Know what are really good? Shrimp. Prawns. Langoustines! Know what else is really delicious? Sriracha. Lots of it. I like to use so much Sriracha on my pizza, popcorn, eggs, pasta, or (in this case) shrimp, that it turns a nice bright, peppery, red.

I wanted the easiest possible way to get shrimp and sriracha together in an immediate kind of way. Enter the ever-faithful cedar wraps. Cedar wraps, which are also called cedar papers, are thin sheets of cedar veneer that add smoky, cedar flavor when used on the outdoor barbeque, or cedar flavor when used in the oven. Don’t tell my foodie friends; cedar wraps also work really well in the microwave. Technically, they are supposed to be soaked in water for 10 minutes, but sometimes I just dip the cedar papers in water (or beer in this case), get them wet and they still work fine.

Here’s the recipe that I came up with for my spicy-cedar-shrimp feast:

Ingredients

1lb (about 15) Jumbo Prawns. Shell-on, thawed
5 Cedar wraps/ cedar papers
2 Tablespoons of olive oil
6 Tablespoons Sriracha
2 cloves minced garlic
1 bunch fresh Thai Basil
1 lime

Method

Soak. Soak the cedar wraps in water, beer or wine for 5-10 minutes. We used beer.

Prep. Mix olive oil with Sriracha until it has an even consistency, add garlic. Toss shrimp in the garlic, Sriracha and oil sauce.

Wrap. Add three or four shrimp and some Thai Basil to each cedar wrap. Rolling with the grain of the cedar wrap; wrap the shrimp and tie with butcher’s twine.

It’s important to leave the shells on the shrimp or prawns when you grill them. They keep the shrimp from drying and seal in the flavor of the Sriracha sauce.

 Grill. Preheat the grill to 400ºF. Add cedar wraps to the grill. Grill the cedar wraps for between 7-10 minutes, or until they are pink and cooked through.

Dine. Serve the cedar wraps with a squeeze of lime and enjoy.

Welcome to Your Weekend!

~ EC

These cedar wraps add so much flavor and will impress your dinner guests time and time again!  Using the BBQ Dragon to stoke your charcoal fire and cedar wraps to add flavor are a winning combination!