the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: Salt Roasted Spicy Shrimp

Back a few years ago my lovely wife and I spent an interesting year and a half in Alabama (it’s a long story, for another time). We love much of the culture and food of the Deep South, though for reasons that aren’t really important here we weren’t necessarily in love with our city of residence at the time.

One of the saving graces of our time there, at least from the perspective now several years past, was our proximity to the Gulf of Mexico and it’s bounty of fresh seafood. We eventually found a little market in our community that drove fresh seafood up every night to sell the next morning, and we became regulars, elbowing through the crowds to get the best Royal Red shrimp before they quickly sold out.

While we love shrimp grilled over a wood fire, and boiled shrimp Gulf Coast style, we also grew to savor this Salt Roasted Spicy Shrimp recipe that I tweaked from one posted in Garden and Gun back in late 2014 or early 2015.

The shell-on shrimp (the recipe calls for head-on as well – your and my grandmothers were right in saying cooking the whole shrimp does add flavor) don’t get too salty despite being cooked in a bed of blisteringly hot, and well seasoned, rock salt. (Please note – we have seen a failure when a relative tried to cook shrimp using this recipe in kosher salt – this only works with genuine rock salt.) Can’t find head-on, shell-on shrimp in your market? No problem, I couldn’t when preparing this batch imaged here – they’ll still taste great.

The somewhat unusual array of spices spices add a wonderful yet subtle melody of flavors and the shrimp come out plump, firm, surprisingly moist, and peel easily.

2 pounds 20-25 head-on shrimp (in the shell)

3 pounds Rock salt
3 tbsp black peppercorns
2 tbsp whole coriander
5 bay leaves (make sure they’re fresh)
4-5 star anise
12-14 sprigs of fresh thyme
3 jalapeno peppers, stemmed and sliced
1 head garlic, smashed, loose skin removed
2 lemons, quartered, divided

Preheat your trusty oven to 475.

Build your seasoned salt by combing the rock salt, coriander, peppercorns, bay leaves, star anise, thyme, garlic, the sliced jalapeños, and four lemon quarters in a large bowl; mix well.

Pour or spoon roughly half the salt mixture into a large oven-safe dish; slide into the oven for 15 minutes to get good and hot.

Pull the hot dish (carefully!), add the shrimp evenly dispersed in a single layer and cover evenly with the remaining salt.

Now back into the oven for 8-10 minutes; pull it when they’re just cooked through (sometimes as early as 7 minutes if the shrimp are on the small side).

Carefully remove the shrimp from the salt (tongs in my kitchen) and serve immediately with the remaining lemon quarters and perhaps a cocktail sauce built upon a primal/paleo ketchup. Hot damn.

Enjoy.