Garlic butter shrimp scampi is a quick and easy recipe that takes 15 mins to cook up.
Shrimp scampi immediately conjures up the image of succulent shrimp in a buttery, garlicky and lemony sauce made with white wine and herbs.
If there is one shrimp recipe that you can make at home, this is it.
Ingredients:
• 340g-455g peeled, deveined, tail-on shrimps
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 light dashes cayenne pepper, (optional)
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1 tablespoon freshly-squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon chopped Italian flat leaf parsley
Method:
• Rinse shrimp, drain and pat dry with paper towels.
• Heat-up a skillet (cast-iron preferred) on medium heat and add butter. Saute garlic for a while before adding shrimp.
• Add salt and cayenne pepper (if using). Stir to combine well with garlic before adding white wine and lemon juice.
• Stir and cook until white wine evaporates a little. Add the parsley, stir well and serve immediately.
Tips
• Use frozen peeled, deveined, and tail-on shrimp. The shrimps cook beautiful with the tails and is easy to pick up.
• Shrimps are ready to be cooked as soon as it’s thawed to room temperature.
• The shortest way to thaw frozen shrimps is to soak the packet in water for about five to ten minutes. Drain water and shrimps are ready for cooking.
• Prep the garlic and Italian flat parsley while shrimps are thawing.
• Use a cast-iron skillet to sauté and cook the shrimps. A cast-iron skillet retains high heat and spreads heat evenly, making sure the shrimps cook evenly with the scampi sauce.
• White wine is the secret ingredient. Use fruity white wine to achieve the best flavour.
• If you can’t find white wine, you can make the recipe without. Use chicken broth as a substitute then.
• In 15 minutes, everything will be cooked and you’ll have a restaurant-quality shrimp scampi that tastes a lot more flavourful, cheaper, and delicious.
This article first appeared in rasamalaysia.com
Low Bee Yinn is a food blogger and cookbook author.