Louisiana Lessons

Ok, so I have a co-worker named Andy.  His nicknames are Eye-Candy Andy and Sexual Harassment Panda.  Anyway, he is interested in Louisiana cuisine, so I have been showing him a few dishes during down time.  I promised to teach him a new Louisiana dish every week till the end of the year.  This is great for me, too, because I need a refresher, and it helps you tighten technique to teach it to someone else.

First we did Etoufee.  In this case, we used shrimp, because that's what we had access to.  This allowed me to show the brown roux technique (along with my secret hack trick, which I will not state here, but it rhymes with Bitchin' Croquet).  So many cajun and creole stews use this formula, I had to say 'To be honest, it can be hard to say where etoufee stops and gumbo starts.'  It came out really nice.

Next up, we tackled Blackened Fish.  Our blackening seasoning wasn't totally authentic, just because I don't keep that many dry herbs and spices on hand, but we faked it nicely.  Smoked paprika, salt, sugar, pepper, cayenne, and oregano.  The sugar is a controversial ingredient, but I like it.  It just burns black, but it helps the crust really stick on and gives it a bitter edge that really accentuates the sear and plays well with the heat.  To complete the dish, we did Brabant Potatoes (another NOLA original), and Hot-Sauce-Honey-Butter, which is cliche, but also delicious.  The fish we used was flounder, which I acknowledge is not the authentic choice, but its what we had.

Lastly, this sloppy mess is Barbecue Shrimp, in the style of Pascal's Manale on Napoleon.  Really came out amazing.  I never understood why it is called Barbecue Shrimp, but New Orleans cuisine has always had things with really odd, esoteric names, so why not?  Are you familiar with this one?  I sort of reverse-engineered the dish, using a couple of online recipes and my personal experiences.  You should try it.  You need:

Half a pound of head-on shrimp
Olive Oil
2 lemons, cut into wedges
6 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 branches of rosemary, chopped
1 beer
1 T. worcestershire
1 stick butter, diced
Salt, black pepper, cayenne, parsley
Toasted French Bread

Heat the olive oil in a skillet.
Add the lemons and let them caramelize a little bit.  This will spit and fuss, but the depth it gives to the broth is outstanding.
Drop in the garlic and rosemary, shaking the pan well.
A blast of aroma should hit you in the face.
At this point, drop in the shrimp, deglaze with the worcestershire and half of the beer, and season heavily with the salt and 2 peppers.
Slam the rest of the beer for me, boo.  Or share it with an attractive young librarian and try to get her into a festive temperament.  And remember, beer comes in six-packs, so you can apply more if necessary (for the librarian, not the shrimp.)
Swirl in the butter and check seasoning.  Sprinkle parsley over.  This is window-dressing only, but its a pretty ugly dish, so it needs help.

The way you eat a shrimp is to peel it (still hot and totally greasy, do not wear white for this one), dip the tail meat into the spicy buttery beer jus (holding it by the head), and then eat it in one bite, slurping at the head juices.  Then dip some bread into the jus, soak it up and consume.

This might be the best way in the universe to eat shrimp.