Shrimp Mixed Grill

From Gourmet Magazine

Serves 8

This recipe is from Marsha. She kept it from a 1993 Gourmet Magazine. It's a winner - one of those people-are-licking-their plates’ recipes. We made this together for dinner on September 4, 2005. We trimmed the stems off flat across the bottom of the mushrooms, which makes them easy to skewer. We minced the cut-off stems and sautéed them in olive oil. (You could add chopped garlic and parsley to the mushrooms at the end of cooking them, which would be to lovely effect, but we didn’t do that.) We also sautéed some red peppers and then turned the mushrooms and red peppers into couscous we had already prepared. It was a great accompaniment to this dish.

As I explained in my recipe for Shrimp Creole, Peggy, who is from Charleston so she should know, never deveins her shrimp by cutting it down the back. Actually, she doesn't bother deveining it at all, so I have adopted this practice. However, if you absolutely MUST devein it, you can usually just pull it right out where the head has been severed (sorry, maybe you didn't know about this). Obviously, this would be the end opposite the tail.

¾ cup olive oil
2 tablespoons (packed) fresh thyme or 1 tablespoon dried (I always use fresh)
2 large garlic cloves, minced
½ teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
32 large uncooked shrimp, peeled
32 crimini or white cultivated button mushrooms, stems trimmed flat for easy skewering
8 bamboo skewers soaked for 30 minutes in water
1½ pounds andouille sausage or other spicy, smoked, fully cooked sausage cut into ¾-inch-thick rounds

Process the olive oil, thyme, minced garlic, and crushed red pepper in a food processor fitted with the metal blade for 1 minute. Pour the resulting mixture into a large bowl, add the shrimp, and let stand for one hour at room temperature.

Remove the shrimp from the marinade, reserving the marinade. Thread one mushroom horizontally on one skewer. Hold one andouille piece in curve of one shrimp, and thread them together onto the skewer, sliding next to mushroom. Repeat, alternating andouille pieces inside shrimp and mushrooms on each skewer. If doing in advance, refrigerate skewers, but bring back to room temperature before grilling, and refrigerate marinade, and bring to a boil before using.

Prepare barbecue grill at medium-high heat. Bring reserved marinade to a boil (whether it's been refrigerated or not) in a small heavy saucepan. Arrange the skewers on the grill, and brush them with some of the marinade. Grill until the shrimp are cooked through, turning occasionally and basting with marinade, about 8 minutes. Transfer to plates and serve.

Marsha and I made this for dinner on September 4, 2005. *We trimmed the tems off flat across the bottom of the mushrooms, which makes them easy to skewer. We minced the cut-off stems and sautéed them in olive oil. (You could add chopped garlic and parsley to the mushrooms at the end of cooking them, which would be to lovely effect, but we didn’t do that.) We also sautéed some red peppers and then turned the mushrooms and red peppers into couscous we had already prepared. It was a great accompaniment to this dish.