam, decrease heat to low and place the bowl filled with chocolate on top. Stir frequently until chocolate is melted.
Place a new, empty sauce pan over medium heat. Add cream to the hot pan to scald, and add sugar. Whisk to combine ingredients, creating your cream mixture.
Place egg yolks in a large pyrex or heatproof bowl beside your cream mixture. Using a ladle, slowly temper the eggs by whisking the hot cream mixture into the bowl with them. Continue whisking and repeat ladling 3-4 times. The egg mixture will gradually become hot. Make sure to take your time with this step.
Caution: If the eggs scramble at all, the tempering did not work. It’s very important that the hot cream mixture heats the eggs up but doesn’t completely cook them.
Add your tempered yolks back into sauce pan with the rest of the cream mixture. On low heat continue to cook the mixture, stirring constantly until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon.
Turn the heat off. Add your milk gelatin mixture and melted chocolate, and whisk to combine. Add the salt and mix well to incorporate. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve, and pour into cazuelas or custard cups. Cool at room temperature for about an hour, then transfer to the refrigerator for two-to-four hours (the longer, the better).
Mixture should be firm but creamy. Cover tightly to prevent from drying out. It will hold for up to 3 days.
Next, make your simple syrup
Combine vanilla, sugar, and water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for 15 or 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool at room temperature.
Finally, bring it all together to finish crema catalana
Measure out one quarter cup of the simple syrup mixture, and set aside. Combine berries in a bowl with the remaining half-cup of syrup, and let them soak for up to 15 minutes to macerate.
Remove your fully-formed custard from the fridge, and sprinkle an even consistent layer of raw sugar across the top of each one. Gently tip off any excess. In an even circular motion about 6 inches above the sugar, use a torch to ‘brulee’ the tops, for about one minute per custard. Use caution.
Garnish with macerated berries and lemon zest. Serve immediately.
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