Birthday Bang Bang Shrimp!

We lived around the corner from a chain restaurant called Bonefish Grill for almost two years before checking it out.

Hubby isn’t a big fish fan, and their logo (a fish skeleton) really is a terrible design because it doesn’t inspire thoughts of anything remotely appetizing.

But I had heard positive reviews from friends, and also their commercials made them sound pretty good, so we finally went just over a year ago. We liked it enough that we went back soon afterwards for my birthday dinner. This time, we tried their famous appetizer, bang bang shrimp. It was divine.

We’ve gone occasionally since then, but not often. We miss it terribly, mainly because of the bang bang shrimp.

Which is why the next part of my story is romantic, thoughtful, and just plain awesome.

My birthday was a few days ago. I think it was late morning when hubby casually asked, via gchat, what time I intended to leave work. I responded, “Around 4.”

He asked if I had any thoughts about dinner, and I replied that my only thought was that I didn’t intend to spend all evening cooking. I was willing to do something simple, given that we had plans to celebrate at a restaurant that weekend, but I didn’t want to spend much effort on it. He agreed that this sounded reasonable, and left it at that.

I pulled into the parking lot of my apartment complex around 4, about a half hour earlier than expected. Hubby’s car was inexplicably already there, though he normally wouldn’t be home until after 5, so a big grin spread across my face as I realized that he had a birthday surprise in mind. It made me think of the time I’d gone into school a bit early on my 15th birthday and found my friend in the middle of decorating my locker.

When I entered the apartment a minute later, I found cheesecake swirl brownies cooling, alfredo sauce being thickened, and a big bowl of raw shrimp being prepped. In addition to making shrimp fettucini alfredo, hubby was using a copycat recipe to make bang bang shrimp!

I don’t normally blog stuff he makes, but I felt that I needed to this time. Please excuse my less-than-awesome pictures. I was trying to stay out of the way.

He started by making a sauce with mayo, Thai sweet chili sauce, and sriracha hot chili sauce (more than the recipe called for, because it seemed to need it).

Next, he dredged raw shrimp in cornstarch.

After heating up some vegetable oil, he lightly fried them in small batches.

He drained them all on a plate lined with paper towels, just like with bacon.

Presentation is simple. In a dish, place some lettuce. I didn’t take pictures of that, sorry. But then place the shrimp on the lettuce and drizzle on the sauce. Or toss the shrimp in the sauce before putting them in the dish, as we did, just to make sure they’re evenly coated.

We’d already eaten a few before we remembered to sprinkle on some chopped scallions. So we did that.

So…. this was pretty much the best thing ever.

It was so romantic that hubby left work early, went to Wegman’s for ingredients, and was cooking this when I got home.

We both ate a full half pound of shrimp before taking a break and tackling some of the fettucini that he’d made. So much food, but so yummy. Hey, I only turn 29 once a year. The shrimp had such a nice texture, crispy yet soft and covered in the warm, creamy sauce. And the sauce was both sweet and tangy. Oh so good.

If you’re interested, here's the copycat recipe that he used.

Szechwan Shrimp

I haven’t bought shrimp in a while because it’s so expensive, but I found myself really craving it the other day.

So I bought some.

I really don’t know how to say Szechwan but I do know that I think it’s yummy. I had a recipe bookmarked on allrecipes.com from one of those daily emails that they send out, so I thought I’d give it a try. Seemed simple enough.

The sauce starts out with some water.

Some ketchup…

Soy sauce (I prefer low sodium)…

Corn starch. I thought it was really interesting to mix it in with my sauce instead of later dissolving it in some water and adding it, but I like it this way better. Eliminates a step and makes the result less watery.

Honey…

Crushed red pepper flakes…

And ground ginger…

I like pretty pictures of ingredients not quite mixed up.

Also, then I went back and redid the whole thing because I realized I wanted more sauce than the recipe called for. We’ll come back to this.

Next, I turned to the shrimp.

I’d wanted more sauce than the recipe called for because I planned to incorporate broccoli, which wasn’t in the original recipe.

Sauté it all up.

Once it had started to heat up, I added the sauce. I figured it needed time to simmer, especially with that cornstarch in there.

