Ingredients Seafood Shrimp Grilled Cilantro-Lime Shrimp with Yuca Be the first to rate & review! The shrimp in this recipe can be prepared either on an outdoor grill, or on a grill-pan. Serve with yuca escabeche for a simple summer dish. By Jose Enrique Jose Enrique Won Best New Chef At Jose Enrique, San Juan, Puerto Rico Why He’s Amazing Because he’s elevating Puerto Rican cooking, using ingredients from the vast market across the street from his restaurant. The chalkboard menu changes frequently during the evening, based on what the purveyors might bring in during dinner service. Born 1977; San Juan, Puerto Rico Culinary School The Culinary Institute of America (Hyde Park, NY) Background Riche (New Orleans), Bili (Vieques, Puerto Rico), San Juan Water Beach Club (San Juan, Puerto Rico), Café Centro (New York City) Quintessential Dish Crispy fried yellowtail snapper with mashed batata (sweet potato) and papaya-avocado salsa How He Got Into Cooking “A lot of people cook in my family. My grandmothers, my dad, my mom; everyone does a couple of great dishes. My uncle would make Thanksgiving—huge turkeys stuffed with blood sausage. It was always fun.” Beloved Cooking Equipment “My dad made his own Caja China. Picture a metal square oven with the heat coming from the top. He’d cook pork. The first few hours the pork is belly up, so all the fat drips down and confits the belly. Then he flips it over and the skin gets blown up and crispy. Kids fight over it. My dad’s Caja China is on wheels, it’s portable, he’ll set it up anywhere.” Bringing It Home Enrique cooked around the world, in Belgium, France and the US, before returning to the neighborhood where he was born, to open his flagship restaurant. Other Projects In San Juan, Enrique also runs Capital, a popular brasserie, and the coffeehouse Miel. In late 2013, he’ll open a restaurant in the eco-minded El Blok hotel in Vieques.Story of Discovery “Until recently, I’d never been blown away by Puerto Rican food; the dishes I’d tried were always a little heavy and a little bland. But Jose Enrique and his bright, sharp, fresh flavors have changed my mind. At his restaurant—a casual place in an old house where weekend parties erupt on the street outside—he writes his menu on white boards, which allows him to add dishes in the middle of service. When I was there, he listed grilled thin swordfish steaks, from a fish that had been delivered just hours before, pairing it with his outstanding hot sauce made from chiles that he confits in oil for hours with garlic and tomatoes. Blood sausage also appeared on the menu. It was deep black and porky, speckled with chunks of delicious fat. Even better were the blood sausage spring rolls I had another night, baked in crisp spring roll wrappers with a serious swath of cream cheese, which melts into a rich sauce. That’s what a Best New Chef does: takes a cuisine you don’t think you like and turns you into a convert.”—Kate Krader Food & Wine's Editorial Guidelines Updated on September 1, 2014 Print Rate It Share Share Tweet Pin Email Photo: © Con Poulos Active Time: 50 mins Total Time: 1 hrs 15 mins Yield: 6 Ingredients 2 pounds fresh yuca, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces Kosher salt 1/4 cup canola oil 1/2 large onion, very thinly sliced 1 medium red bell pepper, cut into julienne 2 bay leaves 1/4 cup unseasoned rice vinegar 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar 2 tablespoons honey 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice 2 tablespoons minced cilantro, plus more for garnish 24 large, shell-on shrimp (1 1/2 pounds) Directions In a large saucepan, cover the yuca with water and bring to a boil. Add a generous pinch of salt and cook over moderate heat until tender, 25 minutes. Drain well and spread on a baking sheet to cool slightly; discard any stringy bits of yuca. In a skillet, heat the canola oil. Add the onion, red pepper and bay leaves and cook over moderate heat until the onion is just softened, 3 minutes. Add the rice vinegar, white vinegar and honey and bring just to a simmer. Add the yuca and toss. Discard the bay leaves and season the escabeche with salt; keep warm. Light a grill or preheat a grill pan. In a large bowl, whisk the olive oil with the lime juice and 2 tablespoons of cilantro and season with salt. Transfer half of the dressing to a small bowl and reserve. Using small, sharp scissors, slit the back of the shrimp shells and devein the shrimp; keep the shells attached. Add the shrimp to the dressing in the large bowl, season with salt and toss to coat. Grill the shrimp over high heat, turning and brushing with any remaining dressing from the large bowl, until just cooked through, 5 minutes. Transfer the shrimp to a platter; garnish with cilantro and serve with the yuca escabeche and reserved dressing. Suggested Pairing Try a refreshing Caribbean lager, like Red Stripe or Presidente. Rate it Print