Howdy, all. We usually steer clear of restaurants on Valentine's, as we'd rather avoid the service and food mediocrity and I've been doing this at home for years. Grabbed a couple of really nice strips and let them soak for several hours in L&P, a little Crystal, gran garlic, and Perry's steak seasoning. Perry's started in 1979 as a meat market/butcher shop in Houston, and has grown/retooled themselves into a premier, award-winning steakhouse with 13 locations across the country. Family always keeps me well-stocked with this rub.
I'd asked my daughter to grab some shrimp out of the freezer to thaw out of their ice block, but I didn't specify which ones, so instead of the Gulf brown U15s that I thought I'd use, she grabbed the 21/25s instead and (shame on me) I didn't check. Oh, well, just a little bit more work, that's all. After they soaked in some Italian dressing for about 30 minutes, I took part of them and got a couple of skewers ready for the outside hot box: butterflied them, stuffed them with Jack cheese and a jalapeno ring, and wrapped them in a 1/3 strip of applewood bacon.
The rest of the crustaceans went into a bubbly water bath, complete with a healthy dose of Zatarain's.
Only a couple of minutes in the bubbly, drained, shook a little more Zat's on top, tossed, and then covered them in ice to cool down.
I'm a red sauce snob: will never again buy "cocktail sauce" in a jar. It's the easiest thing to throw together for infinitely better flavor and a fraction of the cost. Ketchup, about half that same amount of fresh horseradish, lemon juice, garlic, splash of Crystal, splash of L&P, and some steak seasoning. You can adjust the horsey up or down to your taste: half the amount of ketchup will smack you pretty good and is the way we like it. The sauce on the left is butter, garlic, and white wine. Mmmm, mmmm.
Got some baby portobellos started: started them dry to weep out all the moisture held in the gills. Once that liquid evaporated, a little butter, garlic, and a couple of shots of red wine did the trick.
Out to the grill for a little smoke and reverse sear: used a couple of cherry and hickory nuggets to bathe them up before a shot on the direct coals. Steaks went out for about 45 minutes, shrimp on for about 20 minutes before they saw the business end of the grates.
Got everything pulled together with a loaded tater, bellos on top of the strip, boiled and the "barbied" shrimp. Cold, hard cash money.
Really made the ladies in my life quite happy: Momma wants only the boiled, the teenager wants only the wrapped, and I want it all! No matter how many times we have it, it never gets old. Hope everyone's day was excellent with those special in your lives: thanks for the look, and happy smokes!!
I'd asked my daughter to grab some shrimp out of the freezer to thaw out of their ice block, but I didn't specify which ones, so instead of the Gulf brown U15s that I thought I'd use, she grabbed the 21/25s instead and (shame on me) I didn't check. Oh, well, just a little bit more work, that's all. After they soaked in some Italian dressing for about 30 minutes, I took part of them and got a couple of skewers ready for the outside hot box: butterflied them, stuffed them with Jack cheese and a jalapeno ring, and wrapped them in a 1/3 strip of applewood bacon.
The rest of the crustaceans went into a bubbly water bath, complete with a healthy dose of Zatarain's.
Only a couple of minutes in the bubbly, drained, shook a little more Zat's on top, tossed, and then covered them in ice to cool down.
I'm a red sauce snob: will never again buy "cocktail sauce" in a jar. It's the easiest thing to throw together for infinitely better flavor and a fraction of the cost. Ketchup, about half that same amount of fresh horseradish, lemon juice, garlic, splash of Crystal, splash of L&P, and some steak seasoning. You can adjust the horsey up or down to your taste: half the amount of ketchup will smack you pretty good and is the way we like it. The sauce on the left is butter, garlic, and white wine. Mmmm, mmmm.
Got some baby portobellos started: started them dry to weep out all the moisture held in the gills. Once that liquid evaporated, a little butter, garlic, and a couple of shots of red wine did the trick.
Out to the grill for a little smoke and reverse sear: used a couple of cherry and hickory nuggets to bathe them up before a shot on the direct coals. Steaks went out for about 45 minutes, shrimp on for about 20 minutes before they saw the business end of the grates.
Got everything pulled together with a loaded tater, bellos on top of the strip, boiled and the "barbied" shrimp. Cold, hard cash money.
Really made the ladies in my life quite happy: Momma wants only the boiled, the teenager wants only the wrapped, and I want it all! No matter how many times we have it, it never gets old. Hope everyone's day was excellent with those special in your lives: thanks for the look, and happy smokes!!
