An appetizer of poached shrimp, marinated in a tangy cocktail sauce based on a combination of V8 and ketchup with lime and a mix of vegetables.

Mexican Shrimp Cocktail - Cóctel de Camarones

This is such a great appetizer anytime really, but will certainly go very nicely as a starter for your Taco Tuesday, any cocktail party, football gathering or tailgate and those cookouts too. Heck, just a movie night even - just bust up some saltines or tortilla chips!

A tad bit different from what you're used to seeing with our classic American-style shrimp cocktail, it's sort of a cross between that, a ceviche and a gazpacho, all in a Bloody Mary-like base!

Shrimp and Pasta with Vegetables (Primavera)

Linguine pasta in a cream sauce with a mix of vegetables and shrimp.

Shrimp and Pasta with Vegetables

This dish came about when I found quite a few mixed bags of frozen vegetables up in my freezer that I had bought for something very specific that I had intended to make - but forgot about. That happens to me alot!

And I know, you're gonna say "now Mary. That's pasta primavera!" Well, yes, to a certain degree, it is!

Pasta primavera is an American dish of pasta in a cream sauce with fresh vegetables, typically fresh spring vegetables, and the primary difference here is that instead of those typical fresh vegetables, I used those frozen ones.

Waste not, want not, and plus, it shaves off a little time!

A mixture of long grain rice, cooked stovetop in chicken stock with green and sweet onion, garlic, parsley and a variety of seasonings with Wild American shrimp stirred in at the end.

Cajun Shrimp Bowl

I love simple, one pot meals like this, especially in the heat of the summer. And yeah, especially when my central A/C goes south and the part takes a week to get here from Houston. During the hottest month of southern summers too. 

Ugh. I am dying.

Thank goodness for backup portable air conditioners because we have several going at the moment, though they are pretty much intended for use during a hurricane power outage to be seated right in front of, so they can't really keep up and the house is at minimum in the low 80s - all day long. Better than nothing I guess.

This shrimp and sausage skillet meal, made in a flavorful buttery, garlic sauce, may be served over toast points, in baked pastry shells or with pasta or rice.

Singing Shrimp

Here's another great shrimp recipe from New Orleans!

It is said to have originated at Commander's Palace, sometime in the late 1980s, where it was prepared table-side and flamed with cognac for effect. Those table-side presentations are pretty exciting!

As far as I know this dish is no longer offered at the restaurant, although I haven't been to Commander's in too many years, so don't hold me to that!!

Oven roasted, well-seasoned jumbo shrimp tossed in a tomato-based pasta sauce and rotini pasta.

Roasted Shrimp and Pasta Sauce

Pasta, pasta sauce and shrimp. How can you go wrong with that?!

Some of y'all may know about one of my favorite pasta sauces that I typically make in the summer with those super delicious, fresh from the garden tomatoes. It's simple, light and so flavorful.

Stuffing made with boudin sausage, wrapped with well-seasoned jumbo shrimp and served with an easy shortcut demi-glace drizzle.

Boudin Stuffed Shrimp

I based this recipe on a video that passed by me one day on Facebook from The Southern Weekend show, although, because it was a chef inspired recipe, it was rather involved. 

There are a couple of sauces that a chef would automatically have already made and on hand. A demi-glace would be one of those sauces.

Traditionally a French demi-glace, a word translated as half sauce, is made up of an espagnole - a very long simmered, brown meat stock and considered the traditional "mother" of brown sauces because of its many derivatives.

An easy skillet meal, made with shrimp, sautéed peppers and onion, tossed with small shell pasta and finished with a cheesy cream sauce.

Seagrove Shrimp with Pasta and Peppers

I ran across a recipe for this Seagrove Shrimp in the cookbook Best of the Best from the Deep South (#ad), a compilation of regional recipes drawn from various cookbooks from Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. These are the same folks who published my cookbook actually! (#ad)

I don't know how the name Seagrove Shrimp came about, but if I was to venture a guess, I'd say it probably was named after a dish at a local restaurant in the Seagrove Beach, Florida area, or perhaps even invented in a beach condo by someone vacationing there.

