Click here to see my 4 ½ minutes of fame!
Yesterday I got to cook on TV for 4½ minutes. At home I peeled shrimp and chopped onions for 2½ hours. Unless you are a Food Network star, TV cooking isn’t very glamorous. Still it was a lot of fun and everyone at Channel 5 was so nice to me. I was nervous before the cameras rolled, but when it started, well, I just cooked – I know how to do that. The dish featured was Barbeque Shrimp. The cookbook, You’re Grown-Now You Can Cook, tells the fun story of how I got the recipe from an elderly lady in New Orleans. After I had that recipe, I couldn’t wait to get back home and make Barbeque Shrimp. It was immediately my most popular party dish and my girl friends and I discovered that guys LOVED it, a happy discovery when you’re 19 years old!
Now Barbeque Shrimp is a favorite at our house for several reasons beyond being delicious. #1- I DO NOT peel the shrimp, #2- clean up is almost nonexistent. The first reason, according to the original recipe, is just tradition. Shrimp cooks better and tastes better when cooked in the shell. It’s part of the ambience to just peel and eat shrimp while dipping French bread in all of that wonderful sauce. But for TV the shrimp have to be naked, that’s just the way it is. The second reason is because we always serve Barbeque Shrimp family style, meaning I cover the table with newspaper and put the whole pan of shrimp in the middle. A roll of paper towels is all that’s required in the way of utensils. We peel, dip, and eat. When everyone’s finished, I throw away the newspaper and wash the pan, well; actually I usually just put it in the sink to soak. Done!
You may need slightly more than 4 ½ minutes to pull this together, but not by much. So get some shrimp, grab a loaf of good bread, and you probably have everything else you need for a fun and easy get together. Sounds like a great Spring Break party!
Ingredients
2 lb shrimp, shell on
2 onions, sliced into rings
1 bottle Italian dressing, not fat free
1 stick butter
5 tbsp pepper
5 tbsp paprika
For serving: French bread
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Put onions, Italian dressing, butter, pepper, and paprika in a large casserole dish. Bake for 5 minutes, and then stir to distribute butter. Bake 10 more minutes. Add shrimp and stir to coat with sauce.
Bake about 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the size of your shrimp, until they turn pink and are pink and done.
Serves 6
Serving Suggestion: Cover your table with newspaper. Put the pan of shrimp in the middle of the table on a towel or trivet. Serve with French bread and let your guests or family make a mess throwing peels on paper and using bread to dip in the sauce and onions. For clean up, you throw away paper and wash the pan! How easy is that?
