After travelling from Australia to Europe for our last race, the teams have had to travel around the world once again as they now make their way over to the states for the first ever Miami Grand Prix. Set in the surrounding area of the Hard Rock Stadium, the drivers will all have to get to grips quickly with this brand-new track if they’re to capitalise on our first US race this season. With this being the first of two races in the USA this year, I decided to dedicate this week’s recipe towards the type of food you would expect to find around Miami…Cuban food. With over a million people of Cuban heritage living in Greater Miami, their influence on the local food scene has been huge, which is why the dish we’re going to make this week is Enchilado De Gambas. This quick to make dish that uses shrimp or prawns and is served in a spiced tomato sauce alongside peppers and onions, could easily turn into an easy weeknight meal you can make again and again.
What happened at the Imola GP?
When the teams returned to Imola for our last race, there was a lot of pressure and expectation for one team more than any other on the grid…Ferrari. With the Tifosi masses there to cheer on the team in scarlet ahead of their first home GP of the season, most, if not all of them, would have rightly been hopeful of Ferrari claiming victory once again this year and further extending their lead at the top of the championship. Sadly though, the passionate Italian fans were left disappointed come the chequered flag, as Ferrari had a relatively poor weekend for what they would have expected to achieve from the race.
After a crazy qualifying session due to the rain, both Ferrari and Red Bull had cars much further down the starting order than they should have been, with Perez and Sainz needing to gain back a lot of places as a result. Thankfully, with Imola having our first Sprint Qualifying session of the season, a 21-lap short “race” on the Saturday to decide the grid for the race on Sunday, this gave the two drivers the opportunity to rectify their poor result from the day prior and secure each of them a spot on the second row of the grid for the Sunday.
With both Red Bull and Ferrari starting at the front of the grid, it looked likely that we’d see a close race between the two teams, however an early shunt from Daniel Ricciardo on the first lap was enough to end Carlos Sainz race, leaving Charles Leclerc to battle for victory on his own against the Red Bull’s of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.
As the race went on and Verstappen surged ahead, Charles and Sergio were in a tense battle for second place, but as the Ferrari driver was beginning to catch the Mexican, Leclerc made a costly error and took too much curb on the last chicane, which saw him lose his position and fall down the order. Charles’ error late on in the race left the two Red Bull drivers to go on and achieve their first ever 1-2 together and greatly reduce Ferrari’s lead at the top of the championship.
With Leclerc having to settle for 6th, it was McLaren’s Lando Norris who benefitted mostly from the Monegasques error, as he moved up the order to 3rd, securing McLaren their first podium of the season, a huge achievement when you consider how the team started off the year.
Welcome To Miami
With the team’s brief stop in Europe behind them for now, F1 now looks ahead to this weekend where it sees the first of two US races this season with the inaugural Miami GP. Having long been flirted with as a potential future F1 destination, the south eastern US city has finally got it’s wish as it’s set to host its first Grand Prix weekend.
After the success of “Drive To Survive”, the popular Netflix docufiction which follows Formula 1, and the various other changes Liberty Media introduced to the sport in order to increase its popularity, Formula 1 has seen it’s viewership and attendance skyrocket in the US in recent years. With a growing audience and demand for more F1 content, it made sense for the sport to capitalise on this and introduce more races to the States. With Miami joining the calendar this year and Vegas set to join next years too, F1 will soon have three races a season in the USA as these others join Austin in hosting the travelling circus that is F1.
When Miami first proposed holding a Grand Prix within the city, their initial plan was to see the cars race alongside its famous harbour and coastline. Unfortunately, the city couldn’t accommodate this idea which meant that they had to shift their sights away from the coast, over towards the home of the Miami Dolphins, the Hard Rock Stadium. Utilising the surrounding area of the stadium, this purpose-built track has transformed what is mostly the stadiums car parks, and turned it into a circuit suitable for F1 to race on, with the final pieces only being completed just days before the cars will take to the track.
Perhaps one of Miami’s most extravagant additions (or bizarre additions depending on who you ask), is the “marina” that they’ve constructed for the race. After being knocked back on their plans to utilise the cities actual harbour, they decided to make a small enclosed artificial “marina”, only without the actual water. With expensive yachts parked up on trailers and painted wooden panels built around them to simulate the look of water, this odd addition has dominated much of the conversation in the lead up to the race. Dubbed as an attempt to replicate the Monaco GP, let’s just hope the drivers don’t get ahead of themselves in their celebrations and try to go for a dive in classic Danny Ricciardo fashion.
What can we expect to see in Miami this weekend?
After a disappointing race last time out for Ferrari, the current leaders of the championship will be looking to bounce back this weekend and further extend their lead over their competitors. With this being an unknown track for every team and driver though, it’s hard to accurately predict who’s going to do well and who isn’t.
With the track containing a couple of areas where the cars will be able to go flat out, it could be advantage Red Bull for this weekend, as we’ve seen so far that their straight-line speed is superior to that of Ferrari’s. Although that currently is the case, Ferrari have announced however, that they are bringing significant upgrades for this weekend, as are a multitude of teams, which means we might be in for a bit of shock as to who comes out on top in the race.
