Hello world!
As you know from one of my previous blog posts, I went to New Orleans in November and my favourite dish was the BBQ shrimp at Mr. B’s, pictured below. I suddenly had hankering the other day and was desperate to recreate it.
Just today as I started writing this blog, I googled New Orleans BBQ shrimp and the EXACT Mr. B’s recipe came up. DAMN. It’s not the one I used, but one I’ll definitely try another time.
The recipe I made however, is VERY delicious and I’d highly recommend it! It also uses less butter 😉 But more cream 😉
They key ingredient in both of these variations is WORCESTERSHIRE SAUCE. I forgot how much I love this stuff. It’s so versatile and flavourful. The Mr. B’s recipe uses unpeeled, head on shrimps. This will give your sauce more flavour and more natural shrimp juice. Mmmm, shrimp juice. If you can’t find/don’t want head-on/unpeeled shrimp, peeled raw shrimps are fine too!
Both options can be served with a generous helping of fresh french bread for mopping up all the sauce, but I wanted to make more of a healthy “full” meal out of it so I served my shrimp with brown rice, sautéed cremini, oyster and shitake mushrooms and steamed asparagus. Enough yapping, let’s make these things!
Julia’s BBQ Shrimp
Serves 2-3
Ingredients
1 pound of raw, peeled shrimp. (or keep them heads and peels on!)
1/2 stick of butter (plus more for sautéing)
1/4 cup of worcestershire sauce
Juice of one medium lemon
1 medium/large shallot, diced
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
lots of fresh ground pepper
salt to taste
couple pours of heavy cream (about 1/4 cup or so)
Directions
ok, first you’re going to want to cook your rice, get your veg ready for steaming, and prep your mushrooms. The sauce and shrimp come together real quick and the last thing you want are overcooked shrimp and overly thick sauce.
- In a small sauce pan over medium heat at a pad of butter and shallots.
- After a minute or two, add worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, thyme, cayenne, paprika, garlic powder, pepper. Let simmer for a few minutes.
- While the sauce simmers, start sautéeing your mushrooms in butter and oil over a medium high heat and start the veg.
- Then go back to the sauce and slowly add chunks of cold butter, stirring frequently to emulsify.
- In a separate pan, heat a bit of butter over medium heat and add shrimp
- Add your cream to the sauce and stir.
- Flip your shrimp after about a minute and add half of the sauce to the shrimp pan. Cook until shrimp turn pink. This should only take a few minutes.
- finish steaming your veg and then you’re ready to serve!
Spoon the warm, saucy shrimp over your rice and add the mushrooms and asparagus. Top with more delicious sauce. Give it a taste! Add more salt, pepper or lemon juice if necessary. DAAAAAMMMN. This was gooood. The sauce was definitely thicker than Mr. B’s but it was so flavourful and rich. It would be delicious served over fresh linguini or on chicken. If you want a slightly thinner sauce, try adding a bit of vegetable broth. Sautéed zucchini or steamed broccoli would also be a nice accompaniment. Or, you can say screw it to the rice and veg and get yourself some nice crusty bread and go to town on the sauce.
I loved this so so much and hope you’ll try it. For something so luxurious, you’d never think it only took about 15 minutes to make.
EAT THIS AND SHUT UP BAYBEEEEE!
XOXO
JULIA
eatthisandshutup.com 