Chef it up, yo!

Yum! I have come to the conclusion that shrimp are my favorite food group. As far back as I can remember, I have had this insatiable love for shrimp. When I was little and my family would go out to eat on a special occasion, I would be allowed to order pretty much anything on the menu (within reason), right? Never fail I ordered the shrimp EVERY time. I think I started with fried shrimp, eventually working my way up to shrimp cocktail and then on to shrimp scampi. It wasn’t until I was about 15 that I realized I loved more than the shrimp species - I loved the entire (slight exaggeration) Decapoda order!!!

Alright, I will get down to biz-NAS now. Truthfully, I only like to make this recipe on special occasions or holidays. Why, you say? I am not going to lie - partly because it costs quite a chunk of change for those collosal-sized Picassos (gigantic shrimp) and not to mention like anything you over indulge in - it eventually goes down in its “cost per taste” value. I will give you an example of very low cost per taste value: When I worked for Pizza Hut 60 hours a week for 7 years - after awhile it no longer tasted good and I couldn’t eat it anymore - OD’ed basically… so bad in fact that I would rather be called a bulldaggaskeeza than eat a personal pan pizza. Damnnnnnnn.

Yo! Listen up: Don’t use any shrimp smaller than jumbo - be for real, you are grilling them - they will shrink faster than you can say “where the hell are my shrimp?” - so size does matter, in this case.

Grilled Marinated Shrimp

• 1 lb. fresh colossal or jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined (depending on your preference – I like to do 3 colossal shrimp per person)
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• ½ medium shallot, minced
• 2 scallions, chopped (more if you are using them for garnish, fancy pants!)
• ½ cup olive oil
• ½ of a lemon, juiced
• 1 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley
• 1 teaspoon of fresh thyme
• 1 teaspoon of fresh rosemary
• 1 large bay leaf
• 1 ½ tablespoons of rice vinegar

In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients (except the shrimp) and whisk the marinade until well blended.

Carefully pour the marinade into a gallon Ziploc bag and add the shrimp. Seal the bag and lightly toss to coat the shrimp. Let the shrimp marinate in the refrigerator for at least an hour. I usually marinate them for about 3 - 4 hours, turning the bag occasionally.

Preheat your grill pan or grill (you can use a grill pan which is easier in the winter or your grill – its totally up to you) – get it nice and hot. Grill 4 to 8 minutes until shrimp turn pink and opaque in thickest part, turning once halfway through grilling time. Serve with a fancy garnish and your favorite dipping sauce or remoulade.

(click on images to enlarge)

Methane Meter boasts:

Download or print recipe here:
Grilled Marinated Shrimp Recipe (PDF 20.7 kb)

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 4th, 2007 at 2:10 pm and is filed under Appetizer, Marinade, Seafood, Shrimp. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.