Baked Stuffed Shrimp

Step 1

Peel each shrimp but leave the tail piece on and save the shells. Press the shrimp cut down on your cutting board so that the cut opens up flat and the tail curls around over it.

Step 2

Drain and squeeze the crab meat but do not discard the liquid.

Step 3

In a medium saute pan, place shrimp shells, crab liquid and the bottle of clam juice and bring to a fast simmer. Cook until the liquid has reduced to two tablespoons. Strain through a fine sieve and discard shells and any sediment. Save reduced liquid.

Step 4

In the same pan, melt 4 tablespoons of the butter over medium heat and add the onions, celery, mushrooms and green bell pepper and cook for four minutes.

Step 5

Add the sherry off heat then back on the medium heat burner and cook to evaporate most of the liquid, about two minutes more. Set aside.

Step 6

Place both crackers in a food processor and process to a fine crumb.

Step 7

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Step 8

In a large bowl, mix the drained crab meat, the reduced seafood liquid, the cooked butter and vegetables, the cracker crumbs, the beaten egg, lemon juice, mayonnaise, cayenne pepper and Old Bay seasoning and gently toss to combine, trying not to break up the crab meat too much.

Step 9

Divide this filling by the number of shrimps. Our package had 12 shrimps so after dividing the filling by 12, each ball of filling was about 2 1/3 ounces.

Step 10

Spray a small casserole dish with kitchen pan spray. The pan should be big enough to hold all stuffed shrimp without them touching each other.

Step 11

Take a ball of filling and press it onto the inside curl of the shrimp, letting the tail wrap around the top. Repeat for all shrimps, arranging in your prepared casserole dish as you fill.

Step 12

Melt the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter and drizzle two tablespoons of it over the shrimp tops then bake uncovered for 20 minutes.

Step 13

As soon as they come out of the oven, drizzle on the remaining two tablespoons of butter.

Step 14

Serve immediately.