Michelle Turenne is my best friend from college and still a dear friend today. She also taught me most of what I know about serious cooking. She has great culinary genes on both sides of her family, and most often a recipe from her is a sure-fire hit. This one came to Michelle by way of her mother and the Greenbrier Resort Cookbook.
For those of you not familiar, the Greenbrier is an amazing 5-star resort in the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia. It was built in 1778 and is a National Historic Landmark. They publish an exquisite cookbook with some of the resort's favorite dishes. Here's a link if you'd like to check it out (http://www.greenbriershopping.com/greencook.html ) The Greenbrier Grilled Shrimp and Remoulade is one such dish.
A number of years ago, Michelle had a bunch of our crew from the old days up to her place in Connecticut, and we made these shrimp as an appetizer. Because we needed something to nosh on while we had cocktails, cooked together and tangoed around the kitchen to old disco music. It became an instant classic and we whip up a batch whenever we get the gang together. There are a lot of ingredients, but it's actually quite simple to make.
But first, a cocktail. A vodka tonic with a lime should do the trick....
Perfect! Now it's time to cook. I'm going to do this recipe in phases, starting with the remoulade, which is basically a big fancy word for the awesome sauce you dip the shrimp in after it's cooked. The remoulade just gets better with age, so if you do it the day before and give the ingredients some time to marry in the fridge, it's truly amazing. And the leftovers are awesome on everything - veggies, as a chip dip, you name it.
Here are the basic ingredients for the remoulade:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup diced celery
2 Tbsp minced onions
2 Tbsp chopped parsley
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp prepared horseradish
2 Tbsp ketchup
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp Worcestershire
2 drips Tabasco
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fine minced garlic
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp paprika
This isn't a Pampered Chef product (although they make one), but I have to give a little love to my handy chopper. Because I cry like a baby when I chop onions, a fact which should surprise none of you. You all know how much I cry! Plus my knife skills really suck, and this way everything gets cut up nice and small, leaving my fingers intact.
I also have to give a shout out to the best brown-Dijon style mustard ON THE PLANET! Leave it to a ballpark to make the perfect mustard. Nadine got this for me the last time she was back home in Ohio, and I treasure it! SO GOOD!
So basically just chop, dice or mince what needs to be chopped, diced and minced, then measure out all the other ingredients and combine them in a bowl.
Then mix it all together. Not the most attractive color, I know. But stick your finger in there and have a taste. Pretty darn good, huh?
This glass mixing bowl is a Pampered Chef piece, and one of my favorites. I just love that they give everything sealable lids so it can go straight from prep to the fridge. Which is where I'm gonna park it until tomorrow morning, when we make things pretty for transport to the party.
The other thing I like to do the night before I cook and serve this is prep the shrimp. You need two and a half pounds of the big suckers (the ones where you only get about 12-15 shrimp per pound - they're called U-15's. Go see the fish guy at a good grocery and he'll know what you want). They also have to be peeled and de-veined, which is the messy part. I was too busy making sure the veins went down the disposal to photo that. If anyone needs help learning to de-vein shrimp, call me and we'll take that one off line.
Then you just rinse them off, put them in something with a cover and park them in the fridge overnight.
Tomorrow, we marinate and grill! Stay tuned for "Greenbrier Shrimp - Part 2" coming to your computer tomorrow. I'm off to finish my cocktail and check on hockey trade rumors.
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