Croatian / Dalmatian Shrimp & Risotto
A Christmas Eve Tradition
Christmas Eve in Westchester, 1985. It was our last Christmas in the only home I had ever known in life and childhood, the big California style house on the hill, the one with modern additions thanks to my Croatian born father’s ever expanding dreams in the form of construction. He had built this house in 1966 and, by 1985, the renovations seemed complete: the re-vamped kitchen complete with island and microwave, the nook, breakfast bar, and sunroom which was bathed in light from french windows and doors and allowed the outside world of trees, flowers, bugs, breezes, sunshine, birds, rain, and snow, inside.
The sky was black outside. The light stones of the mid century style fireplace in the living room was meticulously being monitored by my father (and me, once it got started), while, by this time, my brother minded his own teenage fire in the newer dark tones of the family room fireplace one floor downstairs.
By five or six o’clock on Christmas Eve, we had started Christmas as a family. The lights are very dim in the living and dining rooms, but for the mismatched twinkling lights of the Christmas tree and the gold Swedish angel candles that my mother bought and re-bought every few years–the kind where the heat from the candles caused the little gold angels blowing trumpets on either side to spin around.
In the center of the house, there is more light in the kitchen, where my mother has endless supplies of Christmas baking that she started weeks or even months prior: cookies, bars, candy, homemade chocolates, rum balls, truffles, cakes, Croatian nut rolls, and the making of our Christmas Eve Fritule (fried dough of our corner of the world), which she would prepare after dinner.
Cutting into the smell of competing wood fires, the scent of snow inching into the cracked open windows, and the permeating base line of sugar in all its forms, is shrimp. To my 10-year-old palette, it is not my favorite smell. However, even then it felt like a necessary slice of the pie when it came to the textures and colors of our Christmas Eve at home, the old land of the Croatian Coast partnering with the suburban wilds of our Westchester hills and yards.
My brother rarely partook in the evening meal (still doesn’t), and my father came alive when the Dalmatian Shrimp and Risotto would arrive at the table. My father still does come alive in our memories when we continue to eat the meal every Christmas Eve, for years my mother and I, and now my boyfriend and I join her in the tradition. He convinced me to squeeze a little lemon over the dish, which sums up our relationship. I hold fast to tradition while he helps me see where logic can fit into things, both daily and over time.
Dalmatian Shrimp
What we call Dalmatian Shrimp is called so since both my father and my maternal grandfather hail from the Croatian Dalmatian Coast, from small villages just a few miles from each other. Seafood is king on the coast, and, like the nearby Italians and New York Italians who became our neighbors in Westchester, fish on Christmas Eve for Mediterranean Catholics became less dogma and more cultural tradition over the years.
My mother’s father used to prepare the dish for his family, including my mother and her sister. His recipe was bare bones: shrimp, onion, maybe garlic, oil, stock, risotto, salt and pepper.
My mother made sure to amply flavor her stock as she perfected her housewife duties and is still on the fence about whether “we” add white wine or tomato paste to the dish. I like those small flavorful touches and, since I practically took over the Dalmatian Shrimp & Risotto preparations for my parents by my late 20’s, I made sure to amp up the lack of heat just a touch with my good friend the red pepper flake and a shot of hot sauce, just enough to register the shrimp on the scale. Sometimes, just a heap of black pepper will do the trick.
Changes
It changes every year. I loathe the cleaning of the shrimp every year. I miss my father every year. I cherish the moments with my mom and with my loved ones every year. I love being Croatian every year, from the nostalgic place of a New York born heart.
All this from shrimp that calls itself Dalmatian for no apparent reasons other than it came from my Dalmatian American family’s Christmas Eve tradition?
That’s right.
Its taste equals its roots and importance. Start your own tradition.
Croatian / Dalmatian Shrimp & Risotto
Ingredients
- 1-2 lbs (preferably wild caught) large or extra large shrimp WITH SHELLS (for the stock)
- 5-8 cups water, 2 carrots, 2 celery, one onion–all quartered–, half a head of parsley, pepper, salt, bay leaf (for the stock)
- olive oil for cooking (and a little butter for the onion if you like, as I do)
- 1 medium/large onion, diced
- 4-5 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 3/4 – 1 cups white wine
- 1 cup risotto/arborio rice (more or less depending on amount/size of shrimp)
- salt & pepper
- *If you like a little bit of heat (I do), add a little red pepper flake and/or shot or two of hot sauce
- Chopped parsley (for garnish)
Instructions
- Peel the shrimp, making sure to de-vein on both sides and rinse well. Set aside the cleaned shrimp, and rinse the shells well.
- Add the shells to a stock pot and fill with water and stock vegetables (above). Boil and set to simmer for 90 minutes, making sure the water doesn't evaporate too much.
- Keep the stock warm or re-heat when ready to make the shrimp.
- In a wide skillet or cast iron pan, heat olive oil and a little butter (I like the combination,French-Croatian style) over medium heat. Add the diced onion and saute for nearly 10 minutes until soft and translucent.
- Add in some more oil in a well in the center of the pan and, once warm, mince the garlic into the oil and let cook for about a minute until mixing in with the onion.
- Add in the tomato paste, followed by the risotto. Once combined, increase the heat to medium high, then pouring in the white wine and deglazing the pan, allowing the alcohol to cook off for at least 5 minutes or more.
- Season with salt and pepper and lower the heat to medium-low. Start spooning in the shrimp stock a couple spoonfuls at a time, mixing continuously. As the liquid absorbs into the risotto, add more stock. Continue in this way for about 30-40 minutes,depending on your stove/flame.
- Once the rice is nearly soft enough, drop in the shrimp and cook for about 5 minutes at most,until firm and pink.
- Adjust seasoning and add in red pepper flake and/or hot sauce if desired. Once off heat, add in chopped parsley and serve. You can squeeze a little lemon over the shrimp & risotto to brighten up the flavors.
- Compared to the meat and potato fest on Christmas Day, whether Croatian or not, Dalmatian Shrimp & Risotto is a lovely and light way to honor the seafood traditions of Christmas Eve in Split, and also pace yourself for the onslaught of culinary and digestive debauchery to come.
