Shrimp Loom Large

May 28 – June 3, 2023

Sunday:                     Roasted Salmon with Miso Rice and Ginger Scallion Vinaigrette

Monday:                   Grilled Strip Steaks, Zucchini Gratin, Cucumber Salad,                                    Polenta Pound Cake with Orange and Peach Glaze

Wednesday:            Easy Chicken Soup

Thursday:                 Dinner with John & Linda at The Hartwood

Friday:                       Sheet Pan Shrimp with White Beans

Saturday:                  New Haven style White Pizza with Clam Sauce

Shrimp Loom Large

We live in an age of convenience and luxury.  It was blast-furnace hot in Pittsburgh and yet, on Friday night, Andrew, Beez and I ate a wonderful bake of shrimp, roasted bread, lemons and cannellini beans in complete comfort.

Well, I suppose air conditioning and ceiling fans are not new to you.  But widely available frozen shrimp, already deveined and peeled (tails left on, please, both for flavor and ease of handling), is still relatively new.  If you have ever deveined and peeled your own shrimp in quantity, you know in your bones what a penintheus* that is.  But frozen shrimp, already peeled and deveined allow you to get dinner on the table in 30 to 40 minutes.

*A former administrative assistant would forward certain calls to me by announcing – “penintheus on the line”.  The first time she did this I was mystified and, after the call, asked her what she had said in forwarding the call to me.  She replied, “penintheus on the line”.  So I said, “I thought that’s what I heard and I have no idea what you’re talking about.” “Oh,” she said, “that’s easy.  A penintheus is a difficult person – someone you’d rather not deal with – you know a real pain in the a..s”  I have cherished the word ever since.

And now back to those shrimp.  Shrimp are up there with hamburgers, pizza and breakfast cereal in terms of universal consumption.  I remember, as a child, adoring fried shrimp.  But there are so many great ways to indulge in shrimp – cooked, chilled shrimp with cocktail sauce,* the irresistible scampi, shrimp and grits, shrimp creole, in a bouillabaisse or a cioppino.    But let me suggest a new way to handle this ubiquitous arthropod– roasting the shrimp along with good crusty bread, cannellini beans (optional) and a bit of garlic, salt, and chili flakes and then serving the whole mix in a shallow bowl.  The bread (stale bread works really well here) soaks up the juices from the cooking shrimp and the oil.  Leaving the tails on the shrimp gives them a lot of flavor, some of which soaks into the bread.  Honestly, I could have eaten just the bread and been happy.  Oh we also tossed in some peppers and onion we had grilled a few days before  – all of which took about 15 minutes to cook.  The prep for this dish takes about 10 minutes to thaw the shrimp and 10 to let them soak in cold, salted water and plump up and 5 to pat them dry and in 40 minutes you can have a spectacular dinner for your loved ones, guests, fellow inmates, vagabonds or whomever.

* if you love shrimp cocktail, try this recipe from Ina Garten – roast the shrimp in the oven with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and then serve it warm with that cocktail sauce.  It’s even better.

Sheet-Pan Shrimp, Bread and White Beans

(adapted from Sarah DiGregorio, NYT Cooking)

Timing:                                              40 minutes

Ingredients:                                        Serves 4

1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined tails on

garlic salt (the recipe calls for 5 large cloves, finely chopped and smashed with salt into a paste which is then spread on the bread – that’s too garlicky for us, but feel free, though make sure the bread is coated with oil so that the garlic doesn’t burn)

5 slices of bacon (4 0z or so) cut into matchsticks

8 ounces crusty bread (dry or stale is perfect here) cut into 1 – 1 ½ inch pieces (if you have a large loaf, like a boule, cut it in half first)

15 ounce can of cannellini beans drained a bit – use a can opener to cut not quite around the lid, then, holding the lid with your thumb, turn the can upside down and, after the first rush of liquid, turn it right-side up.

½ lemon, very thinly sliced

1 teaspoon red pepper flack

½ teaspoon black pepper

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

kosher salt to taste

Prep:

Turn the oven to 450 F

Thaw the shrimp by placing them in a bowl and running cold water over them for 8-10 minutes.  Now toss a few good pinches of salt into the bowl and let them sit for 10 minutes, then drain and pat dry.

Prepare the garlic if using

Cut the bread and slice the lemon.

Open and sort of drain the cannellini beans

Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Put the bread in a large mixing bowl and sprinkle a little olive oil and garlic salt on it and toss.  [Note, if you’re using the garlic pasted bread, no need to add the oil or garlic salt.]  Now add the shrimp, the bacon, beans, lemon slices red and black pepper and ½ teaspoon salt and fold to combine.

Roast:

Pour the mixture onto the parchment-lined sheet pan and spread out evenly.  Roast until the shrimp are curled up and pink and the bread is golden around the edges – about 15 minutes.

Serve in shallow bowls – the lemon slices are edible.