1 cup sugar
1 large clove garlic
½ teaspoon cayenne
½ teaspoon ground allspice
¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
2 tablespoons flour
vegetable oil
24 jumbo shrimp (tails left on, but deveined and peeled)
½ lime
Preheat oven to 500° F. In a mixing bowl, combine
- 1 cup sugar
- 2½ teaspoons kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 1 large clove garlic, peeled and minced
- ½ teaspoon cayenne
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice
- ¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
- 2 tablespoons flour
Grease a large baking sheet (or even better a hotel pan with edges) with
- vegetable oil
A few at a time, dredge
- 24 jumbo shrimp, peeled with tail left on, deveined
in the spice mixture. Place on baking sheet. Place baking sheet in oven and bake until sugar is caramelized on the bottom, about 10 minutes. Remove the shrimp from the oven, turn over with a spatula and squeeze the juice of
½ lime
over them. Place shrimp on a platter and serve after giving them just a minute to cool off. Caution your guests that the sugar is still quite hot.
The sugar may smoke, especially if you try to make multiple batches of this recipe reusing the same pan without cleaning it thoroughly between batches. Keeping the oven door closed is advised, even if there is smoke, as it will only be smokier if you keep the oven door ajar.
Adapted from Molly O’Neill in The New York Times