We love shrimp – any way you serve it. I bought some cooked shrimp by mistake from the freezer section. I thought it was raw. So what to do besides shrimp cocktails? This dish was so easy and came out delicious!

Marinating the Shrimp

I wasn’t sure how cooked shrimp would absorb the flavors, but it came out perfect!

Place the shrimp in a bowl and top with all the spices.

Stir in the olive oil, making sure each piece is well coated. Cover and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours.

If you are using raw shrimp, only marinate for an hour.

Making the Easy Spicy Shrimp

Heat the ghee and 1 Tablespoon olive oil in a heavy skillet over medium high heat. You can substitute European butter for the ghee. It has a much lower water content, or make your own clarified butter ^[1].

Add the green onions and cook just until they are starting to get soft. Push to the side.

Place the shrimp in the hot skillet

and cook until it’s hot, about 5 to 6 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice.

Mix it all together and serve over hot orzo or rice.

© Copyright 2024 The Lazy Gastronome

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This month each week will bring two posts that share Christmas foods from different parts of the world. It will go until the week after Christmas. It was fun to do the research and learn about these traditions and how they came to be. First on the list, Australia.

Australia is in the southern hemisphere, so a white Christmas doesn’t happen there. In fact, December is the start of summer time! So think of Christmas as a big 4th of July party on the Northern hemisphere! Some say that Santa takes a break when he gets to Australia. His reindeers rest and he uses Kangaroos! He even puts his beachwear on. But what do they eat?

Christmas Food Traditions in Australia

Since it’s summertime, barbecues are quite popular. If you live near a beach, that’s where you celebrate. The main meal is often eaten at lunchtime and there are a lot of cold foods, as well as some of the traditional Christmas foods.

Pavlov is the top, iconic dessert – meringues covered in cream and fruit. Lots of cherries and tomatoes are part of the meal. There are plenty of mimosas and beer (but NOT Fosters). BBQ is the way most food is prepared. But they don’t do shrimp on the barbie – prawns are what are eaten in Australia. They are either purchased pre-cooked and served cold, or cooked on a grill and always served with Thousand Island dressing.  Cold oysters, ham and turkey are often on the table too.

Since I don’t have the time or the room to do everything, today I am offering grilled prawns (or in this case, shrimp. Prawns are hard to find here). They are similar, but prawns are usually larger and just a tad sweeter.

Grilling the Prawns

If you’re in Australia, you’d be firing up the charcoals. But I’m in the Pacific Northwest and it’s cold and wet. So I fired up my grill pan!

Simple is better when it comes to prawns (shrimp) in Australia.

You can do these two ways – skewered or just on the grill. If you are using a barbecue, I recommend the skewers. There’s less chance of them falling into the coals. I butterflied the shrimps from back to leg side first. You don’t have to do that, you can leave them whole.

Salt and pepper both sides of each piece.

If you are skewering, run the stick from tail to top, carefully getting it into the thickest part. I used rosemary sticks. You get some nice flavor from them.

If you are using a grill pan, drop some rosemary leaves directly on the griddle. The flavor will smoke into the meat creating a very subtle rosemary flavor.

Cook for just 2 or 3 minutes, turn and cook another 2 or 3 minutes.

Be careful not to over cook.

They should be golden.

You can serve them immediately, hot, or chill them and serve them cold.

Either way, you must include a bowl of Thousand Island dressing for dipping!

© Copyright 2023 The Lazy Gastronome

Merry Christmas!

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It’s National Seafood Bisque day! A deliciously creamy and flavorful bowl of wonderfully rich soup.

Cream Soup, Chowder or Bisque?

What is the difference in these soups?

Chowder ^[10] has chunks of meat, potato and vegetables. It’s usually in a broth base.

Cream soup and bisque are similar. Both are smooth and creamy, but it’s when the cream is added that makes the difference. The cream is added last in a cream soup, but is used during the cooking process in a bisque.

Making a Seafood Bisque – 

Cut the bacon into large chunks and

cook in a heavy pot over low heat. It will take awhile to fully render the fat and create lardons, about 30 to 40 minutes.

Turn off the heat. Remove the bacon to drain on paper towels.

Drain off all but 1/3 cup of the bacon fat.  Melt the butter in the pot with the bacon fat.

Cook the garlic and green onions in the melted butter for about 5 minutes, until it’s fragrant and tender.

Mix the flour with the cajun seasonings, old bay and cayenne.

Whisk the flour into the butter and add the sundried tomatoes.

Cook until the flour begins to brown lightly.

