-I'm Mary Beth Albright with The Washington Post.
You like shrimp? You like sausage?
What about both on a stick?
Whether or an expert griller or a newcomer,
shrimp and sausage on a stick
is a great way to do surf and turf this summer.
The shrimp gives the sausage a little hug,
and they flavor each other.
Plus, there are some more tricks I've got for you.
For our first trick!
Cedar skewers.
Ah. Cedar skewers give everything
that's on them a smoky
and sweet flavor, and they smell so good.
You just got to soak them for about five minutes first
so they don't get set on fire on the grill.
Now, you can see, you got to weigh them down a little bit
to make sure they don't just float to the top.
If you just have regular skewers like bamboo skewers
or steel skewers, that's fine, too,
but this is a nice little trick.
For our second trick -- keep the shell on the shrimp.
You can actually buy shrimp with the shell on
and the vein taken out for the back.
Now, if you cook it in the shell, it retains the moisture.
It retains flavor.
It's like one of those things that you go to a restaurant
and you're like, "Gosh, why are these shrimp so good?"
They probably got cooked with the shell on.
Okay, so you take your cedar skewer,
and you start by putting the thickest part
of the shrimp on first.
Now, look, if you're like, "Mary Beth,
I don't have time to think about where I put the shrimp
on the skewer, don't worry about it.
You can put it on any-old way,
but I'll show you why we're doing this in a second.
You can absolutely use shrimp that has already been peeled,
but there are a couple things I do love
about using shrimp with the peel on.
Number one -- It protects it while it's cooking.
So, even if you overcook it a little bit,
it remains moist and really flavorful.
Number two -- Your guests do it for you.
You serve it to them like this, it looks super fancy,
and they have to do the peeling.
And they're like, "Oh, my gosh. What'd you do to this shrimp?"
And you're like, "Nothing. I just left the peel on."
But you look like a genius.
So, these shrimp are called 10U.
That means there are 10 or under per pound.
So the smaller the number on the package of shrimp,
the bigger the shrimp.
Okay, let's do a little bit of show and tell.
I want you to look at what the shrimp looks like raw.
That's really important because if you read recipes or stuff,
it says, "Cook the shrimp until it's opaque."
And you can't know what that looks like
unless you know what it looks like when it's raw.
So, you can see, when it's raw, it's gray and it's sort of pale.
For our third trick -- sausage.
Choose a sausage you love because there's gonna be
a lot of flavor that comes from the sausage into the shrimp.
And I'm just putting the sausage right onto the skewer
above the thick part of the shrimp all the way through.
There you go.
And now -- this is the trick --
you're gonna have the shrimp hug the sausage.
Hello.
We're going to flavor each other
and have a very nice time on the grill.
Now, here's the thing.
You want to get sausage that's pretty firm in texture.
If you get a loose sausage, it's still fine,
it's just more likely to fall off of the skewer.
So, I like to get a firm sausage and cut it into
about a 1/2-inch coin.
And that's also a good size for the shrimp to hug.
Now, the other this is --
oftentimes, I will use a pre-cooked sausage on this --
It will say that the sausage is pre-cooked on the package --
because then you don't have to worry
about the shrimp being done and the sausage not being done.
There we go.
Now, in case you're like, "Mary Beth,
I can't find the colossal shrimp.
It's not gonna be able to hug the shrimp.
Look, I got smaller shrimp right here.
They can hug it, too.
And again, if you don't have the time
or the patience for this, it's fine.
It's just nice this way because the sausage flavors the shrimp,
the sweetness of the shrimp complements,
and everything just turns out delicious.
Okay, and now we're just going to brush it with olive oil
and put some salt and pepper on.
Oh, yeah.
A lot of the seasoning and the flavor on this
is going to come from whatever sausage you choose.
That's why it's so important to pick a sausage
that you really love.
I like that sound.
Alright, time to grill.
Welcome to the pleasures of grilling in the great outdoors.
So, now we're outside.
My grill is pre-heated.
I'm gonna put the shrimp over indirect heat.
That means that it's next to a flame but not directly over it.
And that's important because the shrimp are pretty delicate.
I'm also putting them on an angle
'cause that gives you those insanely beautiful grill marks.
Now, if you don't have a grill or you're not going outside
right now, it's fine.
You can put these under the broiler in the oven,
maybe about 6 inches away from the broiler,
and just broil them for the equal amount of time,
and it'll still turn out great.
Ooh, getting schvitzy.
Now, here's another trick.
I'm putting on a test shrimp.
This is not on a kebab.
So, the kebabs stay looking really good,
but I'm gonna put a test shrimp
so that if I feel like maybe they're not done yet,
I can always just cut this guy open and eat him myself.
Gonna put him right here.
It's about 2 to 3 minutes per side,
depending on the size of your shrimp,
and depending on the power of the grill.
As the shrimp cooks, it contracts,
so it hugs the sausage even more,
and they give each other even more flavor.
You see that smoke coming out?
That is the cedar smoke,
and it's giving the shrimp and sausage even more flavor.
So, it's been about three minutes.
Let's turn them.
Oh, yeah.
I want you to take a look.
See how different the shrimp looks when it's cooking
and when it's cooked?
You can see it turns this bright pink color,
and you can see that the meat is going from gray to white,
and that's gonna tell you that it's almost done.
Now, let's do our test shrimp, right,
because it's been about three minutes each side.
I'm gonna take my test shrimp off and see if it's done.
Oh, yeah.
So, you can see the shrimp is bright pink,
and there's no trace
of the grayness of the raw shrimp right now.
That means it's done.
The smaller ones that don't have a shell will cook more quickly,
so just keep an eye on them.
So, this one is not done yet.
It just wasn't over a really hot part of the grill.
So, you can see that the shell is bright pink,
but there's a little bit gray left in the meat,
so this guy needs like a minute more.
I'm grilling in the rain, baby!
I'm Mary Beth Albright with The Washington Post!
Let's get inside.