I am a North Carolina girl born and raised but I have lived in Maryland for the past seven years so Old Bay has become a staple seasoning in my kitchen. I love to make crab cakes, seafood boils with crab legs and crab dip so I use Old Bay quite a bit. When it comes to hot sauce, I grew up on Texas Pete. It is what we used on a fried pork chop sandwich, fried chicken, fried fish and the list goes on.
Old Bay is made by McCormick & Co. which is a headquartered here in Maryland and earlier this year they released a hot sauce version of the Old Bay seasoning. Once I get wind of this information, I had to try it. The only problem was I couldn't find it! How is it that I live in Maryland and it was either out of stock or not sold in certain grocery stores??? I finally found it after searching multiple grocery stores and I must report it was worth the search. If you want to try it and can't find it in the grocery store, you can find it on Amazon. Here is the link.
I wanted to try it in a shrimp po boy sandwich and incorporate it in the remoulade sauce and the shrimp batter. I also added a few dashes of the Old Bay hot sauce on top of the sandwich before I devoured it. The hot sauce got 10's across the board from my family. It is tangy with a kick of heat and showcases that distinctive Chesapeake flavor that I have grown to love.
Below is the recipe for my Shrimp Po Boy with Old Bay Hot Sauce. I hope you enjoy it as much I did!
Ingredients for Remoulade Sauce
1 cup of mayonnaise
2 tablespoons of dill pickle relish
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
2 teaspoons of Old Bay Hot sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons of paprika
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper - add more if you want it spicier
2 scallions finely chopped
1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce
2 garlic cloves, minced
How to Make the Remoulade Sauce
Mix everything together and chill in the refrigerator until you are ready to build your sandwich.
Ingredients for Shrimp Batter
2 lbs of raw medium shrimp
1 cup of buttermilk
1 cup of yellow cornmeal
1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of black pepper
Salt to taste
1 tablespoon of Old Bay
Canola or vegetable oil for frying
How to Cook your Shrimp
In a small bowl, soak shrimp in buttermilk for about 15 minutes.
In a medium bowl, whisk cornmeal, flour, old bay, salt and pepper together and set aside.
In a deep fryer or cast iron skillet, heat oil to 350 degrees. If using a cast iron skillet, pour oil to the depth of about 2 inches.
Using tongs, remove the shrimp from the buttermilk and then coat with flour mixture shaking off any excess. Place on a separate plate and set aside.
Working in batches, fry shrimp until golden brown about 3-4 minutes per batch. Transfer to paper towels to drain.
On a toasted french baguette, add remoulade sauce on both sides of the bread, shredded lettuce, sliced tomatoes and top with fried shrimp.
Ingredients to Build Sandwich
Toasted French baguette
Shredded Lettuce
Sliced tomatoes
