Shrimp Scampi Recipe > Worst Blogger Ever

We can talk about how I am the worst blog updater ever (whoopsies!), or we can talk about the fabulous shrimp scampi I made this weekend. (Woo hoo- crossed another item off of my 52 weeks of new foods list!)

I had a small fear of cooking shrimp. Okay, I'm still a little scared of those suckers. Usually I bake it so it's perfectly cooked and delicious, but when I first started really cooking a few years ago, I got cocky and served basically completely raw shrimp in a salad. Awesome.

For this recipe, I lightly sauteed the shrimp in good olive oil and took them off the heat when they pinked up. This food actually tells you when it's done! (Be careful of reheating this recipe though- shrimp gets gummy and disgusting.) Not that you will have leftovers...

I wanted a simple, healthy fresh and classic dish for a cozy dinner party and went straight to my "Cooking 101" aka America's Test Kitchen 547985835483 page cookbook. I found this recipe, made a few tweaks and it came out pretty great! I believe Boyfriend gave this a 9/10. I was sort of pushing for a 10, but diva informed me he "doesn't give those out so easily."

I served this with Parmesan shavings, Celebrity Chef Obsession Ree Drummond (aka The Pioneer Woman's) Spinach Salad (amazing!! Ree's food is always so much prettier than mine!) and crusty garlic bread with whole roasted garlic cloves to soak up the lemony sauce.


Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pound shrimp, shelled and deveined (I used fairly large shrimp at 21-25 per pound)
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 Tbsp olive oil 
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
• 4 cloves minced garlic
• 3 Tbsp. dry white vermouth
• Juice of 3 lemons (mine were small when I tried this recipe, though! Put them in the microwave for 15 seconds before you squeeze- they juice better!)
• Finely chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves (for garnish) 
• Grated lemon zest (careful! This is strong!)
• Cayenne pepper to taste

Directions

Rinse and pat the shrimp dry. Arrange them in one layer on a serving platter or cookie tray and season both sides with salt and pepper. 

Heat  1 Tbsp of the olive oil over medium high heat. When the olive oil is shimmery, add half of the shrimp and sautee with a soft spatula and tongs until the shrimp pink up. Remove to a large bowl and repeat with the second half of the shrimp.

When the shrimp are done, squeeze a bit of lemon juice over the shrimp and cover with aluminum foil to keep warm. (Don't make the shrimp in advance. This recipe works best fresh!)

**NOTE: If you plan to serve the shrimp over pasta, double the ingredients in this next section. Pasta soaks up the sauce quickly! Nobody likes a dry scampi!**

In a large pan over medium heat, melt 3 Tbsp of butter (yes; not a health dish, friends). Add the garlic to the melted butter (you can do this off the heat if you tend to burn your garlic) and cook until fragrant. OFF THE HEAT, but to the hot pan, add the vermouth and remaining lemon juice and scape the flavor-packed brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Let the mix come to a boil and season with salt, pepper and cayenne to taste. 

Add the shrimp back into the pan to ensure shrimp are heated through. Add fresh parsley and lemon zest.

Serve over angel hair pasta (to which I add the last Tbsp of butter!) to make it extra delicious.

Herb Roasted Chicken and Creamy Pea Risotto

I FINALLY got around to making two dishes I've had on my "to do" list forever- roast chicken and risotto! The sense of accomplishment I got from making two fairly complicated dishes was amazing! Boyfriend was working late and my family was scattered across the eastern seaboard so mom and Brother #2 came over for a nice and simple (and may I add DELICIOUS) Sunday dinner.

The chicken is actually much easier than I thought (I may debate not buying those rotisserie chickens - may) and the risotto is my new go to comfort food- it's like macaroni and cheese for foodies.

I remember watching my mother and grandmother pull the "giblets" out of the turkey on Thanksgiving and gagged every time. My first experience with a raw chicken was still gagworthy but I got through it. :) I stuffed the cavity of the chicken with lemons, onion, garlic and rosemary and poured herb-infused melted butter and olive oil  over the chicken. (I used this recipe as a guide: http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Roasted-Chicken-with-Rosemary)

The risotto was amazing and while it took a lot of time (and attention to detail- my least favorite thing in life), it really was amazing. I used a Pioneer Woman recipe as a guide (Ree is everything I hope to be in life- I adore this woman!) and added peas at the very end for color and health factor.

I served the chicken and risotto with candied carrot coins and rosemary garlic bread.

