Recipe Collection: Shrimp Au Gratin

Written by Kate Tietje

Have you ever gone to a restaurant, fallen in love with a dish, and just knew you needed to recreate it?  I feel this happens a lot, at least to me.  This happened with the olive garden stuffed mushroom recipe, which I decided to recreate, too.  Well, it happened again.

In 2010, we went to a restaurant to celebrate my father’s birthday.  They had “shrimp and crab au gratin” on the menu, and I had to try it.  It was so good I decided that I would need to make it at home.  I looked up various recipes, but none looked quite right, so I set out independently.  I omitted the crab, even though I love it because it is very expensive!  This is what I came up with.

Shrimp Au Gratin

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup onion, minced
• 4 tbsp. butter
• 2 tbsp. arrowroot powder
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• 1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1 cup Gruyere or Emmentaler cheese, shredded
• 1 lb. small or medium shrimp, cooked

Directions:

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350ºF.  Then, in a medium saucepan, melt some butter and sautee the onion until softened.

Step 2: Add arrowroot and stir until a smooth paste forms.

Step 3: Add milk and cook on medium, stirring frequently, until a thick white sauce is formed (it will seem TOO thick; this is okay).

Step 4: Pour the sauce into an 8 x 8 baking dish and add the shrimp, salt, pepper, and cheeses before stirring to combine.

Step 5: Bake for 25 – 30 minutes.  Serve immediately.

Please don’t make the mistake I made the first time.  The sauce seemed too thick, so I added an extra 1/2 cup of milk to thin it out to the “right” texture.  But after it baked and the cheese melted, the sauce was too runny.  Still delicious, but the texture wasn’t right.  So leave the sauce too thick; it will thin out nicely once the cheeses melt!

You can serve Shrimp Au Gratin with a nice slice of sourdough bread topped with homemade butter and a side Caesar salad.  Delicious!

What’s your favorite way to cook shrimp?