Cheers to Rach and her "El Torito" Shrimp

My friend Rachel tried to mimic this shrimp dish she had once at El Torito Grill in BH. She then tried to recreate this for me again during one of our Friday night dinners. So when I was in San Francisco last weekend, not knowing what to make for dinner for Ate Bernie and Kristine, I made a bold move and attempted to make this dish.

My cousin, Ate Bernie, lives in the Inner Richmond of San Francisco and it almost resembles a mini Chinatown or just Asian grocery stores galore. The ingredients were easy to find and as a bonus, fairly on the cheap side.

Grocery list:

• 1lb shrimp with head off, but shell on (I like the shell for flavor)
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 medium onion
• cilantro
• garlic
• a can of black beans
• a can of diced tomatoes
• rice
• 1/2 a lime
  

Spices list:

• salt and pepper
• cumin
• paprika
• cayenne pepper
• garlic powder
• BBQ sauce

I deveined the shrimp but left the shells on. Marinate these with all the spices on the list, the juice of 1/2 a lime and some cilantro. I used a plastic bag to hold all these ingredients and then refrigerated. Approximately 4tbsp of BBQ sauce was used.

This dish was paired with black beans with the bell peppers and "Spanish" rice.

For the rice, I used Jasmine rice with the diced tomatoes, cilantro and additional water all thrown in the rice cooker. This is probably best made in a pot on the stove. I had to cook it for a bit longer cuz the rice cooker wasn't built to cook rice in a tomato-ey sauce.















The "Spanish" rice needed some additional seasonings when it was finally cooked. It was a bit bland. =/

The bell peppers were diced, along with half the onion. I used a garlic press on 2 cloves and threw these in a pan. This was seasoned with all of the spices above minus the BBQ sauce. Then I removed half of the veggies off the pot and placed them aside. In the pan, I added the black beans and threw in some cilantro.















Mmmm, doesn't this look delicious?!

After the beans were done, I took them off the pot and reused it for the shrimp. I added a bit more crushed garlic before placing the shrimp in the pan for a bit more flavor. Then I placed the shrimp and the rest of the bell pepper medley.














These babies took about 8-10mins to cook.














TA-DAH! Shrimp goodness.

















Square plate! This was just a photo opt. I had WAY more than the photo above. In Tagalog, this was masarap. In Kapampangan, this was manyaman. (Translation, both mean "delicious".) Ate B and Kristine were not disappointed.

Salamat (thank you) Rach for the recipe!