This Dish Is A Treat For Your Tastebuds!

This is a wonderful dish that I concocted and cooked for my daughter Randi and her husband Dan last summer.  They are both huge aficionados of Greek food and they were getting ready to go on a trip to Greece.  They wanted to get into the spirit of things, so I cooked them a shrimp dish with a distinctive Greek flavor.  They both went crazy for this dish!  

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 5-6 garlic cloves minced
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 pint of grape or cherry tomatoes, halved if you are using larger cherry tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 pound of raw extra large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1/2 cup of fresh Italian parsley, chopped and divided 1/4 cup and 1/4 cup
• 4 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
• 1/2 pound of spaghetti
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (use a little of the grated rind if you like a more intense lemony flavor) 
• a few grinds of freshly cracked pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Heat the olive oil in a large skillet.  Add the red pepper flakes and the minced garlic.  Saute 1 minute over low flame.  Add the tomatoes.  Sprinkle the tomatoes with the salt and 1/4 cup of the parsley.  Saute over medium flame until the tomatoes start to look soft or cracked- about 3-4 minutes.  Add the shrimp, and cook for about 3-4 minutes just until the shrimp are starting to not look raw.  Take off stove.  Put into casserole dish.  Sprinkle crumbled feta on top and bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes. Take out of oven and sprinkle shrimp with reserved 1/4 cup chopped parsley and 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice and a little freshly cracked black pepper.   

Cook spaghetti while shrimp is in the oven.   When you are ready to serve, put a portion of spaghetti on each dinner plate, and then a portion of the shrimp on top of the spaghetti.

Notes: 

1.  You can serve over rice instead of over spaghetti.

2.  You can prepare the dish ahead up until the point where you put the shrimp in the casserole dish, cover it and then refrigerate it.  About a half hour before you put it in the 400 degree oven, take it out of the fridge and let it come up to room temperature.  Then bake in the 400 degree oven for 10 minutes.

The Orange Juice And The Cilantro In This Shrimp Scampi Recipe Make It Unique!

I developed this recipe because I wanted to make an easy but delicious shrimp dish for Thanksgiving a few years ago.  Basically I wanted to spice up my regular shrimp scampi recipe. Since my daughter and her husband are vegetarians, I always like to prepare something really special for them for a holiday meal.  They really loved this shrimp, and so did everyone else at the table.  I have made this recipe a few times since, and I am never disappointed.  You will be very happy when you see your guests’ reactions to this gorgeous and delicious shrimp dish!  

• 2 pounds of extra large frozen or fresh unpeeled uncooked shrimp, peeled and deveined -in the 20 to 30 shrimp per pound range
• 6 large or 8 medium cloves fresh garlic, 4 minced and 2 crushed, or 5 minced and 3 crushed)
• 1/2 cup olive oil (I use a mixture of extra virgin and light)
• 3 naval oranges,  (zest and juice)
• juice of one lemon
• 1/2 - 3/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes 
• kosher salt
• freshly cracked pepper
• about 1/8 cup chopped fresh cilantro (1 to 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh cilantro or flat leaf parsley)

Use a microplane to zest the oranges.  You want to zest only the orange part, not the white part.  Set aside the zest, and then juice the oranges and set aside.  Juice the one lemon and set aside (get rid of the seeds).  Mince 4 garlic cloves into fine slivers and crush the remaining 2 garlic cloves; set aside.

I recommend that you do your peeling and deveining of your shrimp a little earlier.  The peeled and deveined shrimp can sit in the fridge covered for a few hours.

Take the ready to cook shrimp out of the refrigerator.  Sprinkle it with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper.

Pour the oil into a large skillet or frying pan.  Sprinkle the crushed red pepper flakes in the oil.  Put the flame on medium, and stir the flakes in the oil for a minute or two after the oil heats up.  Then dump all the garlic in and cook over low-medium flame for about 30 seconds.  Add the grated orange zest and cook for 1 minute more.  Do not let the garlic burn!  Your garlic will be cooking longer after you add the rest of the ingredients so you don’t want to cook it too long at this point.  Add the shrimp.  You can raise the temperature a little.  Let the shrimp sit for about 30 seconds, and then start to turn the shrimp.  After about 2 minutes add the orange juice and the lemon juice.  Toss until the shrimp have turned pink; they are done.  Taste one shrimp.  You want it to be firm, but not raw.  When the shrimp are done, take them out with a slotted spoon and place them on your serving platter, leaving the juice or sauce in the pan.  Then put the flame on medium and let the sauce reduce just a minute or two to concentrate the flavors. If you simmer the sauce too long, it will reduce down to nothing.  So don’t cook it too long.  You want to make sure you have enough sauce to nicely coat the shrimp.  Throw the chopped cilantro or parsley in when the sauce is reduced and stir for less than a minute. Pour sauce over the shrimp on the serving platter.     

Note:  Even though I’m not crazy about cilantro,  I think it really does add something to this dish.  But if you really don’t like cilantro, use parsley instead. 

Learn To Make This Amazing Shrimp With Feta Cheese And Pan-Roasted Tomatoes Tastes Wonderful And Looks As Pretty As A Picture!

