Serves: 5-6
Growing up Catholic in South Louisiana, the rule of not eating meat on Fridays needed to be heavily enforced. Though technically not a sin, my mom & dad made sure we had to make the “sacrifice”, so we had the tremendous burden of eating seafood on Fridays during Lent, a sacrifice I welcomed with open arms & mouth, for that matter. I particularly loved the Fridays that fresh shrimp was purchased by the fish man down the road in the back of his truck at his fish market. The only difference today is that I prefer to buy shrimp I can actually see & taste. My mom was very frugal in this area & bought shrimp that were so small they actually disappeared just by seasoning them. I can joke about this now, but I gladly had a spoon in that pot when those small shrimp were cooked. Here’s my favourite way to prepare large, fresh Louisiana Gulf Shrimp.
Ingredients:
- 3 lbs large fresh shrimp with head & peeling still on.
- 2- Sticks of Salted Butter
- 2 heaping tablespoons of flour
- 2 – Bunches Onion Tops
- 1 – Bunch Parsley
Preparation:
- Peel & devein shrimp, keeping all peelings & heads.
- Boil all peelings & heads. After boiling heavy for 10 min, strain & keep stock for gravy.
- In a black cast iron pot, sauté flour in butter until brown on medium to low fire with a wire whisk.
- Add shrimp stock & onion tops, and boil for approximately 30 min with flour & butter. The stock should be getting thicker.
- Once the stock has cooked for 30 min, add seasoned shrimp to stock along with parsley & only cook 10 min maximum on low fire with pot lid. Taste gravy after 5 minutes of cooking to determine seasoning preference.
- After 10 min of cooking, remove from heat & let rest for another 10 min before serving over the cooked rice.
Served with some fresh fried filleted catfish will cause you to sin on Fridays anyway by overeating.
I hope you enjoy it.