The chef of Lisbon's first two-Michelin-starred restaurant, Belcanto, shared his approach to showcasing Portugal's cuisine.
José Avillez advised the importance of understanding ingredients, techniques, Portuguese culture and classic French cuisine before creating and imparting one's identity to the cuisine.
His signature shrimp and its head with rosemary "ashes" is inspired by the traditional way to cook locally caught seafood over charcoal in Portugal, and the chef said local ingredients are so vital to the cuisine that he was arrested in Canada and Brazil trying to fly with Portuguese products. Today, he sends three flights a week to deliver ingredients from Portugal to his restaurant in Dubai.
"Even the water makes a difference," he said of the giant red shrimp, called carabineiro, from the Atlantic. "You have the sweetness, saltiness, all this umami flavor to transport you to the Portuguese seas."
"There are a few ingredients and products that we almost don’t touch, and we only cook them to perfection with some special seasonings to promote the flavor to make us travel to certain times of our childhood, and this dish is all about that," he mused while showing us the shrimp body and head that have to be delicately prepared after a day of blending and smoking the rosemary powder. "It’s about amazing Portuguese ingredients with what I think is a perfect cooking technique with these ashes that bring all this flavor from the charcoal that we are used to since we were kids from grilling seafood, fish, even from our grilled chicken piri piri. It’s that smokiness that you bring here."
Watch the recording of the complete three-dish demo and get the recipe below.
Grilled Giant Red Shrimp with Rosemary Ashes
Yields 4 servings
Giant Red Shrimp and Giant Red Shrimp Butter
Ingredients
- 4 un. giant red shrimp
- 2 giant red shrimp heads
- Unsalted butter (pomade), as needed
- Salt, as needed
Directions
- With a knife, separate the head from the body of each red shrimp.
- Peel the shrimp and use tweezers to remove the vein.
- Keep the meat in the fridge, in a lined tray, covered with absorbent paper.
- Scoop out the heads and keep the content in the fridge, in a lined tray, covered with absorbent paper.
- Scoop out the two other heads, blend the content with a hand blender and sieve through a fine-mesh sieve.
- Weigh and add equal amount of unsalted butter (at room temperature).
- Set aside in the fridge.
Ashes
Ingredients
- 500 milliliters water
- 125 carolino rice (native short grain variety low in amylose)
- 15 grams cuttlefish ink
- 250 milliliters peanut oil
- Sea salt, as needed
- Maltodextrin, as needed
Directions
- Cook the rice in unsalted water in a medium-sized saucepan, uncovered, over low heat, for 2 hours.
- Add the cuttlefish ink, combine, and cook for 20 minutes.
- Drain the rice through a fine-mesh sieve, discard the liquid, and mash the rice in a food processor.
- Lay the rice on an oven tray lined with Silpat and keep it in the food warmer to 70 C until completely dehydrated.
- Break into regular pieces.
- Fry the pieces of dehydrated rice in hot peanut oil (200 C) for 5 minutes until puffed.
- Take out of the warmer, let drain in a tray well lined with absorbent paper and try to absorb as much grease as possible.
- Grind the fried rice pieces in a processor at medium speed until left with a powder.
- Add smoked salt and maltodextrin as needed.
- Set aside in the warmer or at room temperature.
Rosemary
Ingredients
- 4 twigs fresh rosemary
Directions
- Break the rosemary twigs to match the giant red shrimp in length.
To Finish
Ingredients
- 1 head giant red shrimp
- 1 rosemary twig
- 1 giant red shrimp
- 1 teaspoon giant red shrimp butter
- Virgin olive oil, as needed
Directions
- Sear both sides of the head in a very hot nonstick frying pan with a dash of olive oil.
- Lay the giant red shrimp in a stainless-steel tray or plate, pour a dash of olive oil over it and top with the rosemary twig.
- Finish cooking (on both sides) in the salamander.
Plating
Ingredients
- 1 head giant red shrimp
- 1 giant red shrimp
- 1 teaspoon giant red shrimp butter
- 2 teaspoons rosemary ashes
- Smoked fleur de sel, as needed
Directions
- Lay the giant shrimp and its head on the center of the plate.
- Season the giant red shrimp with smoked fleur de sel.
- Pour 1 tsp of giant red shrimp butter over the giant red shrimp.
- Spread the ashes over the shrimp.
- Serve immediately.
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