Another Friday afternoon in Lent rolls around, and my lovely Catholic wife wanders into my office and announces that she is cooking pasta with a nice sausage-tomato sauce for dinner. As much as I would have liked that for dinner, I did the right thing and saved her from whatever additional Hell she would have gone to on a Meat Rap. After all, she’s already married to me so she’s guaranteed at least Purgatory or some other lesser hell. Some might even say she’s already there…
So at this point I figured I’d better take over the cooking chores for the evening and come up with something less, well, sinful. So after examining the freezer for acceptable meat substitutes, I retired to the Internet to find some outdoor cooking recipes that involved shrimp and pasta. It didn’t take long to find a good one over on Cowgirl’s Country Life (imagine that).
Of course, her recipe had bacon in it, so I had to leave that out. Then SWMBO insisted I leave any sign of onions and peppers out of the sauce. And I didn’t have any of the white wine lemon sauce that she used, so I had to make my own. And we had a different brand of farfalle pasta. So once again, another recipe mostly ignored.
So Bubba Ho-Keg was heated up to around 400°F, on went a pan, and in went some EVOO and minced garlic. After a minute or so, it was joined with a batch of shrimp that had been given a light shower of cayenne, Cajun seasoning mix, and parsley.
After a few minutes with the lid down, the shrimp was mostly cooked and had soaked up some nice mesquite smoke flavor. I wasn’t too concerned about overpowering the shrimp with the mesquite as it wasn’t on long enough for that. Now it was time for the sauce. Juice and zest from two lemons, about a cup of white wine, and half a stick of butter went into my attempt to replicate a white wine lemon sauce I’ve never tasted.
Another 3 or 4 minutes of uncovered fun on Bubba Ho-Keg and it was time to serve up some grub.
A little parmesan cheese, some al dente farfalle, and it was a Friday night dinner that was only slightly sinful and completely free of temporarily banned meats.
This actually turned out pretty good. Even the teen-aged no-shrimp-for-me child ate it without too much arm-twisting, and admitted that the pasta and sauce was tasty even though she hates shrimp. Next time I’m going to add bacon, onion, and some chopped peppers and make it real good…
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I see shrimp, butter, wine and parmesano, how could it be better?
With bacon, onions, and peppers…
Is there any thing the Bubba Keg cannot do?
When I mentioned I was waiting for warmer weather to open my new one up it was not because I thought the grill would not work well, it is just that I do not like the cold and the late winter/early spring here is pretty soggy so I want to wait so I can enjoy it fully. Thanks for all the great cooking ideas.
Now that I have the BGE plate setter, not much. Mostly it becomes a capacity issue.
And I can understand how cold and soggy can take the fun out of cooking outdoors. Not everyone is as nutty as I am and willing to brave the elements…
PS,
wind storm here in northern Mass killed power for 3 days and only now I am back at home. This is why I am waiting!
Cannot wait though, I tried ribs on a gas grill last year on the offset idea, it did not work at all.
You cracked me up with this post, very funny stuff. Great looking shrimp scampi, I need to try that on the grill. Did you use extra fresh shrimp from Jeanie’s farm or raise your own? I hear that’s the secret
Great post.
Jeanie’s farm is a bit far from here to go pick up some shrimp, and I don’t think she would appreciate me wading through her shrimp pond.