Not Shrimp Again! And Again.

Yes indeed, shrimp again. Remember that shrimp stock that The Distracted Cook made the other day? Those shells had to come from somewhere. And the very place was from a recipe of Roasted Shrimp that we had for dinner that night. Roasted Shrimp is not the number one way we eat shrimp around here, but it is a good, quick and easy way to have shrimp on the plate in just a few minutes. And the shells are just what we needed for that stock so this decision was an easy one to make.

The idea of roasting shrimp was one that I had never come upon before watching Ina Garten on the Food Network. I went online and printed out her recipe and it has been one of our favorites ever since. You can go here and find it.

And the recipe for the sauce is one you will want to make again and again. These are the perfect shrimp to play around with and we usually have them on a bed of greens - mache, early baby lettuces, or arugula. Another great sauce that is not only good but also good looking is the famous GG.  GG is the Green Goddess recipe that you can find right here on Leite's Culinaria. This dressing recipe is good for a lot of reasons and you will probably come to rely on it as much as The Distracted Cook does. And if you think of some special uses for it, just let us know below in the comments so that we can try it too!

You might be wondering how many shrimp The Distracted Cook actually had in that freezer bag. I took a bag off the shelf and it was chock-a- block full of JUMBOS and there were at least three pounds in there. So after the Roasted Shrimp there was enough for two more favorite recipes. The first is an old family favorite that I have been making since forever. I think I found it in a cookbook from the Ursuline Academy in New Orleans way back in the day. It is the one that I use when we just want some good shrimp salad with no fancy stuff in it. Here is how you do it:

Shrimp Salad

Ingredients:

2 or 3 cups (or just use what you have) of boiled shrimp, peeled and cleaned (if they are large you can cut them into bite size pieces)

2 hard cooked eggs, shelled and chopped in medium pieces

2 ribs of celery finely chopped

1/2 cup ketchup


1 T dill pickle relish


1 T sweet pickle relish


Salt and Pepper to taste

A few shakes of Lea & Perrin sauce ( in New Orleans that is what we called any brand of Worcestershire style sauce. Just one of those things that we did.)


Louisiana Gold  hot sauce to taste (optional since a lot of people don't like it hot)

Directions:
Mix the shrimp, chopped eggs, and chopped celery in a bowl. In a separate bowl combine the other ingredients and mix well. You can either pour the sauce over the shrimp or dump the shrimp mixture into the sauce. Or if you are really lazy like me, make the sauce first and then put the other ingredients in there and save some dish washing later on. It works either way you do it. Give it a taste and see if it hits the spot. You can add more of any of the ingredients, it depends on what your personal taste preference is. Serve over lettuce or if you can't wait, just dig in with your fork before you serve the rest of the group!

By now you may be wondering why those words are in bold font up there in this recipe. That is another way that The Distracted Cook keeps herself on track. I can look at the recipe and see what ingredients I need without reading the measured amounts - that comes later, right now just get it all together. It really helps a lot.