Barbecue shrimp

Spicy, buttery, and decidedly hands-on, this dish is a New Orleans classic.

taste of the south

The ingredients are things you might have on hand, and the dish requires very little cooking skill. Because everything is assembled a couple of hours ahead and then baked at the last minute, New Orleans Barbecue Shrimp is great casual company fare. You just place the shrimp in a large baking pan or dish, pour the sauce over them, chill for a couple of hours, and bake. The results are spicy, simple, and divine.

I remember tasting this specialty on my first grown-up trip to New Orleans in the seventies. Shrimp had always been a favorite of mine, but they usually came boiled, fried, or stuffed with crabmeat. Young and untested in the ways of Crescent City cuisine, I was bowled over by the depth of flavor and richness that the dish contained. Who'd have thought that shrimp baked in a murky pool of melted butter, Worcestershire sauce, and spices could be so sensational? Years later, I discovered that Barbecue Shrimp has been wowing New Orleans diners since the fifties.

According to Bob DeFelice, grandson of Pascal Radosta, longtime owner of Pascal's Manale Restaurant & Bar, his grandfather and a friend popularized the dish in 1954. "The way I've been told," Bob says, "a regular customer who was a friend of my grandfather's shared the recipe. So the two of them and my uncle, the chef, went into the kitchen and came out with a dish they called Barbecue Shrimp. Of course, it's not barbecued at all, but baked. But it kind of looks barbecued, so that's where the name came from."

At Pascal's Manale, the shrimp are served with the heads on. "That's where most of the flavor is," Bob explains. He also suggests that decades of use have infused the baking pans with character that helps season the dish. "We've used the same pans over and over again for years," he says. "I think that has something to do with the flavor."

Though I couldn't pry the restaurant's recipe out of Bob, we think our version is true to the spirit of the original dish-and very good. DONNA FLORIO

Copyright Southern Progress Corporation Sep 2002
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