Again, I’m not a chef, but here is another recipe that’s a real winner, I’m not kidding. And as usual, after decades of trying to figure something out, I’ve made all the mistakes necessary to get to the final product.
In fact, what I was trying to do was to come with a recipe for shrimp “scampi”. For me anyway, shrimp is not an easy thing to season, and when you don’t manage to, the taste of the animal itself can gross you out. It takes two things to get somewhere: a good if not great sauce, and some burn you can do to the thing to create flavor, either boiling or frying. In the scampi approach it looks like they use garlic with it in a frying pan. But after any number of tries it was always bland and I abandoned ship.
Then a few years ago my wife Pam and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary in Key West, and on the last day we ate at a restaurant and guess what, I ordered the shrimp scampi and it was so good. Their trick was a cheesy garlic sauce. The combo, using parmesan cheese, is what Big Red’s World Famous Shrimp Alfredo is all about. Here’s how you do it.
Oh, and be sure to make enough, because when people only get a little they can become irate and unruly, and the kitchen’s supposed to be such a friendly place after all. And don’t let the word out too much, because traffic could become a problem.
This recipe is for a pound of shrimp, and bigger is always better. Jumbo is minimum, and colossal is best. Peel and de-vein them, and place them on a paper towel to dry off. Set aside.
First, the garlic. Use fresh garlic cloves, 5 or 6 medium sized ones, and chop them into a fry-able particles, like the size of the cereal in grape nuts. You can always use some minced garlic you buy in the small jars, and they actually sell “chopped” garlic in the same little jars now, but you’re a hack pretty quick. Fresh ingredients, always.
In a frying pan melt about an inch or inch and a half of butter, and throw in let’s say a tablespoon and a half of chopped garlic. Over medium heat, the garlic will begin to brown, and the butter will start to cook, so don’t go too long with cooking the garlic. Then throw in the shrimp (peeled and de-veined, of course). Add another 3/4 inch of butter, and cook until the shrimp are done and have a little fried look top them, and are somewhat coated with the fried garlic. Then remover the shrimp from the pan, leaving a small to moderate amount of butter/fried garlic.
To this remaining goo, add another inch of butter (and BTW, unsalted sweet cream butter at all times, nothing else). When melted, add 1 cup of heavy whipping cream and stir it into the goo and heat until warm to hot.
Next add about a cup of freshly grated parmesan cheese. I use the cheaper, creamier kind that doesn’t cost as much as the “regianno”, which is 3 times as expensive. And don’t use the stuff in the shaker can that’s real powdery. In fact, I usually use a mix of the fresh grated creamy, about a third as regianno, and then some flakes that come in the plastic containers for good measure.
Next comes a crucial step: making it more garlicky. It is the mix of garlic taste and parmesan taste that is what you’re after here. I do this with garlic salt (Lowry’s) and it will require something like 3/4 of a teaspoon. Do this until you like the taste. Then put the cooked shrimp back into the cheesy mixture and gently heat until hot.
I serve this dish with angel hair, but I’ve done it as a mac and cheese dish also, and ultimately, pasta is pasta to me.
So there you go. Another life-changing recipe to spring on your peeps.