Spicy Chili Pineapple Shrimp

With just a few ingredients you'll be cooking like a Michelin Star chef and creating a spicy sweet and sour gastrique that will take shrimp to new levels. Chef Gida at Slow Island Food has done most of the work for you in her genius Hawaiian Chili Pineapple Culinary Syrup. A few minutes on the stove and despite its fancy french name you'll have made a gastrique with very little effort.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup Hawaiian Chili Pineapple Syrup

2 tablespoons Rice Wine Vinegar

1 pound large shrimp (peeled and deveined)

oil for brushing grill and shrimp

kosher salt

Special Equipment: Skewers

Directions:

1. Heat grill.

2. Put Hawaiian Chili Pineapple Syrup in a small sauce pan over medium high heat and bring to a rapid boil. Brush down the sides with a damp pastry brush to keep the sides from crystalizing. Boil until the syrup thickens and it has darkened in color.

3. Add a good quality rice wine vinegar like this one from American Vinegar Works. The mixture will bubble more, becoming foamy. Allow it to bubble and boil until the entire mixture has thickened. Congratulations you now have a gastrique. Set it aside.

4. Place the shrimp on skewers (if using wood skewers be sure to soak them in water for at least an hour first). brush them lightly with oil and sprinkle with salt.

5. Grill the shrimp 2-3 minutes per side until they have just turned pink and are no longer translucent. 

6. brush or drizzle the gastrique over the shrimp and serve over a bed of rice, greens or alone as an appetizer.  This dish goes particularly well with sushi rice as a main dish.