Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Peel and Eat Beer Shrimp

I've been cooking more lately; my life is back on track and I'm feeling kinda inspired. I tend to look at a lot of recipes online and then sort of come up with my own ideas. The problem is, if I don't write them down I forget about them. The other problem is, if I write them down, I tend to lose the recipes!

So this won't be a fancy, photo-laden collection of recipes. It's just my e-scribblings; the blog seemed like a good place to jot 'em down because no matter how long I neglect it, it's always right back where I left it!

Peel-And-Eat Beer Shrimp

1 lb shrimp, about 24-ct size
1 bottle beer (whatever you like; I used Michelob)
1 lemon
2 Tbs Old Bay Seasoning
2 Tbs salt
1/2 onion, halved again
water (if needed)
butter

Devein the shrimp but leave the shells on. This sounds like a lot of work, and it kinda is, but I used kitchen shears and just cut down the back of the shell and pulled out the vein. You might get lucky and get your meat counter guy to do it, or you might get REALLY lucky and find them already done that way!

In a stockpot over med-hi heat, fry up the onion in a little butter. Leave the onion in big hunks because you're gonna get rid of it. Sprinkle in the Old bay and Salt, and when the onion is sizzling, juice the lemon into the mix, and throw in your lemon halves too. Pour in the beer and reduce the heat to med low. Simmer about 15 min. With a slotted spoon, remove the onion. You can keep the lemon in there.

Toss in the shrimp and cook them about 2 minutes. No more than 3. They overcook fast! Remove them with the slotted spoon and set aside (in the fridge if you want them cold). Crank up the heat on the broth, and boil it until it reduces a bit.

If you want to eat them warm, ladle a bit of the broth into dipping cups and add a pat of butter. Start peeling and dipping. This is what we did. They didn't last long!

If you want to eat them cold, forget the butter and cool off the broth, then pour over the shrimp (don't do this with hot broth - it will end up overcooking your shrimp). Store in the fridge until ready to eat - preferably the next day. Serve with lemon wedges and whatever sauce you like... but you won't need sauce!

Hot or cold, you could sprinkle a little extra Old Bay on 'em, and they would probably look something like the peel-and-eat shrimp at Bubba Gump's:


...but without all the gimmick. Run Forrest, Run!

1 comment:

Debbielou said...

Yummy ! Happy New Year and Congratulations ! Really pleased that you are so happy and also back to blogging xx