Shrimp: Two Ways, One Method

I really love grilled shrimp, but in the winter I'm not going outside to mess with the grill. So I figured out how to bake them in the oven! Below are 2 separate shrimp recipes, but since the prep and cooking method is exactly the same for each, you can actually make them at the same time. I've been known to buy 1 pound of shrimp, and do 1/2 of each pound a different way. ;)

Proportions given are for 1 pound of shrimp (about 21-25 count) per recipe, which should feed 4-6 as an appetizer or 2 hungry adults as an entree. I cook these with the peel on, but deveined - usually sold in the grocery as "easy-peel shrimp."

Recipe #1: Spicy Shrimp and Tartar Sauce

1 pound large raw shrimp (21-25 count)

3 Tbs unsalted butter, melted (Do NOT use salted butter - the seafood seasoning has salt already in it.)

1 Tbs seafood seasoning (Old Bay or equivalent)

1/4-1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray 2 cookie sheets with non-stick spray.

Toss all ingredients together in a bowl. Lay the shrimp out on the baking sheet, and bake for 10-12 minutes, turning halfway through.

Finished:

Tartar Sauce:

Edited to add: the first recipe below is MY recipe. Underneath that one I added my mom's. As it turned out, I was trying to make her recipe, but I was using Kosher pickles instead of regular dill ones. Kosher ones have garlic, LOL. Both recipes are good, but for these particular shrimp, I'd use the second one - my mom's. :)

The second tartar sauce recipe below is my mom's recipe, which she invented by reading the back of a bottled tartar sauce jar and playing around with proportions and extra ingredients until she liked it. (She did it when I was too young to remember, so growing up I had NO IDEA you could just buy tartar sauce in the store. I thought it always had to be made from scratch!) I like it because it's not sweet at all; it's a savory sauce with a lot of dill.

Mine

1 cup mayo

2 tsp dried minced onion

2 tsp dill weed

2 tsp dill seed

4 tsp Kosher dill pickle juice

1 Kosher dill pickle spear, chopped as finely as you can.

Mix ingredients together and allow to chill for 2 hours. (The longer the better: you want the dried spices to soften up a little.)

*Note: I like my tartar sauce VERY dill-flavored. If you want a subtler flavor, use half the amount of dill weed, dill seed and pickle juice.

Mom's

1 cup mayo
2 tsp dried minced onion

2 tsp dill weed OR dill seed (or 1 tsp each)

3 tsp dill pickle juice (NOT Kosher - don't make my mistake, LOL!)

1 dill pickle, chopped finely (again - NOT Kosher)

Mix together and allow to chill for 2 hours. The longer the better, for the same reason as above. :)

Recipe #2: Lemon-Caper Shrimp with Almost-Aioli Dipping Sauce

1 lb large raw shrimp (21-25 count)

2 Tbs capers

1/4 cup olive oil

Juice of 2 lemons (about 1/4 cup

sprinkle of salt and pepper

Parmesan cheese for dusting

Almost the same method as before, with one additional step: preheat the oven to 350F, toss everything but the cheese together in a bowl and lay out on 2 baking sheets. Spoon the leftover sauce at the bottom of the bowl over the shrimp. Then sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the top and bake for 10-12 minutes, turning once (halfway through).

Finished:

Almost-Aioli Dipping Sauce:

1 cup mayo

2 cloves minced garlic

1 tsp capers

2 tsp caper brine

2 Tbs lemon juice (about 1 lemon, squeezed)

1/2 tsp pepper

4 Tbs grated Parmesan cheese

Mix together in a bowl and allow to chill for an hour or so.

I serve both of these dishes over salad (sometimes with a piece of garlic bread), but they'd also be fantastic over lightly buttered pasta. You could even serve them up over rice pilaf, with a small salad on the side.