Barbecue shrimp
What would you say if I told you that you could barbecue shrimp on your stove in about five minutes. That’s right, you’d probably laugh and tell me I was nuts. And you’d be correct. So while the New Orleans mainstay known as barbecue shrimp doesn’t have anything to do with wood-smoked meat—like proper barbecue, it’s a spicy, succulent mess of a dish that is best eaten with your hands along with good company and cold beverages.
When Sara Roahen described barbecue shrimp in her book Gumbo Tales, I was intrigued and definitely wanted to make it. Enter Ralph Brennan’s New Orleans Seafood Cookbook. In this exhaustive new tome, the legendary New Orleans restaurateur has collaborated with his executive chef Haley Bittermann, his executive vice president Charlee Williamson, former Times-Picayune food writer Gene Bourg, photographer Kerri McCafferty and recipe tester Paulette Rittenberg to create a definitive cookbook about New Orleans’ seafood cuisine. Ten years in the making, this book is gorgeous enough to sit on your coffee table, but it’s also useful enough to occupy prime real estate in your kitchen as well.
Ralph is a member of the legendary Brennan family, proprietor of New Orleans’ landmarks such as Commander’s Palace, Mr. B’s Bistro, Bacco and Ralph’s on the Park. Yet even though this book’s recipes stem from strong cooking stock, it’s not restaurant specific. Instead it’s a celebration of classic New Orleans dishes such as crawfish etouffee, barbecue shrimp, crawfish pie, gumbos, poor boys, stuffed crabs, trout amandine, beignets, and well, you get the idea. There are 170 recipes in total.
If you’re not well versed in seafood techniques, there is a chapter that shows step-by-step how to buy it, store it, prep it and cook it. The book shows how to fillet a whole fish, remove meat from hard-shell crabs, crack open crawfish, de-vein shrimp and shuck oysters. There are also tips on how to cook more exotic meats such as alligator, turtle and frog legs. Curious what’s the difference between blond and dark chocolate roux? This book will show you. And if you’ve ever wanted to smoke meat inside your kitchen, they’ve included instructions on how to rig a stovetop smoker. Don’t know your ravigote from your remoulade? Not to worry, there’s an extensive glossary of Creole and Acadian food terms. If you’re curious about the origin of a dish, Bourg introduces each recipe with a bit of history. And if you love beautiful shots of food, McCafferty’s photos are absolutely breathtaking.
If you have any interest in seafood or New Orleans’ cooking I recommend this gorgeous book. Along with Gumbo Tales, it’s another love letter to New Orleans, a place that almost three years after Katrina still needs our support.
Barbecue shrimp
Ingredients
- 1 pound large shrimp, unpeeled
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 1/2 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon water
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1/4 pound unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch slices
- Crusty bread, for serving
Instructions
- Place the unpeeled shrimp, Worcestershire, spices, garlic and 1 tablespoon of water in a heavy skillet. Squeeze the juice from the lemon half over the shrimp and add rind and pulp to the pan.
- Over high heat, cook the shrimp while gently stirring and occasionally turning the shrimp.After about 2 minutes of cooking, the shrimp should start turning pink on both sides, indicating they are nearly half cooked.
- If the shrimp are the colossal size, now add 2 tablespoons water to the pan. Otherwise, don’t add water.
- Reduce the heat to medium-high and continue cooking as you gradually add the cold pieces of butter to the pan. While stirring the shrimp, swirl the butter pieces until they are incorporated into the pan juices, the sauce turns light brown and creamy as it simmers, and the shrimp are just cooked through, about 2 minutes.
- Serve immediately with crusty bread for sopping up the sauce and lots of napkins for cleaning your hands.
Tace–Colossal makes me smile, too. The bigger the better!
CB–Hope you have a blast–I’m hoping to make it down there soon myself.
Kalyn–Newspaper’s a wise move as it’s quite a messy dish between the sauce and the shrimp peels. And while the bread is necessary, I reckon to make it more S. Beach friendly it could be whole-grain bread.
Lydia–It is indeed a beautiful book.
Cynthia–Ha! You know me…I’m such a tease!
CDees39–Must be, though we never had anything this good at Slater’s.
Ann–Aren’t they wonderful? I don’t eat shrimp often myself, but this was so easy I could see myself doing it at least once a week.
Blake–You’re not weird at all–I can’t think of a finer way to begin the day!
Jerry–Yep, it’s good stuff and the book is indeed very, very cool.
Kacie–You’re making me hungry! I’ll definitely have to go to Commander’s Palace Jazz Brunch when I go to New Orleans.
Thanks for the heads up on the cookbook. I just started working Marx foods and we have great seafood along with the exotic meats you mentioned – frog legs, alligator, etc. and I’m looking forward to experimenting with some of these (new to me) meats, but it’s nice to use tried and true recipes from a good source. I think I’ll be safe and start with your shrimp first!
I make bbq shrimp very, very similar to this (Emeril’s recipe) and they are just about probably the best thing you will ever put in your mouth.
It is my oldest son’s absolute, #1 favorite thing to eat in the whole world.
A big pile of these babies, a baguette, and a cold beer are about as close to heaven as I expect I’ll ever get.
Mmmmm, thanks for reminding me how much I love these.
I make this a lot because my neighbor’s son will help me fix my fence, mow my lawn, anything for barbecued shrimp on top of grits. They’re from Pennsylvania, but he does love this dish.
I forgot to mention, I also add a little Tabasco sauce to mine.