Viet-Cajun Boiled Shrimp

Viet-Cajun Boiled Shrimp

This is so good. In my opinion it's one of the best recipes on our website. It's best served with a group of friends or family who want some spicy seafood. Just make it and get ready for the compliments. This is enough to feed 4 to 5 hungry people. If you need more double or triple the recipe. This is one time where you should splurge on big shrimp. Large shrimp, headed, slit down the back, and deveined are best, but any large headed shrimp works. The picture above is of cold leftovers and it doesn't do the recipe justice.

A generation or so ago, there was a large influx of Vietnamese people along the entire Gulf coast and Vietnamese people are especially common in the shrimping industry. The Vietnamese people brought a great work ethic and wonderful food. Vietnamese food and Cajun food seem to blend well together and this is one of those dishes. It takes good boiled shrimp, adds a unique butter sauce, and makes everything better. You can easily adjust this recipe for larger amounts of shrimp.

First, boil the shrimp.

1 gallon	water
1 bag	crab boil (we use Zatarain's)
8 oz (by weight, approximately ¾ cup)	salt
1	lemon, cut in half
1	orange, cut in half
1 medium	onion peeled and cut in half
1 cup	liquid crab boil (we use Zatarain's)
8 to 12	small red potatoes, cut in half
8 to 12	half ears of corn. (frozen works fine)
8 to 12	1½" pieces of andouille, polish, or your favorite smoked sausage
1 lb	mushroom, washed, stems trimmed, and sliced in half
4 to 5 lbs	shrimp (with heads, headed, peeled, in the shell, it really doesn't matter)

Put the water in a large pot. Add the bag of crab boil, salt, lemon, orange and onion to the water and bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer. Don't add the liquid crab boil yet as it will make you cough in the next step.

Keep the water simmering for 10 minutes to get the flavor from the lemon, orange, and onion. After 10 minutes, scoop the lemon, orange, and onion out and discard them. They have done all they can and make a mess of everything else. Now add the liquid crab boil and bring everything back to a rolling boil.

Add the potatoes and bring everything to a rolling boil. Boil the potatoes for 8 minutes.

Now add the corn, sausage, and mushrooms. Bring everything back to a rolling boil and boil for 2 minutes.

After boiling the corn, sausage, and mushrooms for 2 minutes, add the shrimp and bring the water back to a boil. As soon as the water boils, the shrimp are done. Turn the heat off, cover the pot, and let everything sit for 5 minutes. Reserve one half cup of the water from the boil then dump everything in a colander and strain. Save the bag of crab boil for the next step It adds a nice finishing touch.

Transfer the shrimp to a large bowl. Grab the bag of crab boil and cut the top off of it. For every pound of shrimp, scoop one and a half teaspoons of the brown and yellow mustard seeds, and add these to everything in the bowl. Stir well.

Now make the Viet-Cajun butter sauce.

¾ cup (1½ sticks)	butter
1 oz	canola oil
8 cloves	garlic, minced
1½ tbl	Creole or Cajun Seasoning
1½ tsp	paprika
½ tsp	freshly ground black pepper
1½ tsp	brown sugar
1½ tsp	fish sauce
1½ tsp	soy sauce
1½ tsp	Worcestershire sauce
1	orange, zest & juice
2 tbl	lemon grass, just the white parts, finely sliced (If you can't get lemon grass, use 1 tsp of lemon pepper, but it's not as good)
3 tbl	cilantro, finely chopped
2	green onions, the white and green parts, finely sliced
½ cup	reserved water from the shrimp boil

Heat the butter & canola oil until the butter is hot and bubbly. Add the garlic and cook for one minute. Add everything else except the liquid from the boil. Bring it back to bubbling while stirring well. Turn the heat off. Add the liquid from the boil to thin the sauce if you’d like.

Pour the butter sauce over the boiled shrimp and everything else you boiled. Stir well, and serve .

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