roasted salt & pepper shrimp with savannah red rice

I think I might love Bobby Flay a lot more now. This recipe is perfect. I can’t wait to make it again. I might have pleased a lot of people too. But I won’t take any credit. All credit goes to Bobby Flay.

I was disappointed that I couldn’t get my hands on poblano and chipotle peppers. So I had to use Thai red chilies to substitute the poblano and used equal amounts of Tobasco sauce and steak sauce instead of the chipotle pepper puree. I had done a lot of researching and found that those substitute are the closest. I still managed to get the smoky flavor from the steak sauce.

I must say, in all honesty, I had fun prepping the shrimp. It was my first time buying whole ones, with heads and tails on. I had to break apart those heads and remove the veins. Boy, do they have a lot of slimy gooey stuffs in them!

I grounded black peppercorns in a pestle and mortar which made a HUGE difference. Definitely won’t be using table pepper anymore. The result was a spicy and slightly tangy rice, from all of those chillies, tomatoes and lemon juice. The shrimp was pretty much basic. Salt, pepper, olive oil= goooooood stuff.

Roasted Salt & Pepper Shrimp with Savannah Red Rice
by Bobby Flay


Red Rice:
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 red pepper, finely diced
1 poblano pepper, finely diced (substitute: a couple of Thai red chillies)
1 rib celery, finely diced
1 red onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, finely diced
1 1/2 cup long-grain rice
1 ½ cups crushed, canned whole tomatoes, undrained
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup water
2 teaspoons chipotle pepper puree (substitute: 1 tbsp Tabasco and 1 tbsp steak sauce)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Chopped fresh flat leaf parsley


Salt and Pepper Shrimp:
24 large shrimp, shell on and deveined
1/4 cup olive oil
Kosher salt and coarsely ground black pepper


For the rice:
Heat oil in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the peppers, celery, onion, garlic and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the rice and stir, coating the rice with the mixture. Stir in the tomatoes, tomato paste, water and chipotle and season with salt and pepper. Cover the pot, decrease the heat to low and cook until rice is tender and the liquid is absorbed, about 18-20 minutes. Transfer rice to a large platter, top with the shrimp, sprinkle with chopped parsley and a couple squeezes of lemon juice.


For the shrimp:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F and place a baking sheet on the center rack. Toss the shrimp in the oil and season liberally with the salt and pepper. Arrange the shrimp in a single layer on the hot baking sheet and roast for 4-5 minutes or until just cooked through.