If you hadn’t caught on to it yet, growing up around the water means you eat a lot of seafood. Unless, of course, God forbid someone has a shellfish or seafood allergy. In which case you might as well just move to a landlocked state and be done with it all. You’ve probably also noticed that I always try to advocate for local, wild-caught seafood over the corn fed farmed version. There’s an important difference between the two options for both you and the environment in terms of health. It should be obvious, but the local, wild-caught variety are much better than the farmed version. Provided that the species isn’t overfished, this will always be true. At first thought one might assume there’s less options for local, wild-caught seafood in NYC than coastal Virginia– even I was naive enough to think that at one point. However, geographically the two areas are similarly situated as bodies of land surrounded by open bodies of water and their feeding tributaries. This means the two areas are more the same than different and it makes sense in the local seafood offerings, which are eerily similar. Today’s post features one of these creatures.
Steamed shrimp, fried shrimp, broiled shrimp, shrimp gumbo, shrimp stew...
Classic Old Bay Shrimp with Brussel Sprouts
- 1 lb. local, wild-caught shell-on jumbo shrimp
- 1/2 package of fresh brussel sprouts
- 1/2 tbsp of butter
- Old Bay seasoning
- EVOO
- Black pepper
- Peel your shrimp.
- Heat a pan coated in EVOO over low-medium heat. Key here is not to heat the oil quickly as it will reach it’s evaporating temp too quickly, which you’ll want to avoid. Go ahead and grind some sea salt and black pepper into the oil as it warms. Don’t go overboard on the salt to save your cholesterol and blood pressure. If you prefer, you can use garlic salt as well.
- Bring a pot of water with a steaming pan to boil.
- Cut the brussel sprouts in half and lay them in the pan cut face down. Let the sprouts brown for 5-7 minutes over medium-high heat. Cover with a lid to keep the steam inside and soften them up a bit. (The alternative is to stick the pan in the oven and roast them for 3-4 mins at the end of browning. Only do this if you’re using a full metal pan!)
- Throw your shrimp in, season with Old Bay and cover.
- After a few minutes, add your butter (cut into smaller pieces), turn shrimp over and season again with Old Bay.
- Cook the shrimp until just pink on both sides then remove and serve alongside the brussel sprouts.
A true taste of the sea you can enjoy anywhere you may be.
Until next time, Cheers!