One team that will be hoping they can continue their good form, and maybe surprise a few people this weekend, will be McLaren. The team are sure to be in high spirits, not only because of their good result at the last race, but also because Formula 1 will be back racing again in the USA. With American CEO Zak Brown overseeing both McLaren’s Formula 1 team and their US IndyCar team, him and his co-workers will be loving the fact that both teams are going to be in the same country at the same time this weekend…plus, we all know Daniel Ricciardo loves the States as well.
So, what is “Enchilado De Gambas”?
As I mentioned already, this dish originates from Cuba and is quite often called Cuban Shrimp Creole, as it has a lot of similarities with the regular version of that dish. With Miami boasting a huge population of Cuban residents, the local food scene reflects this as well, with a majority of “Miami food” actually being Cuban dishes or versions of dishes from the Central American country.
With Cuban culture having such an influence on the city of Miami, it only felt right to make this spicy tomato dish that’s served with rice. Now traditionally, this dish would be called “Enchilado De Camarones” and would use shrimp instead of prawns in the original recipe, however with good quality shrimp being hard to come by where I live, I instead decided to replace them with some king prawns, hence the change of name. With the main taste within the dish coming from the sauce itself, making a slight change like I have didn’t feel quite so bad, as the rest of my recipe is still true to the classic Cuban dish.
Now you might have seen the word “spicy” when I described the sauce and began to panic, but there’s honestly no need to. Even though this dish does contain a few “spicy” ingredients, the end result is more of a “warm” feeling, rather than a “scrambling around for a glass of milk” type of heat. Instead of heat, the spices in this recipe add much more to the flavour of the dish than anything else, to create a delicious sauce to be paired alongside some prawns and white rice.
Perhaps one of the other great things about this meal is just how quick it is to make. This could easily turn into a weeknight staple, as it doesn’t use too many ingredients and can be whipped up from start to finish in no time at all. Due to its simplicity, it’s also a great recipe to have a play around with and try adding new ingredients into, but for now, I hope you enjoy the version I’ve written for you to get you started.
Recipe For Enchilado De Gambas
Serves: 4
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes – 45 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes- 1 hour
Ingredients
300g Peeled and Deveined King Prawns (shrimp if you can get some/prefer)
400g Tinned Crushed Tomatoes
280g Basmati Rice
25g Garden Peas
½ Red Pepper
½ Green Pepper
3 Garlic Cloves
1 White Onion
1 Small Chilli Pepper
½ Tbsp Paprika (regular or smoked both work great)
1tsp Ground Cumin
250ml Water
150ml Dry White Wine
1-2 Bay Leaves (depending on size)
1 Lime
Salt
Ground Black Pepper
Garlic Powder/Granules
Chilli Flakes
Onion Salt/Powder
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Instructions
Wash your prawns and then place them in a large bowl, along with ½ a squeezed lime, a dash of salt, pepper, some garlic powder, onion powder and a sprinkle of chilli flakes. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and place in the fridge until later.
Next, dice the onion, bell peppers and the chilli pepper, ensuring all seeds are removed from the peppers and mince your garlic.
Once done, heat up a splash of olive oil in a Dutch Oven/ large saucepan on a medium-high heat and once hot, add in your onion and cook for a few minutes before then adding in your garlic and peppers.
After a couple of minutes, add your paprika, cumin, wine and water into the pot and stir. Bring to a simmer and leave for a few minutes, allowing some of the alcohol to burn off and for the liquid to reduce slightly.
Next, add in your tinned tomatoes, peas, some salt and pepper, bay leaves and the other ½ of your lime squeezed. Stir and slightly cover, allowing to simmer for the next 15 minutes.
While your pot is simmering, bring a separate pot of water to boil and begin to cook your rice.
When your rice is just over 5 minutes away from being cooked, begin heating up a small splash of olive oil in a frying pan on a medium-high heat. Once hot, add in your bowl of prawns and cook for 3-4 minutes.
Add the prawns into the sauce and stir in. Taste your sauce at this point and season accordingly.
Serve the sauce and rice together and enjoy.
Tips
I think the taste of this recipe is spot on but if you prefer, don’t be afraid about adding in some extra bits when you make it, such as coriander, oregano or maybe even some basil.
If you don’t have any garlic powder/granules to add to the prawns at the start, using fresh is also fine. I find that using powder/granules allows more of the prawns to come into contact with the garlic while also saving a bit more time on prep at the start.
If you want to make the sauce a bit hotter, besides adding in more of the “spicy” ingredients already listed, you can also add in a small dash of cayenne pepper to give it just a bit more of a kick.
I hope you enjoyed this week’s post and recipe. I’m not sure this week’s dish is exactly the first thing that springs to mind when you think about food from the USA, but part of the reason for making this blog was to discover and make food I had never tried before and to share that with other people too. By looking at the regions that F1 is racing in, it really allows me to learn more about the place and what kind of food is unique to that area.
Anyway, if you enjoyed this post then be sure to get in touch and let me know. Our next post will be based around the Spanish Grand Prix which takes place just outside of Barcelona. Spanish food is some of my favourite so make sure you come back to check it out, or follow the blog on socials to stay updated when new posts and recipes come out. Links can be found below.
Have a great week.
Σχόλια