Shrimp on Monday

Yesterday I made some shrimp! I am starting this new integration into my cooking repertoire by cooking at least 2 or 3 new recipes each week. We'll see how it goes, but so far so good!

The recipe I used was from Redbook Magazine. I had clipped it out and put it into my recipe scrap book (I now have 3 going on 4 of these "recipe books") a while ago and I asked my Hubby to look through it and find a recipe he wanted me to make. This was the one that he chose.

~Scampi Gratin~

24 extra large peeled, deveined shrimp, thawed

4 slices white bread, crusts torn into pieces

1/4 c. marinated sun-dried tomatoes, drained, minced

1/4 c. chopped basil

6 tbsp. grated parmesan cheese

1 tbsp. capers, drained, chopped

1 tsp. garlic paste

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/4 c. olive oil 

Lemon wedges

Arrange oven rack in middle of oven; preheat to 400 F. To butterfly the shrimp, lay shrimp on a work surface. Make a deep slice with the tip of a knife into shrimp, following the curve where the vein was removed and cutting about 3/4 of the way through the meat. Spread incision open and flatten slightly with fingertips. Move to baking pan brushed with 1 tbsp. of the olive oil. 

Pulse bread in a food processor until corse crumbs form; transfer to a bowl. Stir in sun-dried tomatoes, basil, 4 tbsp. parmesan, capers, garlic paste, and pepper until combined. Stuff each shrimp with breadcrumb mixture, slightly pressing stuffing down to adhere. Drizzle remaining olive oil over shrimp, then sprinkle with remaining parmesan. Bake 5 min. Shut off oven and turn broiler to hight. Broil shrimp  until stuffing is browned, about 2 min. Serve with lemon wedges.

NOTE: I made a lot of changes to this recipe. Nothing to grand, just some swaps here and there.

1. I used plain bread crumbs (no food processor, yet)

2. I used minced garlic

3. I used dried basil

4. I added some olive oil to the bread crumb mixture before putting it on top of the shrimp

5. I did not use capers

Hubby and I both thought that this recipe was good, or at least it had the potential to be even better! It's an experimentation process right? Next time I am going to used a little less stuffing mixture on each shrimp, add more salt (capers?), more cheese...basically make the amount on top of the shrimp less, but amp up the flavor.

I served this meal with a simple spinach salad. On top of the spinach I added sweet salad pepper, roasted red peppers, feta cheese, sunflower seeds and a simple olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper dressing. Twas tasty!

ENJOY!

On another note, here are some bands that ya'll should totally check out!

1. Alpha Rev

2. She & Him

3. Neon Trees

4. Beach House

5. Delta Spirit