One of the best food discoveries I made travelling through Thailand was fish cakes.  Lovely, light, fresh, crispy cakes with loads of flavor in one simple bite.  These were a revelation, and something I was determined to master myself.  One resort I stayed at in northern Thailand had a cocktail party for guests that featured a demonstration of fish cake making.  I took notes.  In an intensive cooking course, fish cakes where deconstructed, demonstrated and then we all went to work making our own, with hands-on help from the chef.  I sampled fish cakes at the morning market it Chiang Mai (one of my very favorite eating experiences).  I watched the stall vendor mix the cakes, form them and fry them.  I took notes.  I asked for tips on fish cake making at restaurants, and took notes. But when I got home, I was never able to duplicate the delicate treat myself.  Maybe I used the wrong kind of fish, or got confused in converting weights.  Or maybe I just don’t have the magic touch needed.  Mine came out uncooked in the center, or not crispy on the outside, or just heavy and sodden. So I pretty much gave up. 

But one day, faced with some leftover cooked shrimp, probably leftover from a party platter, and not much else in the fridge but some homemade curry paste, I decided to give the idea one more try.  Using already cooked shrimp solved the problem of undercooked cakes, and the made-to-my taste curry paste put the flavor right where I wanted it.  These simple shrimp cakes are know a staple for me – I whip them up whenever I need a little flavor boost to my regular meal rotation.

Simple Thai Shrimp Cakes

You can use purchased, jarred Thai green curry paste, available in the Asian section of most groceries, but taste it before adding to the shrimp cakes – some can be quite spicy.  Add an amount that works for you. You will find Thai Sweet Chili Sauce in bottles as well.

8 ounces cooked, peeled and deveined shrimp

1 Tablespoon homemade Thai Curry Paste, or purchased Thai green curry paste to taste

1 egg yolk

2 Tablespoons torn mint leaves

4 Tablespoons torn cilantro leaves

1 Tablespoon torn Thai basil leaves, optional or use regular basil

1 teaspoon fish sauce\canola oil for frying

Thai Sweet Chili Sauce for serving

Place all the ingredients in a food processor (I use the mini).  Process into thick paste, scraping down the sides of the bowl a few times, until the paste comes together in a ball.

Scoop out the paste and form small patties, about 1 ½ inches in diameter.  You should get about 8 cakes.  Place the cakes on a plate lined with waxed paper until ready to use.  The cakes can be refrigerated at this point for several hours.

When ready to serve, heat 2 – 3 Tablespoons of canola oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Fry the cakes about 4 minutes on each side, until golden and crispy and warmed through. 

Serve the cakes with Thai Sweet Chili Sauce for dipping.

Makes about 8 shrimp cakes

I am surrounded by good Louisiana cooks.  My brother went to college in New Orleans, my close friend went to law school there, and many of their friends from the area have migrated up to Memphis. And they love to cook up a good bayou feast.  So in all honesty, I don’t cook much Cajun or Creole food – I leave it to the experts.

My brother makes a mean gumbo, so I pretty much let him be in charge of that process.  For my birthday last year, I was surprised with a homemade dinner party of grilled boudin, crawfish ettouffe and Doberge cake.  I frequently get a call that one or other of the Louisiana natives has been back home and brought back a cooler of crawfish or gulf shrimp or other local seafood, so they are whipping up a party.  When my brother visits Louisiana, he comes back with Natchitoches meat pies and crawfish pies.  All of this is to say, I get plenty of good Nawlins’ food – from other folks.

But I felt I ought to have a least one good Creole recipe in my back pocket.  And the quickie Monday red beans and rice I make for my self only just doesn’t count.  So asked one of my friends, who is a native of Monroe, Louisiana, for a good recipe.  And just like a man, he gave me a set of instructions, as if I wanted to build a set of bookshelves, more than a recipe.  But God love him, he had the right idea, and a solid foundation.  With a little work, I transformed his manual into a recipe that has become a favorite of mine when I need a little Louisiana fix. This Shrimp Creole has all the classic flavors of the bayou without having to master the art of making a good roux.

Shrimp Creole

Wild American shrimp is by far the best choice for this Louisiana dish and is available fresh or frozen.  For extra-authenticity, look for Tony Chachere’s Creole seasoning.

1 ½ cups long grain white rice

3 ½ cups water

2 Tablespoons butter

3 celery ribs

1 green bell pepper, ribs and seed removed

1 medium white onion

2 garlic cloves, minced

4 green onions

1 Tablespoon Creole (or Cajun) seasoning

1 (16 ounce) can crushed tomatoes

1 (10.5 ounce) can mild diced tomatoes with green peppers

2 cups low-sodium chicken broth

1 pound uncooked, peeled and deveined shrimp fresh or frozen and thawed

Stir the rice into the water in a large saucepan with a tight-fitting lid.  Bring to a boil and boil until almost all the water is absorbed and little air bubbles form in the rice, about 10 – 12 minutes, stirring a few times to prevent sticking.  Remove from the heat and tightly cover the pan. 

