healthy foods – My World (and recipes too)

Classic shrimp scampi doesn’t involve marinating the shrimp, nor does it involve tomatoes or basil, but I’m not making classic shrimp scampi here. This is a little recipe I made up in order to make life a little more simple and believe me, there is nothing more simple than this dish!

I usually start with a pound (or more) of Red Rock shrimp (because we like it best). Red Rock shrimp are brighter in color and have a consistency closer to lobster. We buy this at Trader Joe’s, but if you don’t have a Trader Joe’s in your area and you can’t find it, by all means just use regular shrimp (peeled and de-veined, of course.)

To a one gallon zip lock bag, I add the shrimp, plus a half cup of olive oil, about about six garlic cloves, minced, fresh cracked pepper and just a pinch of salt. Smoosh it around in the bag so all of the shrimp it coated and then set aside for at least a half hour. I leave it right on the kitchen counter. (Shhhh, it’s fine. I promise. You won’t die.)

Next the pasta pot gets filled with water and salt and brought up to a rolling boil. We like to use angel hair pasta for this recipe because it cooks very quickly (about ten minutes), but you can use whatever pasta you love. Once I’ve dropped the pasta, I prepare a cast iron skillet with two tablespoons of real butter (never use anything but 100% full fat, real butter!) melting over medium high heat.

When the butter has melted, I pour the contents of the shrimp bag, (olive oil and all), right into the skillet. Using a spatula, I quickly distribute the shrimp so they are in a single layer. Shrimp cook very quickly -literally just a couple of minutes- so it’s important to watch them closely and turn them over as soon as they are becoming pink and opaque.

If this were a regular shrimp scampi recipe, wine would be added early into this mix, but I am not a fan of cooking with wine, so I ignore this step. Instead I like to pop in some pretty tomatoes right after the shrimp goes in and then fresh basil towards the end. Make sure to continue stirring frequently so the shrimp are not over-cooked.

I said this was seafood scampi, correct? This is because my dear husband, Charlie, likes to sneak off to Trader Joe’s and buy things I would never even consider looking at. For instance; this stuff:

I would never have even looked at this, let alone purchased it, but it made him happy, so he did. I obliged him by thawing it out and adding it right into the skillet at the same time I put in the shrimp. (No marinade for the seafood.)

See how colorful these shrimp are? In this photo, they are about 95% cooked. I love how they retain their pretty color. Regular shrimp do turn pink but not like this!

Finally, I take the skillet off the heat and give the dish a stir as I add in the fresh basil. You might notice that there is no photo of this step. This is because I didn’t have a lot of the fresh basil this time. Oh and by the way, your tomatoes might not smile like mine. I’m magic. You’re probably not magic. ♥

Once the pasta is finished cooking, it gets tossed in with the garlic sauce and seafood, then plated and sprinkled with a little fresh Parmesan cheese.

Finito!

Ingredients:

½ cup of olive oil

½ Teaspoon cracked black pepper

¼ Teaspoon salt

2-3 Tablespoons butter

6 garlic cloves, minced

1-2 lbs. Red Rock Shrimp, thawed (peeled & deveined)

1 pkg. Pana Pesca Seafood Mix (Optional. You can sub in any seafood mix you like or don’t do it at all.)

¼ cup fresh basil (torn)

¼ cup Parmesan (finely grated)

10-12 cherry tomatoes (optional & use however many you prefer)

¼ – ½ lb. angel hair pasta

Directions:

To a one gallon zip-lock bag add the shrimp, olive oil, garlic, salt & pepper. Smoosh it around making sure the shrimp is coated. Set aside for at least half an hour. I do not refrigerate the shrimp, but you can if you are afraid.

Prepare pasta according to instructions on the box. (Boil water, add salt, and add pasta…yada yada…)

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a cast iron skillet set to medium high. When the pan is hot, drop in the contents of the gallon bag. (If you are making seafood scampi-add the additional seafood as well.) Quickly distribute the shrimp so they are in a single layer in the pan. Add the tomatoes. Continue stirring keeping careful watch on the shrimp. They are finished when they are pink and opaque. The whole process takes about 2-3 minutes on each side, but it can happen faster, so watch carefully.

Once the shrimp are just about cooked, I like to add one more tablespoon of butter and the basil, then stir once more and remove from the heat. Add a final pinch of freshly cracked pepper.

Drain the pasta, mix it in with the scampi.

Garnish with grated Parmesan and a little more pretty basil!

Enjoy!

I had assembled this tray (above) with all the pretty vegetables in order to try Delicata Squash for the very first time. Since I wasn’t sure what the squash would taste like (because I’d never made that variety before), I wanted to make something that had a little bit of kick to it.

Ordinarily when we make sword fish, I like to flavor it with cilantro and lime, but since I was in search of “kick”, I opted for a little bit of spice and a little bit of black. Sword fish is very forgiving and almost impossible to screw up!

The first thing I did was melt 3 Tbsp. butter in my little measuring cup. To it, I added some cayenne, some bourbon smoked salt, chili flakes, onion powder, smokey paprika, and garlic. I didn’t measure this, but I will attempt to give you some help.

Let it get all melted and then turn off the heat and let it sit.

Meanwhile, I’ve had my sword fish filets sitting on the counter for about 20 minutes. I like them a little close (but still cool) to room temperature before I cook them.

Heat a cast iron skillet to medium-high. Add 1 Tbsp. REAL butter and 1.5 Tbsp. olive oil. Let it heat to a shimmer and then place in the fillets. Then pour the spiced butter mixture over the top. I had debated on making this totally blackened fish, in which case I would have dipped the fillets in the butter and then coated them on both sides with a dry rub, but I decided on this route instead.

I let these cook for 5 minutes on each side, then I did the unthinkable: I added MORE butter to the top! You can skip this step if you are afraid. After this, I simply sprinkled more seasoning on each side and poof, this fish is done!

The finished product!

Delicious! I should also mention here that if you have a Trader Joe’s in your area, this is a great place to find fish for two. We regularly shop in their frozen fish section because you can buy small portions (usually two fillets per vacuum package) of lots of different fishes. (and no, they did not pay me to say this, it’s just a fact.) We really like the swordfish, salmon, cod and tuna!

Ingredients:
2 Sword Fish Fillets
4-6 Tbsp. butter (yes, I used that much. You don’t have to if you are sckeeeeeeeerd.)
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tea. Smoky paprika
½ tea Cayenne pepper
1 tea. Chili powder
½ tea. Bourbon smoked salt
2 tea. Minced garlic
1 tea. Onion powder
½ tea. Chili flakes

Directions:
Melt 3 Tbsp. butter. Add the spices to it and stir.
Preheat cast iron pan to medium high.
Melt 1 Tbsp. butter and 1 Tbsp. olive oil in the pan until shimmery.
Add the fillets.
Pour spiced butter over the top of each fillet.
Cook five minutes each side.
Turn the fish over, sprinkle with a little more seasoning, and cook each side about 2 minutes more. (Optional: add more butter prior to adding more seasoning!)