Good to know. But I don't know where they are!

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SayUncle
Can't we all just get a long gun?

Ingredients:

plain old shrimp, fresh is best, still in the wrappers, veins and all except for maybe the heads.

one beer

big frying pan

fresh box of Old Bay seasoning. This is tough. Most stores put the stuff on the shelf and leave it for months. This is why it is better at the coast. They sell tons of it. I sniff it. Supposedly you can tell from the stamp but the fresh stuff is way powerful still in the can.

A little beer goes in frying pan and gets brought to a boil. Add a few shrimp. about 45 seconds later flip the shrimp and 45 seconds later take them out with a slotted spatula and put them on a plater that has been dusted with Old Bay. Add more shrimp to the pan, repeat until you have cooked them all. You can eat them absolutely raw if they've been frozen so don't worry about under cooking. In my religion, people can go to a bad place for over cooking seafood.

Now...when you take the shrimp out of the pan dust them well with Old Bay after you put them on the platter. I know they haven't been peeled, trust me on this one just once. Use plenty of Old Bay and just keep going until you've layered shrimp and spice on all the shrimp.

Load up a plate, peel them yourself, which is totally easy if you haven't over cooked them, and eat them, along with the rest of the beer. You have five left if you've been careful. Make your own cocktail sauce with fresh lemon juice, horseradish, and ketchup, or try any one of several recipes you can find in any old cookbook. Don't ever buy one of those bottles of it again. You'll wind up in a bad place with overcooked shrimp that won't peel easily.

Peace,

Steve

Next week: On Cooking at the Creek, Steve refuses to tell where he orders his foil packed barbecue rub.

That sounds pretty good, will have to give it a try.

Here's how we grilled our Shrimp Dock Shrimp last night, and they were excellent.

Make up a marinade using Jose Cuervo Original Lime-flavored Margarita mix, a splash of soy sauce (not too much, a little goes a long way), lemon pepper seasoning, some thyme, and about a tablespoon of butter. Put it in the microwave until the butter melts and stir it all up good.

[Another version: olive oil, lime juice, Grand Marnier or similar, or fresh squeezed orange juice, melted butter, chopped fresh thyme and rosemary, garlic, a little salt and pepper, and a splash of soy sauce.]

Put the peeled shrimp (tail on) in a plastic ziplock and pour in the marinade. Squish it around real good, seal it, and let it sit in the fridge for an hour or so.

Put the shrimp on metal skewers, spray the grill with some cooking oil, and cook over medium heat for two to three minutes per side. (Or less if you are like Steve and aren't worried about having them a little undercooked.) The metal skewers help them get done inside out without having to leave them on there too long.

We had ours with a side of red beans and rice. Mmmm mmm.

... if you are like Steve and aren't worried about having them a little undercooked

I got over thinking you had to cook seafood to death while I was canoeing in Japan. as soon as they quit wigglin' they're done. Warm 'em up if you like. they served us prawns that had merely had boiling water poured over them...Ate the whole things, antennae, legs and all. Mighta been the sake, but it was pretty good.

Maybe this fall we might have to make a cannonball run to Charleston, bring back a load, and have a cook off.

why don't we organize a liberal and progressive and (what the hey) conservative bloggers Seafood Festival right here in land-locked Knoxville, Tennessee?

We have Chili Cook-offs and BBQ Cook-offs, why not a Seafood Festival...everybody could promote it in the blogosphere...we could have amateur and pro divisions... Heck, we are the home of HGTV, don't they own the Food Network? If ANY town can do this right, it's us. We could hold it in the summer, like August or something...

P.S. All these recipes made me wish I could still eat meat.
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"You can't fix stupid..." ~ Ron White"

"I never said I wasn't a brat..." ~ Talidapali

I was just thinking about a van, a case of coors, and a trip down to this fish house I know on the back side of James Island. When we get back, we use the coors to cook with. (Nobody actually drinks that stuff do they?)

Just watch out for the blue crabs man...

One last update. We had our Shrimp Dock crabcakes tonight, with a side of asparagus and spinach/feta/mushroom casserole.

The crabcakes are as good or better than you will get at any restaurant in town. I'm guessing some of the restaurants with good crab cakes probably get them there.

All you have to do is mash them out a little flatter and fry them in a skillet with some olive oil, about four minutes per side until done. No embellishment required, although a little tartar sauce every few bites or so goes well with them.

I've never managed to get out of Charleston in a day. Somehow I wind up at Hyman's seafood or out in Mt. Pleasant at that place that only the locals are supposed to know about.

Or I wind up Here, sleeping on the beach.

More

I usually kayak out there but you can take a ferry from Shem Creek with the naturalist.

This past year I passed over Shem and there were a school of dolphins swimming in amongst the kayakers I took a few photos but my lens was dirty and so I had to scrap the pictures. There's no chance that you were a part of the group, is there?

Adrift in the Sea of Humility

I've been in a dolphin pod many times but not that one. Their breath smells like three day old fish, just in case you were wondering.

When I kayak down there, I start at McLellanville or the north end of Cape Romain. It's the last great wilderness on the eastern shore of the USA.

Steve is that first picture really a picture of Capers Island?

All of those pictures are of Capers. If you go to the large shot of the bone orchard, you can see a red glow on the horizon. that would be the reflection of the dawn on the glass fronts of the condos on Ilse of Palms. Kills it a bit, but it tels you where the shot was taken. I think it was Feb. a year ago. At night you can hear the red wolves howling on Bull Island next door. Not supposed to camp over there though.

It has been so long since I have seen Charleston that I haven't seen the new Cooper River Bridge. The pictures are beautiful but I need to go back. The deck of the Yorktown should afford a great view of it.

PS: I'm reading all these wonderful comments about seafood as I leisurely sip a chicken broth in preparation for tomorrow's colonoscopy.

Betty, that's got to be worse than your semiannual diet, although it should be over sooner. Wednesday I make up for it with this.

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WhitesCreek

Lots of Jello . . . but no red or blue.

My kingdom for a Whopper!

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The first time I crossed that bridge I was riding a Honda Elite 250 Motor Scooter - all the way from Knoxville on that thing. Looking down at the water through that grating was a scary thing, indeed.

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