Shrimp BLT

Recipe: Shrimp BLT
Page: 105 and 236
Date Cooked: November 5, 2010

I am a firm believer that a good sandwich can make your day and can be had for any meal. It's a perfect vessel to get a number of flavors in between two wonderful pieces of bread, making it oh so satisfying. Having expressed my love for the sandwich, I can also say that a BLT (bacon, lettuce, and tomato) sandwich isn't really my thing. While I love bacon, the BLT was never quite my it sandwich and seemed to disappoint. I was always wanting more. Luckily, Jonathan Waxman led me to the solution.....Shrimp BLT.

Ingredients: Bacon, shrimp, tomato, salt, sourdough bread, lemon, corn oil, olive oil, egg yolks, butter lettuce

The best part of this sandwich was of course its simplicity. The bacon is cooked slowly in a large cast-iron skillet. It is then removed from the pan and the shrimp are added to the remaining bacon fat until they are cooked through.

Top Panels: Bacon cooking slowly
Bottom Panels: Shrimp cooking in remaining bacon fat

While the bacon and shrimp cooked, it was on to making the mayonnaise. Now this was my second try at making mayonnaise, and well the first attempt wasn't too successful. This mayonnaise recipe was also slightly different from the first. It didn't require as many flavorings (i.e garlic and parsley) and also required two types of oil. 

The lemon juice and egg yolks were whisked for a few minutes and the oil mixture was added slowly. The whisking continued until all the oil was used. And the result....success! Well, at least a far better mayonnaise texture than the first time! If anything it was a step up and I'm hoping the next time it will fully have that mayonnaise feel. Nonetheless, it tasted good.

Finished mayonnaise!

With the bacon shrimp, and mayonnaise ready, the sandwich was ready for assembly. The tomatoes were sliced and lightly salted. The bread was toasted and mayonnaise was spread on each side. Some lettuce, tomatoes, bacon, and shrimp were added to make the final product.

Shrimp BLT

The sandwich was delicious. It tasted fresh and the marriage of the shrimp and the bacon with those veggies = yummm! I suggest that if you try to make this sandwich find bigger bread slices (the bakery I went to only had this size of sourdough). Moreover, I may have become a mayonnaise convert, fresh mayonnaise that is. I have no other explanation other than it just tastes better. All in all, perhaps a BLT is the sandwich for me, with shrimp of course!

Enjoy!

I want to thank Pansy and Bramjot Uberoi for assisting me in making this sandwich. Thanks to Pansy for letting me use her kitchen and Bramjot for putting some manpower behind that mayonnaise whisking.