Bubba Gump Shrimp...ok not really!

This weeks recipe was by far the easiest I have done so far, so unfortunately I don't have any funny stories or interesting ingredients I used. I decided to keep this recipe low key and incorporate it into one of our dinner nights during the week, instead of having people over and making it on my usual Sunday recipe nights. It worked out great, because we had just enough for myself, my mom and Adam to enjoy!

I was able to easily find all the ingredients I needed at Kroger. I had to get a little help on this recipe, which is usually a NO NO when I'm doing this. By that I mean, I don't LET anyone help me because I take joy in doing it all by myself. Unfortunately, since we did the recipe during the week, I had just finished a P90X workout, and it was getting late, I needed extra hands on deck! So myself, Adam and my Mom all jumped in to peel the shrimp. They were already deveined, luckily! Then we all chipped in and started chopping everything that needed to be chopped. We just did a rough chop because the food processor took care of the rest. We had to chop the: serrano chiles, garlic & ginger (peel and chop). Once those were all done, I threw it into the food processor along with the: mint leaves, sugar, white wine vinegar & fish sauce! FYI, fish sauce smells so disgusting, but REALLY adds flavor to the sauce and is super yummy. Once it comes out of the food processor, you can use your own judgement to add salt to taste.

After the serrano mint sauce was done it was on to cooking the shrimp. Adam of course heated up the grill for me while I was giving my shrimp a quick toss in some canola oil. Following that, I added a little bit of salt and pepper and gave them a quick toss again. Then it was off to the grill. This was the trickiest part of the whole meal. You have to be super careful not to let the shrimp fall in between the grates on the grill! I used tongs to help me do this. Unfortunately though, it was super windy and my temperature dropped quickly with me having the grill open so long. I was able to get all the shrimp on the grill successfully and closed the lid. You only want to cook shrimp for about 1-2 minutes on each side. Since my grill had lost it's heat, I left mine on for about 3 minutes on each side. Just watch them closely, because if you overcook shrimp they tend to be super tough and rubbery. So depending on the weather and your grill, cooking time might change a little. The end result you want is for them to be pretty pink and white (no clear).

While my shrimp were grilling away, I went inside and started prepping my curly leaf lettuce. Basically, all I did was rinse it and peel off sections of leaves about as big as a corn tortilla. I then placed them really pretty like on a big plate (I recently lost my big pretty crystal platter *sad face*). Instead of making all of them individually and the shrimp getting cold, I figured I could just put the shrimp in the middle and everyone could just grab a lettuce leaf and fill their own to their liking! I would definitely recommend doing it this way! It saves time and makes eating this dish more fun!

By the time I was done with the lettuce, my shrimp were perfectly grilled and ready to eat. I went and took them off the grill and placed them directly on the lettuce leaves, in the center. Then, I had a little dish with the serrano mint sauce on the side, so everyone could add as little or much as they wanted. Good thing I did this because, WOW, that was some spicy sauce!! I absolutely loved it, but it was even borderline too hot for me. I had to get some milk to wash it all down! I knew it was going to be spicy, though, because the serrano chiles I bought were super wrinkly and had tons of seeds (sure sign you have a spicy pepper). Adam and my mom could only manage one shrimp taco with the serrano mint sauce, so if you prefer less heat I would suggest removing the seeds or just using 1 serrano chile for your sauce.

This dish was a perfect, healthy, reasonably priced dinner! I would definitely suggest having this for your next party or even as a fun meal that you can eat hands on with your family! Overall it was a huge success and ranked #1 in my Mom's book and #2/3 (he was torn with the Moo-less Choc. Pie or this as #2) in Adam's book from the recipes I have done so far. I would have to rank it as #1 so far because I am a sucker for heat and seafood!!

Recipe Rating: Super Easy, anyone can do this recipe!
Good Leftover: You COULD have it the next day, but the shrimp after re-heat will be a little tough.
Tip: Use latex free gloves when chopping any hot pepper. This saves you from having that hot oil from the pepper on your hand and accidentally touching your eye!
Stay tuned in 2 weeks-Tuna Burgers with Pineapple-Mustard Glaze and Green Chile-Pickle Relish

You can find the Grilled Shrimp in Lettuce Leaves with Serrano-Mint Sauce recipe here:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/grilled-shrimp-in-lettuce-leaves-with-serrano-mint-sauce-recipe/index.html