Creamy Pea Risotto

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Parmesan and Pecorino Romano cheese 
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 Onion (or 1-2 shallots)
• 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
• 1 Tablespoon Butter
• 1 pound Arborio Rice
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup half and half
• 2 cups frozen peas (run under hot water and unfrozen)
• Salt, pepper, and chives to taste

Directions(from PW)

Grate 2 cups of cheese. Peel and finely dice 3 to 4 cloves of garlic. Dice ½ of a large onion.
Heat a large skillet over medium-low heat and add 1 tablespoon of Olive Oil. Then add 1 tablespoon of butter. Throw in the garlic and onion and sauté for a couple of minutes until the onion is translucent.
Add 1 pound of Arborio rice and stir to coat the rice thoroughly. Adding 1 cup at a time, add 7-8 ounces of chicken broth, stirring constantly after each addition. As soon as it appears that the rice has absorbed each helping of broth, add in the next helping. Do not stop stirring. This process will take at least 20 minutes. Rice is done when it no longer has a hard bite.
When more of the broth is absorbed pour in 1 to 1 ½ cups of heavy cream. Next add the grated cheese and stir thoroughly. Add peas. Add in plenty of fresh cracked pepper and about 1 to 2 tablespoons of chopped chives. Add salt to taste.

Barbeque Chicken and Bacon Stromboli

Thursday nights are date nights. They have been since 2009 when Boyfriend and I started dating. Thursdays are synonymous with wine, relaxation, weekend planning and not so healthy food. A few weeks ago I decided to try a stromboli at home (here's the recipe) that was savory and easy. The below did the trick!

Ingredients:

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and diced ( I used rotisserie chicken)
1 ½ cups BBQ sauce
4 slices smoked bacon, cooked crispy, drained and chopped
1 ½ cups shredded Cheddar cheese
½ cup chopped green onions
1 can Pillsbury Pizza dough (not thin crust)
Olive oil cooking oil spray

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Line a baking pan with non-stick foil. Lightly spray the foil with the cooking oil spray and set aside.

In a medium bowl mix the diced chicken and BBQ sauce.

Take the pizza dough out of the can and unroll it on your prepared baking sheet.

Press the dough into a rectangle… do not make the dough too thin.

Put the BBQ chicken down the center of the dough from one sort end to the other.

Sprinkle the chopped bacon over the chicken, then sprinkle the cheddar cheese, then sprinkle the chopped green onion over the top.

Carefully pull the sides of the dough from the long side to the middle. (Don't break it like I did.) Pinch the dough closed.

Sprinkle the top with garlic powder and bake for 16 minutes or until light golden brown.

Allow to cool for about 5 minutes before cutting. (You can dip in more bbq sauce if you like!)

Pots de Creme

I'm obsessed with the Pioneer Woman. Obsessed! Every recipe of hers is amazing, but the superstar at a dinner party last weekend were her Pots de Creme. I could blog about how to do it, but there's no way I could come close to this!

This is absolutely my go to dessert from now on.

Some Down, Lots to Go

 

No real amazing recipe worth sharing here, but here's proof that I'm cranking away on my 52 new foods list for 2012. Here is Pork Tenderloin with Peaches and Pecans and sweet and sour red cabbage. Interesting, different, but not added to my day to day. At least now I can say I know how to make them!

Lobster Mac & Cheese

The ultimate in posh and fancy cuisine, lobster mac and cheese impresses company, boyfriends and blog readers. ;) HOWEVER, this was not so much the case with my latest creation...

Boyfriend and I decided we'd stay in a few weekends ago. When we first started dating, I told him I'd make him lobster mac and cheese one day, so he was excited when I suggested making it for our date night in. (It was also on my 52 weeks of new foods list for 2012, so I was happy to make progress on that!)  $75 in cheese and lobster later (WTF!! So much for saving some money by staying in!), I was on my way. I used Ina Garten's recipe and damn her! She made the recipe look so simple on her show! The recipe itself came out well: the sauce was creamy, the textures were on point, but the Gruyere cheese really was disgusting in the dish. It was more nutty than cheesy if that makes sense. If I were to recreate this recipe, I'd use a sharp cheddar only and really try a more classic version of the sauce before adding the lobster. You also don't really need as much lobster as she recommends.

Two things that did work really well were that I steamed the lobster (which kept it fresh and in tact) and also soaked my bread crumbs in 2T of melted butter with one garlic clove. That really amped the flavor.

Will I try this again? Sure. Anytime soon? Negative. I'll stick to my Velveeta thankyouverymuch.

Rotisserie Chicken Three Ways

My mom and brother haven't been feeling well, so with Boyfriend away for a football game, I headed to the store with my dad to pick up fresh ingredients for a nice, warm, healthy pick-me-up dinner. Rotisserie chickens, one of my favorite time savers, were on mega sale, so I picked two up- hoping for leftovers. Instead, I got inspired.

Today I made:

Homemade Chicken Stock

Chicken Noodle Soup

and....

Chicken A La King

After all that cooking, I definitely deserved one of these bad boys: