We seem to be eating a great deal of shrimp, lately! Definitely not a bad thing, but I know that the majority of my posts include shrimp. I will never turn down a gift of seafood from my big-hearted neighbor; especially when it is already clean and peeled for me. Although, since I’ve been cooking a bunch of different shrimp recipes I didn’t know what to do with them.
My husband sometimes gets an envie (a craving or yearning) for fried shrimp. So we settled on fried shrimp, but I wasn’t sure what to have on the side. We decided to make po-boys since neither of us had had one in a long while. We Cajuns love a good po-boy!
The po-boy sandwich originated in New Orleans in the late 1920’s and was named as such during a strike of the streetcar conductors.
A sandwich shop in the city reportedly fed the strikers for free, and when one of the conductors entered the shop they would say, “Here comes a po-boy!”
To prepare the shrimp I season them with salt, pepper, and Cajun seasoning and let them sit for about five minutes. Make a mustard and hot sauce mixture and coat the seasoned shrimp. Then allow that to marinate, at room temperature, while the oil heats up.
I’m using Chicken Fry to bread the shrimp, so I get that ready as well. When the oil is 350 degrees, I put my breaded shrimp into the basket and lower it into the oil.
My kitchen is filled with the amazing aroma of fried shrimp! That smell is right up there with onions and garlic cooking or bread baking!!
Shrimp cook fast, so they are ready to come out of the pot in three to four minutes. When I started frying, I was using a deep-fry basket. The batter was sticking to the basket, so I decided to put my shrimp directly into the pot for subsequent batches. Let the shrimp dry on paper towels.
I use my electric knife to slice the bread; it really is the best way to cut bread without it smashing. Leave one side of the french bread connected so that the contents of the sandwich don’t slide out when taking a bite. The traditional dress for a shrimp po-boy is mayonnaise and lettuce.
I’ve made beer-battered onion rings and french fries to go with our po-boys. NOMENOM!
WHAT YOU WILL NEED: (what I used)
- 2 lbs Shrimp
- Salt, Black Pepper, and Cajun seasoning, to taste
- 2/3 cup Yellow Mustard
- 1 tbsp mild Hot Sauce
- Chicken Fry
- Vegetable Oil
- French Bread
- Lettuce
- Mayonnaise
.