While the rice is cooking, finely dice the celery, green bell pepper, onion and green onion. Mince the garlic.  In a large Dutch oven (4 to 5 quarts), melt the butter over medium high heat.  Drop in the “trinity” – the celery, pepper and onions.  Cook, stirring frequently, until all the vegetables are soft and the onion and celery are translucent, about 12 minutes.  Stir in the garlic and green onions and cook a further 3 minutes.  Sprinkle in the Creole seasoning and stir.  Cook a further minute until fragrant.  Pour in the crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes and chicken broth, stirring to combine.  Bring to a full rolling boil.  Cook until the sauce has thickened slightly, about 10 minutes. Drop in the shrimp, cover the pan and cook for 5 minutes.  Remove from the heat and leave covered for at least 10 minutes to fully cook the shrimp.

Fluff the rice with a fork and serve it in bowls with the Shrimp Creole ladled over the top.

The Shrimp Creole can be made up to one day ahead and keep tightly covered in the fridge.  Gently reheat over low heat before serving over rice.

Serves 6

In restaurants throughout New Orleans, you’ll find Barbecue Shrimp on the menu; some restaurants are famous for their version.  It is not barbecue in the sense of the thick, red, sticky sauce you normally think of, and certainly not barbecue like we revere here in Memphis.  No, it’s a buttery, peppery batch of slap-your-mama goodness, just calling out to a big group of friends.  Around here, a local community cookbook published in 1971 included a recipe for New Orleans Barbecue Shrimp, and it was a staple recipe at many parties for years – football games, summer get-togethers and such. But, like many old stand-by recipes, it fell by the wayside, replaced by other, newer recipes that at the time probably included pesto. 

I hadn’t thought of these shrimp in years, until last summer for a lake-house weekend, a friend made a batch for dinner.  It was a great evening, multi-generational, parts of families that have known each other since God was a baby.  Spread out around a long table, talking gossip and politics (loudly) and kids and memories and plans, overlooking the sunset across the lake, butter dripping down our arms and chins and shrimp shells overflowing from the bowls placed to catch them.

All this summer, I have been thinking about those shrimp, craving those shrimp, and just dying for a reason to fix some up, partly because they are just so good and partly because of the laughter and camaraderie that seems to go along with them.  So on a recent return to the lake, with some of that same original group, I got my chance and cooked up a big ol’ batch of Barbecue Shrimp.  After a crazy, hectic, long, sunny day on the water, swimming and skiing and even sailing, pulling this dinner together was easy.  We sat at the table with big dishes of shrimp bathed in peppery butter, lots of bread for sopping up the sauce, a crisp green salad with watermelon and rolls of paper towels, laughing and joking and generally cutting up, even debating the best way to eat the shrimp.  It was just like I remembered, and I can’t wait for the next Barbecue Shrimp excuse.

I’ve considered fiddling around with this, making my own Italian dressing, adding herbs or spices.  But that would just be stupid. When something is this good and this simple, why mess it up.  I just replaced the “oleo” with butter.

So, Labor Day is coming up, and that always seems to be a great opportunity to gather friends and family around to, theoretically, say farewell to summer, though here in Memphis we’ve got a lot of hot left.  Your holiday may be at a lake, a beach, a river, a mountain or your own backyard, but I wanted to share this recipe, like so many others before me have.  This is a meal best eaten with people you know well and like, because it gets messy, but I promise, once you’ve done this, you’ll be waiting for an excuse to do it again.

New Orleans Barbecue Shrimp

Yes, use the whole can of pepper and all the butter.  That’s the whole point of the exercise.  Use regular old Italian dressing, which I found surprisingly hard to locate amongst the balsamic vinaigrettes and sundried tomato dressings, but it’s there.  And I always search for wild American Gulf shrimp.

1 pound butter

1 (16 ounce) bottle of Italian dressing

Juice of four lemons

1 (2 ounce) can of ground black pepper

5 pounds of uncooked shrimp, peels and tails intact

Good French or Italian bread for soaking up the sauce

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan then stir in the dressing, lemon juice and pepper.  Stir well and heat through.

Place the shrimp in a large roasting pan or two casserole dishes – they do not have to be in one layer, as many as will fit in the dish with the sauce is fine.  Pour the butter sauce over the shrimp and stir to coat. Place the shrimp in the oven and roast for 45 minutes (they can stay in a bit longer or happily sit for half an hour or so out of the oven if you get distracted with a beer).

To serve, either scoop the shrimp into bowls with lots of butter sauce, or place the dish directly on the table family-style for everyone to dig into.  You will need to provide lots of paper towels or napkins and some vessels for the shrimp peels to be tossed in, and lots of bread for sopping up the amazing sauce.

This is a big batch of shrimp and will serve a mess of people.  I would have said ten to twelve, but six of us pretty much cleaned the dish.  I’d say people just eat until there’s no shrimp left.