To serve, just put some rice in a bowl

And spoon the shrimp and broccoli right on top. Simple as that!

A really nice weeknight dinner. Not a lot of effort or dishes, but a lot of flavor. Here’s the recipe, if you’d like to try it!

I know I’ve been behind in posting. I have term papers due. Enough said. I’ll be back on track soon!

Drunken Shrimp

My big brother turned 30 last week. He decided he wanted to have a big party with lots of his favorite foods. For him, this meant serving steak, crab legs, and beer. Man stuff. Guests volunteered to bring side dishes. I volunteered to make anything that they needed, adding that I would be using his kitchen because I wasn’t going to cook it in mine and then transport it across 2 state lines.

He asked me to make drunken shrimp, explaining that his favorite restaurant had drunken shrimp that were (was? is?) to die for. He happened to have the restaurant’s cookbook and scanned the page (upside down) with the recipe for me. Hmm, looked simple enough. It called for shrimp, beer, old bay seasoning, cider vinegar, creole seasoning, mutha sauce… Wait, what? Mutha sauce? The recipe said to look on page 165 for that secondary recipe. A quick phone call to my brother, and he’d scanned that page (also upside down) for me, too.

It called for 19 ingredients, ranging from liquid smoke to ketchup to molasses to cayenne pepper sauce to fresh jalapeno peppers.

19.

If I’d been in my own kitchen, I’d have risen to the challenge. Honestly, it looked yummy. But in someone else’s kitchen with all of the ingredients hiding, and with a time crunch, I figured I’d go for something a little simpler.

I found this recipe, the sole drunken shrimp recipe on allrecipes.com.

I also waited until the last minute to make it, as I wanted it to be hot for guests. I guess this made me rush a little, especially since the kitchen was full of people at this point. I pretty much abandoned step-by-step picture-taking in the chaos, too. Sorry about that.

We start off with my first ever experience with fresh ginger root. The recipe called for 2 tablespoons of the stuff grated up.

I didn’t really know what to do with it, so I just tried to peel it roughly with a paring knife before running it over the grater. I’m told this grater was a goody-bag gift that my sister-in-law had received a while back (or at least, this is what my distracted brain remembers her telling me, though I could have completely messed that up). 

All I could think of at this point was how delicious the ginger smelled. I didn’t realize how amazing that stuff smells when fresh. Maybe I need to buy more fresh ginger.

The recipe said to heat canola oil over high heat. It should have said medium-high, as high was just way too intense. I subbed olive oil for the canola oil. I’m a rebel like that.

Dump in the ginger, along with a chopped onion and chopped garlic and heat for just 15 seconds or so. Too hot – it was spitting and going crazy. I think I backed it off a bit. Then add shrimp, salt, and pepper, and cook for about 5 minutes, or until slightly pink. So far, so good.

Then I stopped taking pictures. Bear with me.

Add beer, ketchup, and some white sugar, and then return it to a boil. Then, dissolve a tablespoon of cornstarch in a tablespoon of water, and add it to the mixture. Or, if you’re like me, decide that you’d be better off just mixing any old amount of cornstarch with any old amount of water, and put probably closer to a cup of starchy water in the sauce. Then regret it, as this is not a stir fry. Probably a lot more liquid than I was supposed to have. I actually ladled a bunch of it back out, taking with it some flavor. Then I realized that the written directions never actually said to add red pepper flakes, though they’re listed in the ingredients, and figured that was supposed to go in with the salt and pepper ages ago.  So I added them now. The recipe said to return to a boil and let simmer for 5 minutes. Done and done. Finally, mix in some sesame oil and chopped green onions, and you’re good to go.

Once I dumped it in the bowl, I finally tasted it. My first two impressions were that (a) the shrimp seemed overcooked to me, and (b) there was not enough spice and seasoning. So I picked up a canister of Old Bay, which was out for the crabs, and sprinkled it generously on top of this.

Honestly, I liked the beer/ ketchup combination and I think this recipe would have been a lot better if I hadn’t put too much liquid in and if I hadn’t overcooked the shrimp. The overall reception was pretty good, I think, but then again, my brother is friends with nice people. Still, I found it disappointing.

