The Saints’ fake home opener (I hate the preseason) is tomorrow night, so in honor Cupcake and I opted to try out a recipe of the Saints very own Zach Strief. I believe that the recipe first ran on NOLA.com, but I’m not entirely sure. I just copied and pasted the recipe and forgot to paste the link I got it from, so my apologies to whoever ran this first (if anyone can fill me in I’ll be sure to update the post to give proper credit).
Zach’s Gulf Shrimp and Andouille Skewers:
Ingredients:
For spicy creole mustard:
1/4 cup Creole mustard or other whole grain mustard
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons bourbon
1 teaspoon chipotle Tabasco sauce
Shrimp and andouille skewers:
1 pound large gulf shrimp peeled, deveined and tails left on
12 ounces andouille or other hot sausage cut to the same thickness as the shrimp
8 6-inch bamboo skewers (soaked in water for 30 minutes)
2 tablespoons 1/2 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon Creole seasoning
Prepare the spicy bourbon mustard:
Combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl. The mustard will keep in an airtight container chilled for a week.
While making the mustard, start up a medium high fire on the grill.
Thread the shrimp and sausage on the skewers in an alternating pattern. (Our skewers had four sausage slices and three shrimp). Rub both sides with oil and season with Creole seasoning.
Cook the shrimp on medium high for about 2 minutes each side until shrimp are pink and cooked through, and sausages are browned and cooked through. Baste the skewers with the spicy bourbon mustard during the last 30 seconds of cooking. Serve immediately, passing additional spicy mustard on the side. Serves 4.
First the good:
This dish turned out pretty awesome.
The spice was nice, but not overwhelming.
The cooking part of the recipe takes almost no time at all.
Now the less than ideal (we found nothing bad with this recipe):
The prep work took us a while, but much of that is our own fault. We bought full shrimp and the peeling and deveining took the most time. Had we bought the shrimp already peeled and deveined, prep time would have been almost 0.
We thought the skewers didn’t really stand on their own as an entree. We thought they’d work best for a appetizer or as part of a larger buffet. Really pretty perfect as part of a spread for having people over and watching Zach have his way with some poor defender.
In all, we’re definitely adding Zach’s skewers to the repertoire and will probably pull it out for the one of the away games this year. It will be pretty great to have everyone rant and rave about the shrimp and sausage and and tell them all who created the recipe.
While you’re chewing this over, don’t forget to enter our Saints Tailgate Contest!
