Speaking of po'boys - they are one of my favorite ways to eat shrimp. I get so excited when I see it on a menu in a restaurant because I love them so much! My favorite one is on the lunch menu at our local McCormick & Schmicks and I have to say, even though they are not a Louisiana-style restaurant, they know how to do a po' boy up right! The remoulade sauce, the crispy fried shrimp, the toasty bread, fresh tomatoes and crunchy lettuce. Hell.Yeah.
I decided to take this idea of a po'boy and run with it. My FAVORITE favorite kind of shrimp are buffalo shrimp. I discovered these fantastic buffalo shrimp at a local restaurant called The Fish Market, and honestly it was love at first sight. The first time I had them I got two orders, they were so good! Anyways, they gave me the idea to try and make my own at home. I made them and they turned out sooo tasty that I wanted to use them in my own version of a po'boy... or as I like to call it, a buff'boy. And that is the recipe I am sharing with you today, you lucky ducks!
Instead of the remoulade sauce used on a traditional po'boy, I wanted to use blue cheese dressing of course, because that is the best thing in which to dip buffalo shrimp. Duh. No brainer. (I used store bought to save time. Don't judge me!) My boyfriend doesn't care for blue cheese, so he had the idea to make a different sauce out of sour cream for his sandwich. That is why you will see two different sauces for this recipe. Use whichever one you prefer. (Go for the blue cheese!) Or hey - you could even use a ranch dressing.
I used store bought buffalo sauce this time, but I promise I am going to come up with my own recipe for it eventually and share it with you. I just need time!
OK, the wait is over, let's get cookin'!
Buff ' Boys
Ingredients:
1 pound of medium size, peeled, deveined, uncooked shrimp
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon fresh black pepper
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne)
1/4 teaspoon cumin powder
1/4 teaspoon Caribbean seasoning (if you can't find that, just throw in some garlic powder to substitute)
24 ounces, or one small bottle, of oil for frying. I used a blend of canola, soy, and olive but you can use whatever - like vegetable or conola
3/4 cup buffalo sauce
4 teaspoons sour cream
2 sub rolls
6 big leaves of lettuce
2 tablespoons blue cheese dressing
Preheat your oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
To start, get a large ziplock baggie ready to fill with the flour coating. Add the flour, pepper, cayenne, cumin, onion powder, and caribbean seasoning to the baggie. Close the bag securely and shake so that all the seasonings get mixed together evenly. Set aside.
Place the shrimp in a colander and rinse under cool water. One by one, cut the shrimp by slicing them down the center on their backs, cutting all the way through. Make sure to leave the tail in tact. They should look like this:
After you cut the shrimp, place them in the bag with the flour combo. Once all of the shrimp are in the mixture, close the bag and shake to coat them in the flour.
Remove the shrimp one by one and place them, sprawled out, on a baking sheet or large plate - something that will fit in your fridge. Once they're all set up, place the sheet/plate in the fridge to chill for ten minutes.
Take advantage of the time while the shrimp are chilling to make the condiment sauce, to prepare the bread for toasting and the oil for frying. To make the sauce, scoop 4 teaspoons of sour cream into a bowl. Add 2 teaspoons of the buffalo sauce and stir to thoroughly combine. Set aside unitl you're ready to put together the sandwich.
Place in the oven to toast for three to five minutes, depending on how crispy you want it. Keep in longer if you want it really crispy, shorter if you just want it lightly toasted. Remove and set aside to cool while you finish cooking.
Prepare the oil for frying. Place all 24 ounces of oil in a large, deep Dutch oven or pot - whatever you have that is going to leave at least three inches from the top of the oil to the rim of the pot - over medium high heat. To check if the oil is ready to use, place a wooden spoon in the pot, allowing it to touch the bottom. If there are bubbles streaming off the spoon at a rapid pace, it's ready to use. We have Rachael Ray to thank for that nifty trick!
Take the shrimp out of the fridge and place them in the oil in batches of eight. Use metal tongs to stir them, turning them over in the oil periodically.
I like a nice, light colored crisp on them, so I leave them in for just three or four minutes. Remove from the oil using the tongs and drain the oil off by placing the fried shrimp on a plate covered with a paper towel.
Once the oil is drained off, place the shrimp in a bowl and toss with about 2 tablespoons of buffalo sauce.
Remove promptly and place them on a clean plate. Repeat this process for each batch of shrimp.
To assemble the sandwiches, spoon the sauce you made onto one of the rolls and the blue cheese dressing on to the other roll - on the flat sides.
Next, lay down the lettuce leaves (three per sami) on top of the sauce, overlapping them a little.
Last, place a couple handfuls of buffalo shrimp into the scooped-out side of the roll. Fold over and serve with a side of celery sticks and baby carrots. Salute!
>Here's an eating tip for ya, courtesy of my boyfriend, Travis: Take the edges of the lettuce that are sticking out the sides, fold them over the shrimp and tuck them in under the bread. This helps the shrimp stay in and not fall out when you take bites.
>>Here's another tip for you! I used to avoid frying stuff because of the mess it makes. It was always a struggle to figure out what to do with the oil when you're done frying. You can't dump it down the sink and it's not like you're going to save it to use again (ew!), so what to do? I was at a loss until I bought my little friend, the funnel. Now I just save the bottle the oil came in, put the funnel in the mouth of the bottle, and once the oil has cooled to room temperature, I carefully dump the oil from the pot into the funnel and back into the bottle. Then you just throw the oil filled bottle away. Problem solved. Easy as that!
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