Cost: $20 and under
Serves: 4
Prep Time: 10-15 min.
Cook Time: 20-25 min.
Difficulty: 1
Drunken Shrimp has been a puzzle to me since I first had it made by my father. I have never been able to get it to taste exactly how I wanted to until I decided to stop adding mushrooms and to add a little half and half. You see the mushrooms were overpowering all the other flavors in the dish. I really loved how they tasted but everything tasted like them! The reason I added the half and half was not so much flavor but color. My sauce always seemed to be too clear. It just never looked that appetizing. By adding the half and half I was able to give the sauce the golden color of the tequila and it really added to the aroma of the meal as well. I might have a few more adjustments to make on this one but in the last 11 years of tinkering with this recipe I know I am on the edge of perfection! I am calling this recipe "Three Shrimp to the Wind" because my parents use to ask me if I was three sheet after I would go to a party in my teens. I never knew what the heck they were talking about but would not admit it because of course I was a teen and did not want to admit that my parents knew something I didn't. The years went by and I finally figured out what my parents were talking about but never heard anyone else use the phrase, until Zo. We were walking by the river and she casually said something about her mom saying her dad was three sheets to the wind. I was taken aback because I had never heard anyone use the phrase but my parents. I thought it must be some weird lingo they made up between the two of them. I did some research and found out that it was actually an old sailors saying. Sheets were not sails but ropes or chains that held the sails in place. If three were to come loose the boat would jerk around like a drunken sailor, so sailors judged the stage of drunkenness on a scale of one to three sheets, where stumbling around was 'three sheets in the wind.' So in honor of that phrase you have the orgin of this recipe's name.
Ingredients:
1 lb large shrimp (peeled and veined)
1/3 cup orange bell pepper (chopped)
1/3 cup red bell pepper (chopped)
1/3 cup green bell pepper (chopped)
1 jalapeno (diced)
1/4 cup red onion (Diced)1 jalapeno (diced)
1/4 cup green onions (diced)
2 garlic cloves (minced)
1 cup half and half
2 tbsp Italian volcano lemon juice
1/3 cup gold tequila
1 tbsp essence
kosher salt (to taste)
1 1/2 tsp lime zest
1 1/4 tsp Piloncillo cane Brown sugar (crushed down to powder)
2 tbsp Sweet European butter
Rice
4 servings rice
1 limes juice
1 1/2 tsp fresh baby dill (diced)
fresh crack pepper (to taste)
In a medium bowl whisk together lemon juice, tequila, essence, sugar cane and green onion. Place shrimp into mixture and soak for 7-10 minutes.
In a medium skillet melt butter over medium high heat. Once melted add red onion, bell peppers, garlic, jalapeno, lime zest and salt to the pan and cook till softening up (5 -6 minutes.)
Add the shrimp mixture to the skillet, cover and cook 2-4 minutes until the shrimp are bright pink and orange on both sides.
Now remove the shrimp from the pan, sit aside and cover to keep warm. Add the half and half and cook down till thickening (5-7 minutes.) Fold the shrimp back into the skillet and heat through.
Remove skillet from the heat.
Rice
(I cook the rice after I add the shrimp the first time.) Cook 4 servings of rice according to directions on package. Mix in dill, juice of one lime and fresh crack pepper into rice.
Spoon shrimp and sauce over rice while shrimp are still hot.
This sounds really yummy! Where might I find Sweet European butter? =)
Most grocery stores have it. On the package it will read sweet Unsalted European butter. If you can not find it any unsalted sweet cream butter will work :)