Spicy Shrimp E'touffee' with 2008 RayLen Vineyards Riesling

Tuesday, January 26, 2010
(Updated 3:00 am)
By Ed Williams
Special to the News & Record - Greensboro, NC

Riesling has a knack of mitigating the "fire" in spicy Thai and Tex-Mex fare. Here, it's paired with this classic, spicy Creole dish. RayLen Vineyards near Mocksville boasts one of the state's top winemakers, Steve Shepard. Here he crafts a white in a semi-sweet style showing apple, honeysuckle and pear flavors and aromas. This is North Carolina's expression of the classic German and French Alsatian Rieslings. [See RayLen's Riesling here...]

Ingredients

* 2 sticks butter
* 4 cups chopped onion
* 2 cups chopped celery
* 2 cups chopped bell pepper
*2 teaspoons of chopped garlic
* 2 pounds of medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
* 2 teaspoons salt
* 1 Tablespoon finely minced cayenne pepper (or 1 teaspoon ground cayenne)
* 2 Tablespoons of flour
* 2 cups water
* 6 Tablespoons chopped parsley
* 1/2 cup chopped green onion
* Steamed rice

Directions

* Melt butter in large skillet over medium heat. Add bell peppers, celery, onion and saute until soft, about 15 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Add shrimp, salt and cayenne and cook 4-5 minutes until shrimp turn pink.

* Dissolve flour in the water and add this to shrimp mixture. Stir until mixture begins to thicken.

* Reduce heat and simmer on low for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

* Add parsley and green onion, stir and cook for 2 minutes, then serve with steamed rice.