While we were away a couple of weeks ago I copied down a couple of recipes from a magazine I found where we were staying. I’ve never picked up an issue of Cuisine at Home but it had some easy recipes that appealed to me. When I got home, I checked their website to see what they had to offer there. I don’t usually sign up for these kinds of things but decided to try it out. It’s one of those deals where you get a weekly email with a couple of recipes. This is the first one I’ve cooked from but the recipes have all looked rather tasty.
Today’s email was perfectly timed because I had no idea what to make for dinner and had forgotten about the pound of gulf shrimp that I picked up at the farmer’s market last weekend. I had Ben take them out of the freezer and by the time I got home they had just defrosted enough for me to get the shells off and to use a pair of kitchen shears to devein them. Now I remember why I love to keep shrimp in the freezer.
This is a really simple recipe in some ways. It’s one of those that you don’t truly need a recipe for. That is except for the sauce. I will also say that it seemed labor intensive while I was preparing it. I think that was mostly due to the homemade toasted breadcrumbs. However labor intensive it seemed though, I got home some time after 5:30, said hi to everyone and cleaned up before starting dinner and we were sitting down to eat by 6:18. That’s pretty good time in my book. You could definitely save some time by starting with already peeled and deveined shrimp and using panko instead of making your own crumbs. I make my own crumbs a lot recently since I’ve decided to give the food processor a permanent home on the counter. I just like the way the taste AND use up bits of stale bread. When I can I like to make extra and stash them in the freezer.
To make the sauce I adapted the recipe for to be a quick and dirty approximation of a remoulade. I kept the mayo and dijon base but then subbed a tablespoon of my pepper jelly for the red pepper and honey and omitted the shallot and green onion altogether. I also adapted the recipe to use the smaller shrimp that I had. I just reduced the cooking time… in the toaster oven. Can I tell you how much I love and use the toaster oven. I almost never turn on the big oven, ever. It’s amazing.
I served the shrimp with rice with the sauce drizzled over and a green salad on the side. Everyone agreed that it was tasty. Chase even ate a couple of bites of her shrimp. Overall, a really nice, quick weeknight recipe. If I keep buying the shrimp from the market I’ll add this to the repertoire. Lord knows I have enough pepper jelly to get through. You can find the complete recipe here.
sounds pretty good. a satisfying dinner in less than 45mins is fantatic in my book!