I sure do love my Gulf Coast y'all and these beach communities along the Florida coast are my favorite get aways!

Shrimp Poppers with Pepper Jelly Glaze

Jumbo shrimp, stuffed with a jalapeno popper filling, wrapped in bacon and brushed with a pepper jelly barbecue glaze.

Bacon Wrapped Shrimp Poppers with Pepper Jelly Glaze

The Cajun's Dad always had an abundance of shrimp on hand. Nice ones too, many jumbos.

Back in the day, the family owned a small shrimp boat, so the boys would go out with Dad for a day of shrimping. When I was a kid, most young men and yes, even some gals around here too, would have experienced working on a shrimp boat at some point in their lives. Most families were involved in the industry and it was just part of the culture then.

When The Cajun went out, we would put up about 100 pounds of fresh from the Gulf shrimp that day. What a blessing!

The flavors of a shrimp gumbo with smoked sausage, in a light roux with the trinity of vegetables and okra, tossed with a short cut pasta.

Shrimp Gumbo Pasta

Gotta love a one pot pasta meal that doesn't include having to precook the pasta!

That's the case with this meal, a one pot meal that is somewhat in line with the Pastalaya recipe I've shared before. That recipe has the classic flavors of a chicken and sausage jambalaya, in a quick and easy skillet pasta dinner.

Wild American shrimp, dredged in a blend of flour and cornstarch, then deep fried and finished in an enhanced spicy sweet chili sauce, makes for a great snack, appetizer or main dish meal with a nice kick.

Firecracker Shrimp Appetizer

Because I'm constantly writing new recipes for this website and I cook so often, my husband aka to y'all as "The Cajun" and I don't really eat out much. On those occasions where we do, I'm often inspired to try to recreate something on the menu that we tried.

That is the case here.

Almost every local restaurant here along the Mississippi Gulf Coast has some kind of shrimp appetizer that consists of crunchy fried shrimp tossed in a slightly spicy and sweet sauce. They are known by a variety of names - like Firecracker Shrimp, Voodoo Shrimp, Bang Bang Shrimp and Boom Boom Shrimp, to name a few. 

Fresh Gulf shrimp, marinated in milk, egg and hot sauce, then tossed in a well-seasoned hushpuppy dredge and deep fried to perfection.

Hushpuppy Breaded Fried Shrimp

Some years back, Popeye's Louisiana Kitchen, which by the way makes the most delicious fried chicken evah, introduced seafood to the menu in some areas. Some menu items were offered only on a limited time basis. Hushpuppy Fried Shrimp was one of those.

I was intrigued.

So, for research purposes, I requested that my husband aka here as "The Cajun" swing in and pick up a small order of them on his way home for us to try.

A quick skillet meal of shrimp and smoked sausage with wide egg noodles in a creamy sauce.

Creamy Cajun Shrimp and Sausage with Noodles

We are so blessed with fresh seafood and Gulf shrimp is available year round, very often fresh off the boat which is my preferred method of purchase. 

I'm always fooling around with different shrimp and pasta combinations to try different things and this is one of those instances. As a recipe writer and owner of a food-related website, there's a lot of experimenting and often it takes multiple tries to get a recipe just right.

At least that's my philosophy as a food blogger, because one thing I can guarantee and that is when a recipe appears on my website, it has been well-tested to meet my approval.

A creamy tomato-based stew with shrimp, crawfish and crab and served over hot, steamed rice.

Seafood Pan Roast

Several years back, I was looking through a Martha Foose cookbook, Screen Doors and Sweet Tea, that contained a recipe for what was called a seafood pan roast. Since The Cajun and I don't eat out much, this was an unfamiliar dish for me.

At the time, I couldn't find much about it around the internet either and even today there still isn't much out there. I went ahead and made it, but with no photos to let me know if I was anywhere on track let's just say mine didn't turn out quite right. With the cost of seafood, I abandoned it to experiment a bit more thoroughly another time.

A shrimp gumbo, made with a roux and the trinity, and the addition of boiled eggs to stretch the meal and add additional protein for the Lenten season. Eggs may be omitted if you prefer.

