February 16, 2008
New Orleans Barbecued Shrimp!
This is one of the easiest New Orleans dishes to make, and it's fantastic if you're not afraid of butter. Unlike "shrimp on the barbie," when New Orleanians think of "barbecued" shrimp, they really mean baked with lots of butter and pepper. The dish was invented at Pascal's Manale Restaurant, uptown on Napoleon Ave., and it's their signature entree to this day.
OK, let's get started.
The ingredients are simple:
The original recipe from Manale's calls for using a bit of olive oil as well as butter, add a bit of thyme, and to use lemons instead of an orange. I'm more of a purist. Food critic and local radio personality argued for doing it simpler on his radio show one time, I tried it and liked it.
A note about butter: use it or just don't cook this dish. It's about the butter flavor and making a buttery dipping sauce. If your diet doesn't include butter for whatever reason, take a pass on this and do boiled shrimp. I'll do boiled shrimp soon and you'll see that they are tasty goodness when done right as well.
Raw shrimp from a good seafood place are usually sitting in clean ice water, but i like rinsing them off at home, anyway.
Spread the shrimp out in a baking dish with sides to it. Don't just use a pizza pan, or the sauce will be uncontrollable.
Slice up the butter and place it on top of the shrimp. This 5-pound batch of shrimp made two pans, so two sticks for each. Sprinkle a lot of black pepper on top. Don't skimp! Be a little more careful with the cayenne, but remember, liberal is a good word.
Zest the orange and sprinkle the zest over the shrimp. Squeeze the juice of half an orange over each of the two pans.
You're going to want some good french bread to go with the shrimp, the better to soak up the butter sauce with!
Voila! To serve, either just plop the pan down and let everyone reach in, or dish the shrimp up into large soup bowls. Serve with cold beer or a crisp, dry, white wine.
Posted by YatPundit at February 16, 2008 6:07 PM
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