In the best of conditions, it was nearly a five-hour drive to my brother-in-law’s house in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, from our home in the Mississippi Delta.
But it took much longer, thanks to a torrential downpour for nearly the whole trip. By the time we arrived, road-weary and bedraggled, it was long past nightfall.
Johnny welcomed us into his brightly lit kitchen. By the time we finished a stiff drink, the house smelled heavenly. I saw no signs of food prep anywhere; there were no pots simmering on the stove. I couldn’t imagine what he had planned to feed us.
The kitchen table was covered with a cheap vinyl cloth, which should have given me a clue about what was to come. There were no plates, no silverware; only two baskets of sliced baguette, one at each end of the table.
Johnny was a good cook, I knew, because we talked about food whenever we saw each other. When he set a baking dish of shrimp in the center of the table, everything became clear.
He was serving us Cajun-style barbecued shrimp, redolent of garlic, peppery with spices, and overwhelmingly alluring.
There’s no grilling involved in this shrimp — Johnny’s version was baked, and that’s how I make it, too, but you can also prepare it on the stovetop.
We all dove in immediately, eating with our hands. For me, the rhythm was a shrimp, then a swab of bread in the buttery juices, another shrimp or two, then more bread. The vinyl cloth meant that we could just chuck the shrimp’s emptied shells on the table without worrying about staining.
We ate until we couldn’t eat any more, and there were just a couple of shrimp left in the dish. All the bread was gone, as was all the sauce. Johnny folded the vinyl cloth’s corners over the shrimp shells and put the package into the garbage. He rinsed out the baking dish and put it into the dishwasher, and clean-up was done.
That gave us the rest of the evening to discuss the coming days of fishing near Grand Isle, a barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico.
That trip remains one of my best vacations ever, beginning with that incredible barbecued shrimp.
These days, I like to serve this to guests who may not know each other well. Something magical happens when a group of people eat with their hands. By the end of the evening, everyone feels like best friends.
This is how Johnny taught me to prepare the shrimp he served us on that memorable evening.
Cajun barbecued
shrimp
Makes 2 to 4 servings
Technically, two pounds of raw shrimp will serve four people. In my house, though, this recipe only serves two.
Serve a mixed salad with a lively vinaigrette (three parts olive oil to one part lemon juice, plus a little Dijon mustard and some hot sauce) before the shrimp if you need to stretch the shrimp to serve four.
I generally put the baking dish on the table and let people reach in to serve themselves, rather than portioning this into individual servings. For more formal service, divide the shrimp between four deep dishes.
Ingredients
1½ sticks (¾ cup) butter
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup dry white wine
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons hot sauce
1 teaspoon oregano
1½ teaspoons paprika
½ teaspoon black pepper
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 large lemon
2 pounds medium to large fresh shrimp, unpeeled
3 green onions, sliced
1 French baguette, sliced, for serving
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In an oven-safe baking dish (such as a 9-by-13-inch glass dish), combine all ingredients except the lemon, shrimp, and green onions. Juice the lemon into the dish, then toss the juiced halves into the baking dish. Place in the oven and heat until the butter melts. Stir the mixture, then add the shrimp.
Bake 15 to 20 minutes, stirring once or twice, or until the shrimp has all turned pink. Scatter the sliced green onions over the shrimp. Serve at once with bread for dipping into the sauce.
Note: Because this is a peel-and-eat dish, diners’ fingers will get covered in shrimp and sauce juices. It’s a nice touch to offer warmed wet cloths after dinner so folks can wipe their hands.
