Camarones a la Diabla

Method

1. simmer12 min
   guajillos + tomatoes in water until the chiles soften
   the seeded guajillos and tomatoes into simmering water until the chiles turn pliable and the tomato skins split — the soak is the mole chapter's opening move in miniature: dried chiles blend to velvet only after they've drunk their water back
2. prep4 min
   chiles + tomatoes + chipotles + garlic + half onion + salt, smooth
   everything to a completely smooth red — the chipotles bring the smoke and the real fire, the guajillos the deep color and fruit; strain if the blender left flecks, because la diabla's surface should be lacquer
3. fry8 min
   the sauce into hot oil, stirred, until darkened and glossy
   the blend poured into hot oil — it will spit, and that violence is the point: frying the sauce cooks out the raw chile edge and tightens it to a glossy coat-a-spoon red; the sliced onion half joins for the last minutes, keeping a little crunch in the finished dish
4. sear4 min
   shrimp into the sauce, 90 seconds a side, butter off heat
   the shrimp folded through the bubbling sauce just until they curl to loose commas and turn opaque — the universal shellfish clock: a tight C is an overcooked shrimp — then the butter swirled in off the flame, rounding the devil into velvet; over rice, lime squeezed hard, cold drink mandatory