"Something Smells Fishy"
They always say when life gives you lemons make lemonade, but the saying assumes you have sugar and water. I have been MIA for what feels like the last 20 years from blogging. Life gave me a whole bag of lemons when my husband died four days after my last post, while I was 7 months pregnant. I was fresh out of sugar and water. Thank God for friends and family, who not only gave me sugar and water but made the lemonade for me and fed it to me. Fast forward four months later, Baby is born and healthy, I’m back to cooking and finally back to blogging. I have lost my biggest fan, but I’m still here by God’s grace. Next ill start back on video posts. Normally April would have been my month for vegan and vegetarian recipes, but I’m mixing it up and just finishing off the month with maybe 5 seafood recipes. The first being a super easy and very flavorful shrimp dish.
Seafood boils are a huge delicious thing. Nothing is nicer than going to a restaurant donning a bib and eating crab legs, lobster tails, shrimp, sausages, potatoes and corn with your bare hands. I had to really hold back from not adding sausages to the mix. But seeing as its easter/lent season I decided to keep it pork free.
There are several methods of preparation. Firstly, you can boil the ingredients in a large pot of seasoned Cajun broth. You can also put them in a bag and steam them in the oven, I’ve seen persons layer all the butter seasonings and seafood in a covered foil pan and cook them that way as well. I opted for a broil, the other methods produce a more ‘wet’ finished product, I was looking for something more browned, with a slight crisp on the potatoes, slight char on the corn and less gravy. This is not traditional, as people usually want it to be juicy. But that's the thing about cooking, you can do what you prefer. If you want it more juicy with a butter sauce forming on the bottom of the pan, cover with foil while cooking in the oven. If you don’t mind the potatoes and corn and shrimp absorbing all the juices then follow this recipe. Either way, it's sure to please.
For the Cajun seasoning mix
2 tablespoon Onion powder
1 tablespoon Garlic powder
1 tablespoon Allspice
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon Nutmeg
3 tablespoons Smoked paprika
1 tablespoon Salt
1 tablespoon celery salt
1 tablespoon Sugar
2 tablespoon Dried oregano
1 tablespoon Cayenne
1 tablespoon Dried thyme
1 tablespoon Black pepper
For the sheet pan
8 large potatoes
4 whole sweet corn
1 to 2 lb shrimp (peeled and deveined tail on)
1 stick salted Butter (preferably garlic butter)
4.5 tablespoon Oil
1 lemon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 475/500 (broil)
- Combine all the ingredients for the Cajun seasoning mix
- Cut the sweet corn into small pieces. (one corn can yield about 4 to 5 pieces)
- Peel and cut the potatoes into large chunks and parboil in salted water until just tender about 10 to 12 minutes.
- In the last 5 minutes add the corn to the boiling water to slightly cook it
- Place the corn, parboiled potatoes, and shrimp in three separate bowls
- Season each with 1.5 tablespoon of oil and 2 tablespoons of the Cajun mix
- Then combine all three on a sheet pan, squeezes the juice of the lemon all over and toss
- Alternatively, you can add everything to the sheet pan and add the oil and seasoning there but I find they get better coated when you add the oil and seasoning to each separately before combining
- Add dollops of garlic butter all over
- Place in the oven and cook for 8-10 minutes stir and continue to cook for another 8 – 10 minutes
- The shrimp should be pink and the potatoes and corn will have started to get a nice dark roast.
- Serve immediately, garnish with scallion, thyme leaves or parsley
Greedy Tips
- Try to get the biggest size of shrimp you can. Because they do shrink up while cooking. My shrimp were too small
- If you use frozen corn, do not add it to the boiling water, defrost them and make sure to squeeze out as much excess water as possible before tossing in the oil and Cajun seasoning
XOXO Greedygirl
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