Friday, July 15, 2016

What to do at the last minute.

I played golf today and got home kind of late.  Jan volunteers at the Children's Mercy hospital on Friday afternoons, so she wasn't planning anything for dinner.  I knew I had a pound of fresh, wild caught shrimp in the fridge, so I thought I would do something with those, but I wasn't sure what.  I love to look in the fridge and around the counters and see what we have on hand and then go from there.  We had about half of a baguette left from yesterday, that was starting to get a little hard. We had some fresh herbs that needed to be used and I saw a few Campari tomatoes in the bowl on the counter that needed to be used in the next day or so.  What I created from the items on hand was thin spaghetti, with a garlic-butter sauce, topped with shrimp, tomatoes, and herbed croutons.  It tasted delicious and looked like this:
 
 
Here is what I did.
 
Ingredients:
 
1/2 of a day old baguette, cut into 1/2" cubes
1/4 Lb. butter
Extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
1 Lb. thin spaghetti ( I like DeCecco )
1 Lb. wild caught jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined
3-4 tsps. chopped garlic
1 tsps. chopped fresh tarragon
1 tsps. chopped fresh oregano
1 tsps. chopped fresh basil
6-8 Campari tomatoes, seeded and chopped into 1/2" dice
 
Preparation:
 
Toss the bread cubes in a couple TBSP of olive oil.  Salt and pepper and stir well.  Melt, 3 TBSP butter and a TBSP of olive oil in a skillet, over medium heat.  Add the bread cubes to the skillet and toast them, stirring frequently, until they are crisp and browned.  Remove from the skillet with a slotted spoon and let them rest on a paper towel.  Bring a pot of water to a rapid boil.  Add a TBSP of olive oil and a pinch of salt to the water and cook the pasta according to the package directions.  While the pasta is cooking, use the same skillet you used to make the croutons, and melt the remaining 5 TBSP of butter.  Add a couple of TBSP of olive oil and the 3-4 tsps. garlic.  Sauté the garlic until it is tender but not brown.  Add all of the herbs.  Stir well and add the shrimp.  Salt and pepper the shrimp and turn them when they have a lovely pink color.  Salt and pepper the other side.  When the pasta is done, drain it and return it to the pot.  Drizzle the pasta with olive oil and set it back on the warm burner, to hold.  About one or two minutes prior to serving, add the chopped tomatoes and the croutons to the garlic sauce and the shrimp in the skillet.  Stir well so that the tomatoes and croutons absorb some of the butter sauce and herbs.  Place a serving of pasta in a pasta bowl and top with the butter and shrimp sauce from the skillet.  I enjoyed this dish with a nice oaky California chardonnay. 
 
As an aside, notice I used wild caught shrimp.  Generally I only buy wild caught shrimp.  We lived in shrimp country for a number of years, and believe me there is a difference between farm raised and wild caught.  Most farm raised shrimp come from Viet Nam, and are raised in very unclean conditions. Growth is stimulated with growth hormones.  Do some research if you don't believe me.  Wild caught US shrimp, are just what they say they are.  They are caught in US waters by shrimpers and contain no hormones or additives.  Most shrimpers struggle to get by.  Especially when fuel costs are high.  I like to support them and use a clean natural product.  If I am forced into buying some frozen packaged shrimp, due to lack of availability of wild caught, I go to Costco.  I read an article, which tested a number of different brands of frozen shrimp and Costco came out on top, when it came to taste and purity.  I never buy precooked shrimp.  It is generally overcooked and rubbery.  It only take a few minutes to cook it yourself and believe me, it will be better. 
 
 
 

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