Food

Shrimp Perloo (John Martin Taylor's)

Dinner · Rice · Seafood · Shrimp · Southern

Shrimp Perloo (John Martin Taylor's)
Prep 1 hr
Cook 45 min
Serves 6
Level Medium

The Lowcountry’s pilau: rice cooked in a shrimp-head stock with bacon, onion and tomato, the shrimp folded in at the end to cook in the pot’s own heat.

Untested: not yet made in this kitchen. It is here for the Rice section’s regional pages and is adapted from the source named in the Notes.

Ingredients

Shrimp stock

  • 2 lb very fresh heads-on medium shrimp
  • 2 small carrots
  • 2 celery stalks
  • 3 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme (or 1½ teaspoons dried)
  • 1 medium onion
  • 3 quarts water

Perloo

  • 4 thick slices bacon
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 4 red, ripe tomatoes (about 1½ lb), peeled, seeded and chopped, or 4 well-drained canned tomatoes
  • ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
  • 3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley, plus more to garnish
  • 2 cups long-grain rice
  • 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
  • 3 cups hot shrimp stock (from above)
  • The peeled shrimp bodies from above (or 1½ lb headless shrimp)

Directions

  1. Stock. Peel the shrimp and refrigerate the bodies. Put the heads and shells in a pot with the chopped carrots and celery, the thyme, the quartered onion and the water. Simmer uncovered about 45 minutes, until reduced by about a third. Strain. Keep 3 cups hot and freeze the rest.
  2. Bacon. Crisp the bacon in a Dutch oven and set it aside, leaving about 3 tablespoons of fat.
  3. Base. Cook the onion in the fat 5–10 minutes, until transparent. Add the tomatoes, red pepper and parsley and cook 5 minutes.
  4. Rice. Add the rice, salt and the 3 cups hot stock. Bring just to a simmer, cover, and cook 20 minutes without lifting the lid.
  5. Shrimp. Fluff the rice, toss in the shrimp, cover, and turn off the heat. Leave 5–10 minutes; the shrimp cook in the residual heat.
  6. Serve topped with the crumbled bacon and more parsley.

Notes

Source Adapted from John Martin Taylor’s recipe, via Nancy Harmon Jenkins, “John Martin Taylor’s Shrimp Perloo,” NYT Cooking. Taylor is the Charleston food historian behind Hoppin’ John’s Lowcountry Cooking (1992).

On the quantities Three quarts of water make much more stock than the 3 cups used; the rest is meant to be frozen. The rice variety is not specified; Carolina Gold would be the historical choice.

The name Perloo, purloo and pilau are the Lowcountry’s forms of pilaf.

The Rice section’s West Africa and the Carolinas page (/rice/west-africa-and-the-carolinas/) covers the history and technique behind this dish.