Our grown-and-made-in California preserved lemon paste punches above its Golden State weight in a recipe created by Texas-based food writer Don Grogg, adding local ingredients from Louisiana and Tennessee.
Need
2 dozen large shrimp, about 1 pound (peeled and deveined) or 12 to 16 jumbo shrimp (9-12), about 1.5 pounds (whole – not peeled and deveined)
2 tbsp If & When Bay Leaf Black Pepper Preserved Meyer Paste
3 TBS Willingham’s W'ham dry seasoning (mild)
1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp ground cayenne pepper (optional)
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup shrimp stock (or water if you don’t have the stock)
1½ cups unsalted butter (yes, that is correct)
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 Meyer lemon preferred - whole, halved, then quartered and muddled in the sauce. A standard lemon, if that's what's available, will add more acidic bite, so taste as you go.
Handful of fresh parsley, chopped (optional)
Do
Rinse shrimp in cold water and drain well. Set aside.
In a large bowl, mix If & When, Willingham's, Worcestershire, the pepper (both), stock, wine and garlic. Place the skillet over medium high heat. Let it boil for a few minutes to hydrate the spices, then carefully add the butter and return to a boil.
Now add the shrimp. Cook for 5 minutes, moving the shrimp with tongs to coat and cook. Cover, remove from the burner and let sit for a few minutes to cook through.
Serve immediately in bowls with lots of crusty baguettes on the side, or on a platter with oven cooked Baker Farm popcorn rice mounded in the middle and the shrimp and sauce surrounding it. Garnish with fresh herbs.
Have plenty of regular or paper towels available, either way you prepare it.
Feeds 2-3 as an entrée (Yes, the sauce is as good as the shrimp)
Notes
From recipe creator and food writer Don Grogg:
This is a compilation of several memories of decades ago in NOLA and lots of cookbook references, and my own imagination.
Two ways to make this entrée: with peeled, tail removed and deveined extra-large or larger shrimp or with head and shell on jumbo whole shrimp. The jumbos ones in the bowl were 9-12 to a pound. With a salad, the six shrimp were a meal.
-Don Grogg dongrogg@outlook.com
