I was reading The Food in My Beard yesterday and up comes a new post featuring one of my favorites – Buffalo Wings. It’s really quite incredible. Everything that Dan (my culinary brother from another mother) posts about on TFIMB is something that I crave, love, or would make. Italian food, pizza, meat, frying things, and otherwise greasy-goodness are high on my list, so his site really hits the spot.
Viewing this in depth wing post made me really crave the buttery spicy perfection that is anything buffalo style, but I didn’t want to run out to the store. Checking out the fridge, I did see I had all the makings for buffalo shrimp, so within minutes, we were off to the races.
First I let the shrimp thaw (Trader Joe’s peeled, uncooked shrimp with tails – pretty decent), then I let them soak in a mix of salt, cayenne, and buttermilk for about 75 minutes. I then took them out and patted them dry (above).
Here I’m getting the sauce ready – almost half a stick of butter, Frank’s RedHot cayenne sauce (the best I think), and a little Cholula for some variety.
While I heated the canola oil (enough to fully submerge a shrimp), I dredged the shrimp in the flour, cayenne, and pepper. Leave the tails on, they are perfect for grabbing the shrimp when eating later.
Frying the shrimp. I turned them over after 1-2 minutes, but they may not be necessary. They only need a 2-3 minutes total, depending on the size of your shrimp.
Tossing them in the buffalo sauce, then ready to eat. The plated shrimp picture is at the top of the post.
They were fantastic; extremely satisfying, a little crunchy, with perfect buffalo flavor. I would have liked a little more “batter” on the outside of them; maybe next time I won’t shake off so much of the excess flour while dredging, but that’s just a personal preference.
My only problem was, I was still hungry as I only had 8 shrimp or so. AND, I still had some buffalo sauce and a pan full of hot oil. What to do, what to do….
…Buffalo fried quesadilla
I still had some cubed/steamed potatoes, some black beans, tortillas, and cheese, so I decided to try something new.
First I sautéed the beans and potatoes in the remaining buffalo sauce.
Zapped the tortilla in the microwave for a few seconds to make it softer, then got my cheese ready.
Folded it over, then dropped it right in the frying oil. It wasn’t deep enough to cover, so I had to give it a flip. It cooked for a total of 1 minute each side.
Served, with some drizzled buffalo sauce on top. I’m not playing it cool…this was the real deal…glorious, in fact. The crunchy outside, opening into an explosion of gooey cheesy bean and potato goodness, with awesome waves of buffalo flavor attacking from both the outside and inside of the quesadilla.
I made a special trip to the gym that evening to punish myself for the sins which I have committed. But it was worth it.