I may whip up some of that mutha sauce before my brother visits us next time and try it again, this time with the restaurant’s recipe. I can also see myself trying this particular recipe again. I’ll be more careful.

Does anyone have a good drunken shrimp recipe?

Cajun Gumbo

Saturdays are my Sundays. I work Sunday through Thursday, so Saturday afternoons for me have that feeling that the rest of the world gets on Sunday afternoons. Usually, I keep myself pretty busy between homework, housework, and doing stuff with hubby and the pups, but today I find myself whirling around in my desk chair, trying to get the puppy to play with me because I don’t feel like doing anything else. Hubby and I volunteered with our dog earlier today at a library about an hour away (kids read to him while we bribed him with treats to hold still), and I guess that took away a lot of my taste for productivity and adventure today. I actually do feel like cooking, but we need a grocery store trip pretty badly so there isn’t a whole lot to make. Also, I have it in my head that I really want to make Southwest egg rolls, and given that I have none of the ingredients, I’ve got nothing to do in the kitchen. Except clean, but I don’t feel like doing that, either.

In boredom, I called my big brother, and he told me that he had a nice pot of gumbo simmering on the stove. Mmmm, that sounded nice. I don’t have the ingredients to make my own, but I do have pictures from the last time hubby and I made gumbo. I guess writing about it and drooling over those pictures is a good substitute. Well, an okay substitute at least. Okay, it’s really not a substitute at all, but it’s something to do, right?

Gumbo is not something I had ever had before I met hubby. I didn’t even know what it was before he made it for me (New Yorkers don’t know a thing about Cajun dishes that are considered staples in the South). I remember that first batch he made. We were living in different states and seeing each other on weekends, and he whipped up a batch before I came down one Saturday morning. It wasn’t like anything I’d ever had before. I’ve watched him make it many times since then, and I think I could probably manage it on my own at this point, but I don’t think it’d be as good as it is when he makes it. I think he makes it differently every time, so I’ve been slow about picking it up. This last time we made it, we used chicken, sausage, and shrimp.

Start off with a whole chicken. This was a nice fat one. I can’t remember if we removed the skin and fat, but I usually do that when I make soup to keep it from getting too greasy.

Put it in a large pot of boiling water. Season with salt and cayenne pepper and let it cook for a half hour or so.

After a while, fish it back out. Let it cool, and bone it (or de-bone, if you’re Amelia Bedelia). Wow, where did that reference come from? I’ll blame spending an hour with kids in a library earlier today.

I guess we didn’t take that skin off, after all.

And move on to the roux. This is the most important part, as it gives the gumbo the flavor and color. It’s basically oil and flour that is cooked and cooked and cooked until it is a deep, chocolate brown. You can’t burn it, or it’s ruined, so you’ve got to stir it a lot. I suppose the original Cajuns didn’t do it in the microwave, but that’s how my in-laws do it (stirring every 30-60 seconds) and that’s good enough for me.

I didn’t start taking pictures while it was still white, but I remembered after it had started to turn a caramel color. Look at the progression in the color as it kept cooking. Sorry for the lack of consistency in framing – I guess I wasn’t thinking from a trending perspective when I took the pictures.

Pour it very, very carefully into the reserved chicken broth. Don’t let it splash, because it will burn you badly.

Have some chopped onion and celery ready to go. It simmers so much that they pretty much disintegrate, anyway, but hubby likes to use the food processor to get them diced finely anyway. No veggie chunks for us, just flavor.

Based on the following picture and the fact that it was taken before the roux pictures, I can see that we put the veggies in the broth before the roux this last time. But hubby says they should go in right after, so that’s why I’m putting it like that here. Go with it.

Once the veggies have cooked down a bit, you can add in your meat. Back goes the chicken, and here’s some sliced andouille sausage. We’ve pan-fried the sausage before putting it in, but this time we didn’t. I don’t know, ask hubby.

If you’re putting shrimp in, like us, wait a little while. It overcooks easily.

And then just let it simmer for a while. Season it, of course, with salt, pepper, and plenty of cayenne pepper. We like it sinus-clearing hot, but not hot enough to really hurt.

Serve over rice, and you’re good to go.

.

Omg. I want this so badly now.