Firm peeled shrimp enveloped in a paste of bread crumbs laced with garlic, sherry, butter, and thyme are packed into a casserole dish and then baked until the crumbs bubble and the rim becomes a dark crust. Shrimp De Jonghe is strictly a Chicago dish, more popular among home cooks than in restaurants, where its old-fashioned casserole character puts it at odds with cutting-edge cookery.
It does go back at least a century, although its exact provenance is uncertain. Nancy Buckley, granddaughter of Pierre De Jonghe, believes it was Pierre who invented it after arriving in America from France for the Columbian Exposition in 1893. He and three brothers and three sisters opened a restaurant on Monroe Street downtown in 1899, and it was there the dish was created, either by Pierre himself or by Pierre and the restaurant’s chef, Emil Zehr. The De Jonghe family sold the restaurant when Prohibition became law (with no wine for cooking, what was the point?), and it finally closed in the 1930s. Nevertheless, the evocatively aromatic dish lived on, and while it used to be available in many middle-class dining rooms throughout the city and suburbs, it now is more likely to be an off-the-menu special in white-tablecloth restaurants and steak houses.
Shrimp De Jonghe
All recipes for shrimp De Jonghe contain pretty much the same ingredients, the primary difference among them being how much garlic is used. One clove results in a chafing-dish meal reminiscent of ladies lunch. Six cloves make a macho casserole.
2 pounds jumbo shrimp, shelled and deveined
1½ sticks salted butter, softened
1 cup fine dry bread crumbs
⅓ cup minced fresh parsley leaves
½ cup dry sherry
1–6 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
Dash of cayenne pepper
Dash of paprika
Toast points (optional)
1. Add the shrimp to a kettle of salted boiling water and cook until barely pink, about 2 minutes. (Shrimp will not be cooked through.) Drain shrimp and cool.
2. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Butter a shallow casserole just large enough to hold all the shrimp in one layer.
3. Stir together the butter, bread crumbs, parsley, sherry, garlic, salt, cayenne pepper, and paprika.
4. Place the shrimp in the prepared casserole and spoon the bread crumb mixture evenly over them.
5. Bake until the crumbs are golden brown and sizzling, about 30 minutes.
6. Serve shrimp on toast points, if desired.
4–6 SERVINGS