Black Pepper Shrimp Skillet
Freeze-dried shrimp, hard ginger heat, and enough pepper to wake up a cold camp.
- calories
- 320
- weight
- 3 oz
- cal / oz
- 107
- protein
- 26 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 8 min
- total time
- 18 min
- water
- 300 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Freeze-dried shrimp | 2 oz | about 1/2 lb fresh, rehydrates in ten minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Vegetable oil | 2 tbsp | dropper bottle |
| Dried ginger slices or shreds | 1 tbsp | crystallized ginger works if you rinse the sugar off |
| Ground coriander | 2 tsp | |
| Cracked black peppercorns | 1 1/2 tsp | crack them at home, not with a rock |
| Sugar | 1/2 tsp | |
| Kosher salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Citric acid or lime powder | 1/4 tsp | stands in for the juice of half a lime |
| Dried chives or freeze-dried scallion | 2 tbsp |
Method
- Boil 300 ml of water. Pour it over the shrimp and ginger in a mug or bag and let them sit ten minutes. Drain the water into your pot and keep it.
- Heat the oil in the pot over a medium flame. Add the drained ginger and stir until it darkens at the edges, about two minutes.
- Add the coriander, pepper, and sugar. Fifteen seconds, no longer, or the pepper turns bitter.
- Add the shrimp and toss for two minutes until they are hot and curled. Splash in a spoonful of the reserved soaking water if the pot goes dry.
- Kill the heat. Stir in the salt, lime powder, and chives.
Fresh shrimp is a cooler food with a short clock. Freeze-dried shrimp is not, and it comes back close enough once hot water gets into it. Save the soaking liquid; it is shrimp stock and it keeps the pan from going dry when the oil starts to smoke.
The ginger has to hit the oil before anything else. Frying it first pulls the heat out of the dried slices and into the fat, which is what carries flavor onto the shrimp. Dried lime powder replaces the lime juice at the end, and it goes in off the heat so the sourness stays sharp.
Packing
Coriander, pepper, sugar, salt, and lime powder go in one small bag as a spice mix. Shrimp and ginger share a second bag. Oil rides in a bottle with a taped cap.
Variations
- Serve it over instant rice cooked in a second pot, or pour the whole thing onto a tortilla.
- A pinch of cayenne in the spice mix if plain pepper heat is not enough.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/black-pepper-skillet-shrimp