Floribbean Fare - A culinary fusion of the Caribbean and Deep SouthA culinary fusion of the Caribbean and Deep South

After writing the post about the Saints winning the Super Bowl, I thought about some of the recipes I haven’t made in awhile. One is BBQ Shrimp which is a recipe unique to New Orleans and can be made in many different variations. In this recipe, BBQ does not mean on a skewer with BBQ sauce on the shrimp. Instead, it’s more like a saute that is ultimately baked and then eaten with your hands.

Make sure you have wild caught white, pink or brown shrimp on hand. Ask your seafood market for them if you can. The farmed raised tiger prawns in my opinion are tasteless and don’t work well, so avoid them.

As for size of the shrimp, they come in sizes designated by number of them to a pound. Hence, 21/25 means “21 to 25 shrimp to a pound”. So, as you can see U/15 (15 shrimp and Under to a Pound) are much larger than 100/150 sizes. For this recipe, 10/15 or 16/21 sizes are suitable.

This recipe is great for tailgating, small parties at your house, appetizers on a holiday i.e. before Thanksgiving Dinner as my family does or for sitting by the pool on a summer day. Truthfully, you need no reason to eat shrimp like this. With a cold beer, the whole experience is just a beautiful thing.

Enjoy!

BBQ Shrimp

Ingredients:

1 pound butter, unsalted (4 sticks)
1 32 oz Low Sodium Chicken Broth or Stock
2 tablespoons Creole Seasoning or BBQ Magic Seasoning, to taste; OR 2 - 3 teaspoons cayenne pepper and 3 - 4 teaspoons black pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons chopped rosemary leaves
1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup good dark beer
5 - 10 cloves garlic, finely minced (or as much as you like)
1 medium onion, very finely minced
1 green pepper, finely minced
3 ribs celery, very finely minced
3 - 4 tablespoons chopped parsley
2 teaspoons fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1 lemon, sliced
Oregano
4 pounds shrimp, peeled and deveined. 10/15 (Jumbo) or 16/20 (Extra Large) size preferable.

Directions:

[This feeds 8-10 people, BTW … cut it in half if you need to.]

Melt a stick of the butter in a skillet. Saute the garlic, onions, celery, pepper, parsley, rosemary and seasoning blend for about 2 - 3 minutes.
Melt the rest of the butter. Add the beer (drink the rest of the bottle). Add the Worcestershire and lemon juice. Place shrimp in baking dish and pour sauteed stuff and butter into dish drowning the shrimp in the seasoned butter, using as many baking dishes as you need. Make sure the shrimp are more or less submerged. Slice a lemon and place slices over the shrimp evenly. Sprinkle Oregano on top and bake in a 350 degree oven until the shrimp turn pink, about 15 minutes.
Serve in big bowls. Put in a handful of shrimp and ladle lots of the spicy butter sauce over it. Roll up your sleeves and wear a bib (DO NOT wear nice clothes when eating this!) Serve with plenty of French Bread (very important to have) to sop up da sauce!

For a more authentic experience, buy shrimp that are unpeeled cooking them with their shells on. This will add more flavor to the sauce and add the fun of peeling shrimp at the table. Just make certain you cover your table in newspaper and have sauce on the side for the French Bread to soak up.