Spicy Veracruz Shrimp with Brown Rice

Spoiler: Shrimp Veracruz is Sensational

Jumping right to the heart of the matter, let me just say that this meal is sensational. The sauce and rice is so good, the shrimp aren’t even needed! The shrimp are delicious, and I wouldn’t leave them out on purpose, but if you don’t have shrimp, you’d still enjoy this dish. It’s that good.

I Would Never Think Good Rice Could Be Made That Way!

I grew up knowing how to cook one thing…rice. It was the standard spiel. A cup of rice, two cups of water, then once boiling, turn heat down to low, and cover. Don’t uncover until the water has evaporated and the rice is done.

So I had to read the directions 4 times to make sure I was reading them right. They said:

“Fill a medium pot with water and heat to boiling on high.” WHAT? FILL POT WITH WATER? How much water? Why isn’t it telling me to put an exact amount of water? I just guess? What???
“Once boiling, add the rice. Cook, uncovered, 17 to 19 minutes, or until tender. Turn off the heat.” WHAT? COOK, UNCOVERED, ON HIGH??? What kind of craziness is this? I don’t cover it? I don’t turn the heat down? What???
“Drain thoroughly and return to the pot.” WHAT? I DON’T WAIT FOR THE WATER TO EVAPORATE?

The entire process seemed like one that was doomed to produce terrible rice. It didn’t. The rice was perfect. I was blown away. What other lies did I grow up with??

Blue Apron Failed To Include The Oregano

It’s disturbing when an ingredient isn’t included. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, I go crazy trying to find it. The odd thing is that this is the second time that the ingredient that was missing was the oregano. Someone packing up the ingredients is pocketing the oregano and taking it home with them, I guess. Fire that person! Or…just ask them nicely to stop doing that. Either way, I should probably buy my own oregano for times like this.

I don’t know what the dish would have tasted like with the oregano, but it was great without it, so I don’t feel like I missed much.

Easy To Make

There was nothing difficult about the process, so this dish gets high marks for prep.

Spectacular Flavor

Flavor (5 = best)
Prep Time (5 = short and easy)
Difficulty Level (5 = easiest)
Cleanup (5 = quickest)

4.9

Summary

After getting over the shock of cooking rice all wrong, yet all right, I discovered that Veracruz Shrimp is on my favorites list. Spectacular!

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2 responses to “Spicy Veracruz Shrimp with Brown Rice”

Sandie Thibodeaux

July 8, 2018

How do you know what SIZE pot to “fill up” with water???
2 cups of water may fill up one pot whereas 4 or 6 cups for another???
Should tell you how many VIPs of water- my opinion ! Ha

Reply
Donna Cavalier

July 8, 2018

I hear you, Sandie! I’ve found that all of the meal kit services tend to use the words “small, medium, or large” when describing pot or pan sizes. Those words are relatively meaningless to me, as I have at least 5 different sizes, and I’m sure there are more available. Which ones would be considered medium, and which ones large? I’d call some of them x-large and some 2XL, but those terms don’t exist for pot and pan sizes on these meal kit instructions.

For a while, I misjudged fairly often. Over time, though, I’ve sort of determined what they mean when they say medium or large, based on how much of the ingredient they give me. In this case, they mentioned a medium pot. I used what I would call a large rice pot. It’s bigger than a normal rice pot, has two small handles instead of one long one, but is much smaller than a normal sized pasta pot.

What they call a large pot would be what I would define as a normal sized pasta pot. I’ve used larger ones, like gumbo pots, when they’ve called for a large pot, and determined that I’d used a much bigger pot than I should have.

I do wish they would all be clearer on what size they mean, but for now, I’m giving it my best guesses and learning with each attempt.

Reply

Donna Fontenot

Spicy Veracruz Shrimp with Brown Rice