Bourbon House: Bourbon BBQ Shrimp

For a dish that’s easy to eat, and still has that classic Barbeque Shrimp presentation, peel the shrimp, leaving the heads and tails on, before adding them to the sauce. Leave the shrimp out, and you have a great New Orleans barbeque sauce recipe. Try substituting poached oysters for the shrimp, or fried oysters for a great barbeque oyster po-boy on hot French bread.

Serves 2

• 1 t Garlic, chopped
• 1 T Butter
• 1 lb Jumbo Louisiana shrimp
• 3 T Worcestershire sauce
• 1 T Crystal hot sauce
• 1 ea Lemon, juice only
• 2 t Creole seasoning
• 2 t Cracked black pepper
• 1 C Old Forrester’s Bourbon
• 1 T Cane syrup
• 1 C Butter, chilled and chopped
• 1 t Fresh rosemary, minced
• French bread, thickly sliced on the diagonal, warmed

Lightly sauté the garlic in the butter in a medium sauté pan.  Add the shrimp and cook for 1 minute on each side.  Increase the heat to high and add the Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, lemon juice, Creole seasoning and cracked pepper.  Add the bourbon and cane syrup and stir to deglaze the sauté pan.  Cook until reduced by ½.

Reduce the heat to medium and add the butter one piece at a time, mixing until completely incorporated after each addition and cooking until the sauce is thickened enough to coat the spoon.  Stir in the rosemary.  Ladle into bowls.  Serve with hot French bread.

Luke: Leroy’s Oyster Stew (from Besh Big Easy pg. 54)

• 1 leek, white part, minced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 large tomato, chopped
• 2 green onions, chopped
• Pinch dried thyme
• 3 dozen oysters, shucked and liquor reserved for Pan Sauce
• Squeeze of lemon juice
• salt and pepper

Cook the leeks and garlic in the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes, green onions, oyster pan sauce (see directions below), and thyme, increase the heat to high, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer, add the oysters, and cook just until they become firm and their edges begin to curl. Season with Tabasco, lemon juice, salt, and pepper, and stir to combine the flavors.

Go-To Oyster Pan Sauce: The rich flavor of this stew comes from a simple oyster pan sauce. I make it by heating some olive oil in a skillet with a diced large onion, a minced fennel bulb, 4 minced garlic cloves, a heaping teaspoon each crushed red pepper flakes, thyme and tarragon, and 2 bay leaves. Once the vegetables have softened, I add 1 1⁄2 cups heavy cream, 1 1⁄2 cups dry vermouth, and 3 cups oyster liquor or water. Increase the heat to high and reduce the sauce by half, about 15 minutes.

Trenasse: Smoked Oyster and Artichoke Soup

Yield: 18-20 servings @ 8 ounces

Ingredients:

• 1 pound butter, unsalted
• ¼ cup sweet yellow onion, sliced
• ¼ cup leek whites, cleaned and sliced
• ¼ cup celery, cleaned and sliced
• ¼ cup parsnip, peeled and medium diced
• 1 T garlic, sliced thin
• 1 pound flour
• ¼ cup white wine
• 1 gallon artichoke stock (recipe follows):
• 1 cup oyster liquor
• 1 quart heavy cream
• 1 quart smoked oysters, chopped (recipe follows)
• dash green tobacco
• salt and white pepper to your preference
• 1 cup chives, sliced

Using a heavy gumbo pot, melt butter over medium heat.  Add onions, leeks, celery, and parsnip, and cook until translucent, 10-12 minutes.  Add garlic and cook another 5 minutes.  Season with salt and white pepper to your preference.  Add flour and make a blond roux, cook for 5 minutes to add color to the roux.  Deglaze with white wine, cook 1 minute.  Mix the artichoke stock with the oyster liquor.  Add 1/3 of the artichoke liquor to the roux and bring to simmer, turn down the heat to medium–low. Add another 1/3 of the artichoke liquor and repeat until all the liquor has been added. Cook the soup on medium-low for 20-30 minutes. Add a dash or 2 of green tobacco, and taste. Adjust the seasoning to your preference, and puree the soup.  After pureeing the soup, pour through fine sieve. Add the cream, cook 5 minutes, adjust the thickness to your preference using artichoke stock and/or oyster liquor.  Add the chopped smoked oysters and serve.  Garnish with Lemon Sour Cream (recipe below) and sliced chives.

Artichoke Stock

Ingredients

• 6 quarts white chicken broth or low-sodium canned
• 5 each artichokes, large, whole

In a 3-5 gallon stock pot add the ingredients and bring to simmer.  Cook on medium-high heat for 45 minutes.  Remove from heat and let stand.  Remove the chokes and clean, add all the leafs, stems, and chokes back to the stock.  Discard the artichoke hairs.  Bring stock back to simmer and cook for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat, puree, run through fine sieve, and chill

Smoked Oysters

Layout shelled oysters in your smoker.  Try to arrange the oysters so the liquor doesn’t spill out when they open.  Smoke for 1 hour depending on heat of smoker until the oysters are slightly open and plump.Do not over cook! Pour each oyster’s liquor into your storage container.  Open the oysters and remove the foot as normal, add your oysters to the liquor

Lemon Sour Cream

Ingredients

• 1 quart sour cream
• 2 lemons juiced, and strained, discard the lemon
• 1 T cilantro, rough shopped
• ¼ cup mayo
• dash green Tabasco
• salt and white pepper to taste

Mix well, taste, adjust to your preference