My daughter Randi and her husband Dan are healthy eaters. They use as many organic products as possible in their cooking and they are vegetarians. They do eat seafood and fish, though. One day last summer, Randi asked me to come over and cook with her. She wanted to prepare something new and special for her husband Dan. She also wanted to make something with a Greek flavor to it, since she and Dan were gearing up for a trip to Greece. Randi and I came up with our own amazing recipe using shrimp, tomatoes, and feta cheese. It turned out fabulous, and Dan loved it. He said it was the best shrimp dish he had eaten. It is fresh tasting, and very satisfying.

• 1 pound extra large fresh or frozen raw shrimp
• 1 pint whole grape tomatoes or cherry tomatoes
• 2-4 ounces of good feta cheese, which you break into small pieces
• 5-6 garlic cloves, minced (sliced very thinly)
• 1 fresh lemon
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• fresh parsley (chop 1/2 cup - 1/4 cup + 1/4 cup and set aside)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• light or extra virgin olive oil, depending upon your preference
• 1/2 pound spaghetti or penne for serving (rice can be substitued)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet. Add minced garlic cloves

and 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, and saute over a medium flame

just for 1 minute. Add tomatoes. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon kosher salt

and a few grinds of black pepper. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup chopped fresh

parsley. Saute until tomatoes just start to look soft and are beginning to

crack- about 3-4 minutes. Then, add shrimp and cook over a medium to

high heat for 5 minutes just until shrimp are starting to NOT look raw.

Take off stove. Pour everything in pan into an oven proof casserole dish.

Then sprinkle the 2-4 ounces of feta cheese, depending upon how much

cheese you want in the dish, on top. Bake for 10 minutes. Take out of oven

and sprinkle with another 1/4 cup of fresh chopped parsley, 2 tablespoons

of fresh lemon juice and some additional cracked pepper.

Serve over pasta or rice.

Note: I recommend that you serve this over spaghetti or rice. The presentation looks best when you place a portion of spaghetti or penne on each dinner plate, and then spoon one portion of shrimp with tomatoes and feta on top of the pasta. I do not recommend that you mix the spaghetti all together with the shrimp. If you want to serve this family style, then put all the spaghetti, penne, or rice on the bottom of a serving platter, and then carefully spoon the contents of the baking dish on top. Mixing all the ingredients together will take away from the eye appeal of the dish.

This is a delicious shrimp scampi recipe, with tons of flavor.  The recipe below will serve about 3-4 people, and you can double it if you are serving more people.  It is tasty and delicious!

• 1 pound large or extra large uncooked shrimp (easiest is using frozen peeled and deveined shrimp straight from the freezer)
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons chopped or crushed garlic (about 6-7 cloves) (chopped gives more flavor)
• fresh ground pepper to taste (about 15 good grinds)
• Kosher salt, about 2 teaspoons (reduce salt to 1 1/2  teaspoons if your butter is salted)
• 1/4 -1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• about 1/4 cup of fresh parsley, or more if you like
• zest of 1 lemon, grated (zest is the yellow part only)
• juice of 1 large lemon
• 2/3 pound of spaghetti ( I like De Cecco the best because even if you cook it past al dente, it stays firm)

Peel and devein the shrimp.  You can do this a few hours in advance and then keep refrigerated until you are ready to cook the dish. But if you use the frozen peeled and deveined shrimp, you can take the bag of shrimp right out of the freezer and pour it right into the pan.  How easy that is!

Heat water in large pot.  Add salt to the boiling water.  Cook your spaghetti according to the directions on the box (for al dente), and then drain.  Try to coordinate the cooking so that the pasta is done when the shrimp is done.

In a large saute pan (I did not use a non-stick pan for this, but you can if that’s what you have), melt the butter over low heat.  Add the olive oil.  Add the red pepper flakes and cook over  low to medium heat for 1 minute.  Then add the garlic.  Cook over low heat for 1  minute until the garlic is translucent- you do not want the garlic to become browned! If your garlic becomes burned, you really need to start over.  Add the shrimp,  the Kosher salt, and the pepper, and raise the temperature to medium.  Saute the shrimp, turning it so the shrimp gets cooked on all sides for 4-6 minutes just until the shrimp turn pink. Add a very light sprinkle of red pepper flakes, and 1 or 2 cracks of black pepper. Taste one shrimp to see if it is done.  Turn the heat off under the pan and add the lemon juice, the zest of the lemon, and the parsley.  Mix well.    Immediately add the cooked spaghetti to the pan and toss well to combine. If your spaghetti is totally cool when you add it to the pan, then put the flame on medium for a minute as you toss the spaghetti with the sauce, so that the pasta warms through.  Put on a large platter or in a large serving bowl and serve immediately.

Note:  You may substitute linguine for spaghetti.

Hints:  Room temperature lemons yield more juice than cold lemons.  If you are using lemons straight out of the fridge, then push down on them, one at a time, and roll them on the counter.  This helps to increase the amount of juice your lemon will yield.  Also, always keep Minute Maid frozen lemon juice on hand in your refrigerator just in case you need fresh lemon juice, and you don’t have fresh lemons.