Lenten Shrimp and Egg Gumbo

Egg most often appears throughout the year in a gumbo made from a hen or chicken, quail eggs in everything else often, though during Lent it's seafood. The egg stretches the meal and adds extra protein.

I based my version on a recipe from Best of the Best from Louisiana cookbook, which did not include okra, so I left it out, though certainly use some if you prefer. Some folks will argue with you that it's not a gumbo without it because they probably read that somewhere.

Wild American shrimp are butterflied, highly seasoned, dipped in flour, then blended milk and egg and last in panko breadcrumbs, then deep-fried.

Deep-Fried Butterflied Panko Shrimp

Even though I love fried shrimp all kinds of ways, my number one way to make them is the classic version.

It's the one I crave and make the most.

I also love them batter-dipped or tempura style and if I'm baking them like an oven fry, panko breadcrumbs are likely to be my top choice of breading, just for the added crunch.

This time I thought I'd try the panko breadcrumbs in a deep fry instead, and I'm glad I did. They turned out fantastic!

Seasoned shrimp quickly air fried and finished in a toss of a garlic butter blend. Use as a snack shrimp, great when served in individual appetizer cups for a party pass around or toss with cooked pasta for a main dish meal.

Air Fryer Garlic Shrimp

I love my air fryer! I may have mentioned that before??

It's great for reheating certain leftovers to bring back the crisp - like fried chicken - and it does an amazing job of reheating pizza. A lot of busy moms use them to cook freezer foods - like chicken nuggets and tenders, French fries and tater tots, corn dogs, egg rolls, and, in fact, many products have begun putting air fryer instructions on their packaging.

But I love it for cooking too!

Large shrimp, tossed with olive oil and seasonings and quickly grilled with a Ninja Foodi or other electric, countertop grill.

Grilled Spicy Shrimp (Ninja Foodi)

I really enjoy grilled foods, though when I talk about "grilling" these days, it's less often on my outside, open-flame grill anymore, and much more often on my indoor countertop grill.

The heat and humidity outside in the summertime here along the central Gulf Coast is just too much for me!

It's not quite the same as that open flame flavor of course, so yeah, it loses a little in the translation on a tabletop grill, but it sure does still taste good! It's also easier, more convenient and faster, especially when you purchase your shrimp already peeled and deveined from the freezer section.

Highly seasoned grilled shrimp served on grilled fresh corn tortillas with salsa fresca, onion, cilantro and fresh lime.

Tex-Mex Grilled Shrimp Tacos

I love any kind of Mexican or Tex-Mex food, though outside of the usual standards of tacos, burritos and quesadillas - we pretty much go out more often than making it at home. The main reason is I have an adventurous palate and almost never order the same thing.

The Cajun, well he's the total opposite and almost never steers away from the crunchy beef tacos. It's kinda funny really, because he'll study the menu for awhile, but then when the server arrives, it's always crunchy tacos!

Wild-caught American shrimp, preferably Gulf shrimp, nicely seasoned and sautéed in butter with fresh basil and mushrooms, tossed in a sour cream sauce and served with parsley rice.

Shrimp Victoria

This is another one of those easy, yet superb, New Orleans restaurant shrimp dishes, once popular at both Brennan's restaurant and Commander's Palace. It became a classic New Orleans favorite and was, at one time, served in many homes here in the Deep South.

Once again, however, nobody seems to know how the name came to be!

Wild American shrimp, seasoned and pan-seared, with a stir-fry of fresh vegetables and an Asian inspired orange sauce. Serve over hot, steamed rice.

Spicy Orange Pecan Shrimp Stir Fry

I actually adapted this recipe from one of my older Southern Living recipe books from a long time back, just in case somebody wants to give me some guff for posting an Asian recipe... because someone will.

Hey, the reality is that Southerners eat Asian food too! We love it actually, and, in fact, one of my favorites is Chap Chae, a dish my Korean neighbor used to share with me when she made it. We've got some pretty good pho around here too, thanks to our Vietnamese population.