Slowly whisk in the clam juice and continue to whisk until it’s well incorporated into the flour mixture.

Stir in the cream, then the seafood. Simmer on low, stirring often for about 10 to 15 minutes, or until the shrimp and other seafood is cooked.

Remove it from the heat.

Using an immersion blender, blend the soup until it’s smooth and creamy.

Serve hot garnished with the cooked bacon, chopped green onions and some shrimp or crab. Cheddar Bay biscuits ^[11] go great with these – follow the link to a fantastic recipe for them!

© Copyright 2023 The Lazy Gastronome

• This post was shared at these parties – check them out!
• Fiesta Friday ^[13]
• Full Plate Thursday ^[14]
• Sunday’s on Silverado  ^[15]
• Inspire me Monday ^[16]
• Funtastic Friday ^[17]
• Dare to Share ^[18]
• Homestead Blog Hop ^[19]
• Creative Muster ^[20]
• Senior Pitstop ^[21]

Leave me a comment – I’d love to hear your thoughts!

I’m always looking for new things to eat and cook. I tried these at a restaurant and decided to give them a go. I little research, a little playing, and I came up with some Saigon crepes that were pretty close to what I ate -We’ll be having them again!

What is a Saigon Crepe?

Saigon crepes are a Vietnamese ^[25] street food. The crispy crepes are typically filled with pork, shrimp, bean sprouts and green onions – and sometimes mushrooms. Each crepe is wrapped in a lettuce leaf.

They are served with a sweet, savory and salty nuoc cham – a Vietnamese dipping sauce. Not only are they delicious, they are easy to make!

Make the nuoc cham first – 

Mix the sugar with the warm water in a small bowl. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Add the remaining ingredients and whisk until blended.

Many of the ingredients are available in the Asian section of the market (or on Amazon!)

Cover and refrigerate until you are ready to use it, at least a couple of hours. It will help all the flavors meld together.

Be sure to bring it to room temperature before you use it.

You can also buy the sauce premade  –

Making and serving the crepes – 

Mix all the crepe batter ingredients together in a medium bowl. Allow it to rest at least one hour before you use it.

Ready to eat? Get all the ingredients together and prepped.

Start by cooking the onions and mushrooms in 2 Tablespoons of oil. Gently cook until they are starting to soften.

Add the shrimp and pork and cook until the shrimp is just starting to turn pink, about 3 minutes.

Remove it all from the heat and set aside.

Heat a skillet and add 1 Tablespoon of oil.

Pour 1/4 of the crepe batter (about 1/3 cup) to the pan and swirl it to spread it out to a thin pancake. Let it cook for about 1 minutes on medium-high heat.

Add 1/4 of the vegetable and meat mixture, 1/4 of the bean sprouts and 1/4 of the green onions. Cover and cook for another minutes. The shrimp should be pink, but the sprouts should still have some crunch.

Gently fold the crepe in half and set on a heated plate. Continue until all four crepes are made. If you are making a lot, put them on a rack in the oven on warm. The rack will keep them crispy.

Lay each crepe on a fresh lettuce leaf. Wrap the leaf around the crepe

and serve with dipping sauce. I cut each crepe in half, so one whole crepe is a serving.

NOTE: the first one almost always does not come out! I just set it aside and we ate it – but it wasn’t as pretty as the others! There is enough batter to make four good crepes and one not so good (first) one.

© Copyright 2023 The Lazy Gastronome

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Well, I finally got an air fryer. I actually picked up a Ninja Foodi at a yard sale for $10! It is multifunctioning – Air crisp (fried), Broil/Bake, Steam and Pressure cook. I have to order the rack that’s used for baking and broiling – but that’s no biggy. And I’m loving it!

I tried a loaf of bread using the bake function – it makes the crust very crispy and the loaf sort of flattens, but it tasted great. We’re using the bread for crostini.

The air fryer is my favorite function. I wanted to make a quick appetizer and put these air fried shrimps together. They are delicious and so easy!

Making the Shrimp –

Rinse the shrimp and drain it on paper towels for five or ten minutes.

Sprinkle it lightly with the old bay.

Cut the bacon ^[30] slices in half. Carefully wrap a half around a shrimp, anchoring one end while you wrap and securing the whole thing with a toothpick.

Place them in one layer on the crisper of the air fryer.

Fry at 375 degrees for six minutes. Remove the fried shrimp with tongs and repeat with the next batch.

Serve them with some barbecue sauce to dip – or just eat them as is (We liked as is best)!

© Copyright 2023 The Lazy Gastronome

Leave me a comment – I’d love to hear your thoughts!