Fork In The Road: Shrimply delicious

When I really want to impress someone with my cooking, it isn’t the Chicken Kiev or the Vichyssoise I whip up. It is when I pull out the King of all recipes, Louisiana style Bar B Que Shrimp. And no, this has nothing to do with a grill but everything to do with rich, deliciously messy and wickedly decadent. It is love drenched in butter. It’s an ear-to-ear grin with grease dripping off your elbows and not caring a wit.

The best thing I ever ate in New Orleans was also the worst thing I ever put into my mouth – at least health-wise …

Bar B Que Shrimp.

The first one of this dish ever set before me had a little army of shrimp with eyes looking at me just daring me to pluck their head off and peel it out of its shell army coat. I took a deep breath and plunged in. From the first bite I was a devoted worshipper. If listed on a menu, I had to order it. An-d I was determined to be able to make it at home. And there in lied the problem.

This was many moons and years ago and I found out that getting the recipe was near impossible (pre-internet). No cookbook had it listed and I bought them all. Friends could never quite remember or find theirs. It was one of those recipes that was passed down in a family and guarded jealously. Even the restaurants wouldn’t share it – when you could find it on the menu. It took me many, many pounds of shrimp to finally decipher the flavors. One of the secrets was rosemary. I tried theme and oregano before hitting on that. The other was one of the simplest of all – regular ground black pepper. It took a few times to realize that it was a TON of black pepper. I finally let totally lose and really layered it on and bingo I had it.

You know how you know you hit the recipe just right? First, if you have a boyfriend he becomes your husband. And second, when someone you cook it for is still talking about it ten years later, you have succeeded. And yes, I have some friends who may not see me for years but when they do, that’s one of the things that invariable enters the discussion.

Now you can find all variations of the recipe on the internet. I found many of them have Worcestershire sauce. I don’t use it but I know now that I had some versions with it included but they apparently weren’t the ones I was trying so hard to copy because it never crossed my mind to include it. The very best Bar B Que Shrimp I ever had was in a restaurant that no longer exists, a consequence of hurricane Katria, so I am...

We hope that you enjoyed reading this excerpt from "Shrimply delicious". If you would like to read the entire article and more, you can order a back issue of Jan / Feb 2007 where this article was originally published.

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