Shrimp Recipe

Tuesday night, we tried a new recipe, plus a semi-new recipe, and the combination was a winner. First of all, I made the Saffron Orange Rice, and then I served it with yummy Garlic & Orange Sauteed Shrimp. The only problem was that the Shrimp was supposed to be a pasta dish, and the pasta was supposed to be tossed with the sauce, which didn’t happen, since I served it with rice. I didn’t catch on until too late, so some yummy sauce ended up being wasted. I’ll give you the recipe for the Shrimp with pasta, and then if you want to make it with the rice, you can just make a lot less sauce. (Maybe 1/4 of the amount would work, and you could pour it over the shrimp and rice without making it soupy.) This recipe came from the Sunset Seafood Cookbook, which I believe Ted’s mom gave us about a million years ago. Thanks, Ma!

Garlic & Orange Sauteed Shrimp

8 oz. dry capellini or fidelini
2 lbs spinach, rinsed well, stems removed
1/4 cup butter or margarine
3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 1/2 tblsp dry basil leaves
20 colossal raw shrimp (I didn’t go for those…they were $20 a lb. I went for 1 lb of nice big ones that were on sale instead.)
1 tsp. grated orange peel
1 1/2 cups orange juice
2 tblsp. lemon juice
1 1/2 tblsp. cornstarch

Cook the pasta, drain, cover, and keep warm.

Place 1/2 of spinach (with water that clings to leaves) in a wide frying pan. Cover and cook over medium high heat until wilted (about 4 minutes). Lift from the pan, drain, and keep warm. Repeat with remaining spinach.

Melt butter in frying pan over medium heat. Add garlic and basil; cook, stirring often, until garlic is golden (1 to 2 minutes). Add shrimp and cook, turning once or twice, until opaque throughout; cut to test (5 to 7 minutes).

Meanwhile, stir together orange peel, orange juice, lemon juice, and cornstarch. Add to shrimp; cook, stirring, until sauce is thickened. Remove from heat. Life out shrimp and set aside. Add pasta to sauce; mix lightly, using 2 forks.

Divide pasta equally among 4 warm dinner plates. Place 1/4 of the spinach in the center of each serving of pasta. Arrange the shrimp, tails up, in a starfish pattern atop each portion of spinach.

Makes 4 servings.

I didn’t divide it up. I took the casserole pan full of rice, fluffed it, then artfully 😉 topped it with the spinach, then put the shrimp on top. I didn’t pay attention to which way their tails were facing, but then again, I didn’t use the super colossal shrimp, either. I ladled a few spoons of the sauce over the shrimp. It was very yummy. Enjoy!