When we were in Hawaii last year, we had some amazing shrimp tacos with pineapple cream sauce from a place called Hawaiian Taco – in a food court nonetheless. Maybe it’s because everything tastes better when you’re on vacation or maybe they really were that good, but every time I see shrimp tacos I think about that pineapple cream sauce. So when I spotted this recipe over at Closet Cooking, I knew I had to give it a try. As I was making my grocery list though, I realized these weren’t going to be something I could throw together in 30 minutes. There were a lot of ingredients. That’s why I posted the marinade separate, because these could be a fairly quick and easy dinner if you don’t have to make the marinade and you already have all the ingredients on hand. So my recommendation is grocery shopping and making the marinade one day, then making these tacos the next day =). Jordan and I loved the combination of the sweet pineapple salsa and pineapple cream sauce with the spicy, jerk marinated shrimp. The pineapple salsa is a combination of grilled pineapple, red pepper, jalapeno, and onion tossed in a lime cilantro dressing – the only “hard” part is chopping everything, which really isn’t hard but does take a few minutes (I’m not a fan of chopping vegetables. I’m a baker at heart =).) The pineapple cream sauce is only 3 ingredients – pineapple, greek yogurt, and coconut cream. 30 seconds in the blender and you have a delicious sauce! Each part is delicious by itself but it’s really the combination of all these flavors that make these shrimp tacos spectacular! They’re the perfect summer entertaining meal. Who wants to come over?? 😉 Enjoy!
Grilled Jerk Shrimp Tacos with Pineapple Cream Sauce
1 pound (16-20) shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 cup jerk marinade
shredded cabbage
pineapple cream sauce (see below)
small corn tortillas, warmed (I wrapped mine in foil and warmed them over the grill)
pineapple salsa (see below)
1. Marinate the shrimp in the the jerk marinade for at least 2 hours and up to overnight.
2. Skewer the shrimp and grill over medium-high heat until cooked, about 1-3 minutes per side.
3. Assemble tacos by placing the slaw on the tortillas, followed by the pineapple salsa and shrimp finally topping with a drizzle of pineapple cream sauce.
Grilled Pineapple Salsa
1/2 pineapple, peeled, cored and sliced 1/4 inch thick
1/2-1/4 red onion, cut into chunks
1/2 red pepper, cut into chunks
1 (or 1/2 depending on your heat preferences) jalapeno pepper, cut into chunks that can be placed on skewer
1 lime, juice and zest
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
1. Place onion, red pepper, and jalapeno pepper on bamboo skewers (or in grill basket if you have one).
2. Place vegetables and pineapple on grill and grill 3-5 minutes on each side, until veggies are charred around the edges and pineapple has nice grill marks.
3. Remove from grill and chop peppers and onion finely. Chop pineapple into tidbit sized pieces. Add lime juice, zest, and cilanto. Toss to combine.
Pineapple Cream Sauce
1/2 cup 2% Greek yogurt (or sour cream)
3 tablespoons pineapple (~3 chunks)
2 tablespoons coconut cream
1. Puree everything in a food processor and enjoy!
Tip: If you cannot find coconut cream, open a can of coconut milk without shaking it and use the thick white part on the top which is coconut cream.
*adapted from Closet Cooking
Unfortunately this was a lot of time and effort that wasn’t worth the flavor pay off. They were alright, but I wouldn’t make them again. I doubled the amount of protien (husband doesn’t like shrimp so we did fish for him) so I thought I would need double everything else- not even close. For those that want to make these, I’d suggest halving the amount of salsa and cream sauce. Making the full recipe will just lead to waste, unless you can reuse elsewhere. Tip: Veggies are difficult/time consuming to finely chop after being grilled- I ended up using a food processor to do so.