For Sarah Smith and others who won’t be at Bouchercon in New Orleans this year, here is an excellent recipe that we picked up there last time,
Source: From the Palace Cafe, New Orleans, Louisiana.
For the grits, follow the directions for cheese grits on the Quaker grits box.
For the barbecued shrimp:
1 1/2 tsp. chopped garlic
1.5 Tbsp. butter
1.5 pounds of peeled shrimp
4 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1.5 tbsp. Crystal hot sauce
1 1/2 lemon juice
1.5 tbsp. cane vinegar
1.5 tbsp. cane syrup
3 tsp Creole seasoning
3 tsp. cracked black pepper
1.5 tsp. bourbon
1 cup of butter, chilled and chopped
1-2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, minced.
Directions
Over medium heat, lightly saute the garlic in 1.5 tablespoons of butter in a medium saute pan. Add the shrimp and cook them for one minute on each side. Transfer the shrimp to a bowl. Increase the heat to high and add the Worcester sauce, hot sauce, lemon juice, cane vinegar, cane syrup, Creole seasoning and cracked black pepper. Cook until the sauce is reduced by half. Add the bourbon and stir to deglaze the pan.
Reduce the heat to medium and add the rest of the butter, one piece of butter at a time until each is completely incorporated. Cook until the sauce has thickened enough to coat the spoon. Return the shrimp to the pan, add the rosemary and finish cooking the shrimp. DO NOT OVERCOOK.
Note from Harold:
I usually apportion 5-7 shrimp per person, and I use no more than 1/2 stick of butter at the end (where it calls for 1 cup). Also I substitute brown sugar for cane syrup because I still haven’t been able to figure out what that is (I also throw in a tablespoon of molasses) and I have no idea what “cane vinegar” is; I just use white vinegar. Then to make things less frantic, I have experimented with making the sauce beforehand — that is, taking all the ingredients from the Worcestershire sauce to the cracked black pepper (and the molasses) and mixing them in a pan and boiling it up until it thickens somewhat. This seems to work OK.] [Then there are Barbara Conklin’s revisions relating to the cooking of the shrimp and the frizzling the sauce, which are probably preferable. We’ll see!
Kate Gallison, Writer 