Cooking with Gary: Shrimp Scampi #offtopic

Between our day jobs, errands, obligations and chores, there is very little spare time left for you to work on your car. You probably want to spend as little time in the kitchen as you can. This does not have to mean, however, that you need to be confined to microwavable TV dinners for the rest of your life. You can actually have real food. Take, for example, the dish I am about to share with you. It took me about 20 minutes to make, over half of which was simply prep time. And the best part? It’s easy to make. You don’t have to be Guy Fieri to get a one-way ticket to Flavourtown.

Shrimp Scampi

Shrimp Scampi is one of my favourite dishes, partly because it tastes amazing, and partly because it is so damn easy to make. Forrest Gump would be proud of me.

What You’ll Need

• At least 10 fresh or frozen uncooked shrimp (or prawns)
• Pasta (I prefer capelli d’angelo, but spaghetti and linguine work well too)
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• Butter
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• S&P to taste
• Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, grated, to taste (mozzarella works too if you are broke like me)
• Juice of 1/2 of a lemon (I prefer using the whole thing)
• White wine (or, in my case, a bit of Kronenbourg 1664 Blanc fruit beer)
• Garnish (I used fresh basil, some use parsley, and nobody uses cilantro. But you can if you want.)

Directions

• Bring a pot of salted water to boil. While you are waiting, get your shrimp ready. Wash your shrimps thoroughly and take off the tails.

• In a separate pan (I like to use a wok), melt about a tablespoon of butter and coat the pan well. Add a splash of extra-virgin olive oil to enhance the flavouring. Be careful, as olive oil has a relatively low smoke point, which means that, like bacon, you should never cook this while in your underwear.

• Your water should be boiling by now, so add your pasta and cook it for around 4-5 minutes to get that al dente texture. Different pastas require different cook times, so checking the directions on the box is a good idea.

• Next, start cooking your shrimp. If you are using raw shrimp, sautee them on medium-high heat for about 1-2 minutes on each side until they are white with red veins. Add your garlic, and throw in a bit of salt and pepper. If you are using pre-cooked shrimp, you’ll want to add the shrimp last. Cooking shrimp for too long makes them pretty rubbery.

• While the shrimp is cooking, drain your pasta when it’s done. Once you’ve done that, you will want to turn the heat down to medium anddeglaze your pan to make sure that you don’t leave any of that yummy goodness on the pan. Most Scampi recipes call for white wine to do the job, but I’ve found that you can use Kronenbourg 1664 Blanc beer or even some 7Up. The amount that you use isn’t really an exact science—if you use too much, you will end up with soup. Too little, and you don’t really get any sauce out of the deal. For my last batch, I used about 2 average-sized swallows worth of beer, and that seemed to work, but you may need more or less depending on how much butter and olive oil is left. You’ll add the lemon juice at this point, too.

• Add your spaghetti to the shrimp wok, and stir gently so the pasta can absorb some of that yummy sauce. Add in your cheese, as well as some more salt and pepper. Remove from heat and stir gently.

• Plate, garnish, and serve.

And there you go. A delicious meal that even the busiest car guys can find the time to make.

What are your favourite quick-to-make meals, Car Throttle? Comment below!