Melt in your Mouth Shrimp

It's "camarón" season. The local fisherman take their 30' x 30' plastic nets out in their "pongas," a 20' fiberglass boat with Suzuki 4 stroke outboard motors and drag the bottom for shrimp. The first year that I visited here all the pongas had old style 2-stroke motors. A 2-stroke motor requires a mixture of oil and gas to function. The oily residue of an engine floats on the water and is bad for the environment. A 4-stroke engine has a contained oil case that reduces discharge into the water. Two years ago, the Costa Rican government offered all the fisherman in the country to trade the old outboard motors to new Suzuki 4 strokes. The CR government works in large ways to back up their "green" policy.

Seeing these new outboard motors gives me greater confidence when we are out on the water. My first ponga trip in 2015, we crossed the mouth of the Golfo (about 10 kilometers of almost open water); the driver had to pump the gas line every 15 minutes to keep the engine going. To read more about our previous adventures in Boating, you can download a 22 page pdf from my Dropbox .

Back to the camarónes, after we finished surfing, we were standing at the car in the parking area between a couple of fishermen's houses when Miguel who lives in a shack on the beach asked if we'd like to buy some fresh shrimp. He'd caught them the day before and they were stored in his freezer. Of course! He pulled out 12 HUGE, plump shrimp. The tails were almost 4" long. The heads & antenna were outer space looking. He charged about $20 US.

That evening, I deveined & butterflied the shrimp. Froze the heads to make a seafood broth later. My fish/seafood preparation skills are expanding exponentially! M poached to perfection 6 of the shrimp in garlic & butter.

We complemented our shrimp with typical Costa Rican sides: black beans, rice, salsa fresca & cabbage salad. It is called "Casado" translation is Married. Most "Sodas" serve a version of Casado with a choice of grilled chicken, pork or fish.