The Hungry Geographer

This Saturday marks the final race of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes. If you have been following the Triple Crown this early summer you know that the big story has been about jockey Calvin Borel and his quest for the “Jockey Triple Crown”. Borel, or as I like to say “The Cajun Comet,” is a southern-boiled horse racing mystic from South Louisiana in the heart of Acadiana. Borel, who hails from St. Martinsville, LA grew up near the town of Catahoula (home of the Louisiana state dog breed) and he has brought some much needed attention to Acadiana in the recent weeks. Now what does any of this have to do with geography or food? Well, lets just say Acadiana is home to not only great jockeys but also is home to some of the best food on the planet and has an exceedingly unique deltaic and wetland geography and geomorphology! Man, I’m getting hungry just thinking about a crawfish boil, frog legs, shrimp, corn bread and etouffee.

Louisiana style shrimp boil

Oh, yeah now back to the topic of the post. When preparing for a small party or a racing party it is always a good opportunity to plan by a theme (Calvin Borel/Cajun food) or by a food-event relationship. Seeing how there is the Belmont Stakes are going to be a celebration of Calvin Borel, it should naturally lead to an excuse to have some cajun food , bourbon  and beer. Currently it is shrimp season and preparing shrimp for a party is relatively easy and works well for many culinary tastes. When cooking for a modest or large group of people a few of the easiest ways to prepare a lot of shrimp is to steam, boil or grill your shrimp. All three cooking methods involve only a moderate amount of preparation with seasons and prep time, including food checks.

My choice for cooking a lot of shrimp is to steam shrimp. As a raised native of the Chesapeake Bay region my favorite tried and true receipe for steamed shrimp is as follows:

THG’s Steamed Shrimp
1. 2-3 pounds of 20-25 count shrimp
2. 3 tbl spoons of Old Bay Seasoning
3. 1 lemon cut and squeezed
4. 4 cloves garlic chopped or pressed (1 clove each half-pound)
5. 2 tbl spoons olive oil (1 tbl each pound)
6. 2 tbl spoons hot pepper flakes
7. 1/2 cup of cheap red wine
8. 1 beer (preferably Natural Lite)

After washing off the shrimp, take the first 6 ingredients and mix together in a bowl to get all of the shrimp covered in seasonings and oil. Pour the Natural Lite and red wine into the steam pot and bring to a boil/steam. Place the shrimp in the elevated steam pot and cover. Cook until they are “red and dead” and serve with cold beer. You should have a big smile on your face, Old Bay under your nails, and satisfaction in your belly!

-THG

Tags: belmont, Calvin Borel, horse racing, Louisiana, Old Bay, shrimp, Summer eats, triple crown food

This entry was posted on Friday, June 5th, 2009 at 10:00 am and is filed under Beer, Summer eats, Summer eats. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.