Shrimp Scampi

We just loved this! Had it as an undressed side dish with grilled steak. (hang in, this will be a little lengthy..) We tried numerous recipes for scampi over the years and hadn't found one that had the depth of flavor we were looking for. This did. I believe that the initial step of making a shrimp stock from bouillon (I used chicken) and the shells from the shrimp made all the difference. I started out with the classic saute of the shells in a little butter, then when they turned pink added the chicken and wine. From there allowed the combination to reduce at a simmer by half. I added the wine with the broth because I felt that the flavors would meld better during the simmering. It worked. The shrimp were done as a hig-heat saute. It took only a few seconds for them to cook through and after each separate batch was done, I removed them from the pan. I was concerned about leaving them in through the remaining cooking time as they were done and might get chewey. (ick) Heat was left high under the pan as I added the garlic, stirred until the aroma was there and then added the reduction and scraped the pan down well. I did not need the roux to thicken the sauce as it came together very nicely without. (leaving the roux out wouldn't change the flavor so this isn't really an issue. use it if you need to but I didn't.) Lowered the burner to medium low, maintaining a good simmer, and returned the shrimp to the pan, heated it through. All I did was put it in a serving bowl, alongside the other sides and watched it vanish. Recommended recipe, yes indeed!

A wonderful recipe. The only changes at my dinner were shrimp taken out after quick sautee...added back in a the end to keep them succulent..Added a squirt of Worcestershire sauce to liquid and finished it all off with the zest and juice of 1/2 lemon. Try it, I think you'll like it.

We loved this!

I serve it over rice and save the shells to make a non-petroleum based varnish that works well on musical instruments.