10 September 2010

Belize Ingredients: Marie Sharp's Hot Sauce and Garlic Shrimp

En français ici.
Belize is country in Central America, just below Mexico and next to Guatemala. Some of you probably know that already, although it's not a very common destination for Europeans. Many of the French people I've told about our honeymoon are embarrassed not to know where it is (some guess Africa!), but I put them to ease by telling them some of the reactions we got from Belizeans when we said we were from Paris:

Oh nice, what's the weather in Spain like this time of year?

Oh, I've always wanted to go to Venice. That's near there, right?

Ah...(vague looks of uncertainty)


Of course, one of the best things about being on vacation is checking out the local specialties and we made sure to do plenty of that in Belize. One wonderful discovery was the ubiquitous Belize-made hot sauce: Mary Sharp's. This habanero sauce comes in heat levels from mild to beware and it even comes in a grapefruit flavor, which is pretty exciting. I'd never had citrus hot-sauce before! Of course I had to bring some home to spice up life after the honeymoon. Paris, despite all its good qualities, is severely lacking in hot sauce.


I plan to make many delicious dishes like this hot Belizean take on garlic shrimp. There is definitely a lot of sea-food in Belize, although the addition of feta makes this a bit more Mediterranean than Central American. The measures are per person because I made this for myself when I was alone at home for lunch. Yes, I do cook nice food for myself. I think one should. As Oscar Wilde reminds us in An Ideal Husband: "To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance."

Ingredients per person

150g shrimp
1 Tbsp olive oil
4-5 green onions (the bulb at the end of a scallion) or 1 small yellow onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 tsp paprika
hot sauce to taste (grapefruit hot sauce if you can get it!)
2 Tbsp feta

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan. Add the onion and cook 3-5 minutes. Add the celery, garlic and parsley and cook another 2-3 minutes. Add the shrimp, paprika and hot sauce and simmer until the shrimp is warm and cooked through 7-10 minutes. Turn off heat and crumble in the feta. Stir and serve warm.

9 comments:

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

A delicious shrimp dish! That is a lovely sauce.

Cheers,

Rosa

Cicero Sings said...

Sounds dish. I'm partial to hot and spicy ..... mmmmmm.

Belize sounds like a lovely destination for a honeymoon, an interesting place to visit. A work mate of mine went there a number of years ago.

Julie said...

Belize is a frequent destination of cruise ships out of the states. I've never been there but understand it is beautiful This looks delicious.

Hopie said...

Rosa - Thank you! It looked pretty and was yummy too ;-)

Cicero - I'm with you on hot and spicy. I have a couple friends who have been to Belize (mostly for scuba diving) and loved it. There is a gorgeous barrier reef, the 2nd largest in the world if I'm not mistaken.

Julie - Belize is beautiful! I'd never been to any county with that sort of rainforest, jungle, coral. It was so abundant!

Anonymous said...

Oooh, grapefruit hot sauce sounds awesome! And Belize looks amazing. Welcome back! Perhaps we should organize a spicy dinner together sometime soon...

PG said...

I didn't know the official language in Belize is English. I've never tried to pair a hotsauce with shrimp. Sounds interesting!

Sam said...

The grapefruit hot sauce sounds interesting, I'd love to get hold of some of that, maybe I should go to Belize.

I really like the shrimp dish, sounds delicious. I'll try this next time I'm cooking for myself!

David Newhouse said...

And as a grateful recipient of a pack of mini bottles of four Marie Sharp's hot sauces, may I say Marie Sharp's BEWARE Comatose Hot Sauce is one tenth as scary and ten times more flavorful than its name might suggest. Umm, now please excuse me while I go extinguish my mouth in a large lake.

Hopie said...

Camille - Now you're talking! Yes, spicy dinner please! I'll even share my grapefruit hot sauce if you like.

Pyschgrad - I think I've tried to pair hot sauce with just about everything, but with shrimp it's definitely a winner.

Sam - You SHOULD go to Belize. There's lots of yummy stuff besides grapefruit hot sauce. If I get a chance I'll post about more of it!

Dad - I want to try that BEWARE one if there's any left next time I see you. Have a lake ready for me please ;-)