- [Host] Today's episode is sponsored by The Botanist Gin.
With frigid air and full force,
I'm brightening up the season with a winter G&T,
with rosemary and citrus
to cozy up to the shrimp scampi I'm making today.
The Botanist is made with 22 unique botanicals
handpicked on the Scottish Island of Islay,
giving it a flavor as one-of-a-kind as my enjoyment of it.
Let's get down to basics.
(cheery band music)
All right, so the first thing we gotta talk about
is fresh versus frozen shrimp.
Logic dictates that fresh should be better,
but not necessarily the case.
The vast majority of shrimp sold in supermarkets
has been previously frozen, then allowed to thaw
before they put it out on display.
So if you buy frozen shrimp, what you're actually getting
is fresher than fresh shrimp, if that makes any sense.
If you get frozen shrimp, you can thaw it quickly
under cold running water or overnight in the fridge.
Then, unless you got easy peel shrimp,
you need to shell and devein it.
First we gotta pull off all the creepy crawly little legs,
then peel off each segment of the shell.
Now, some folks like to leave the tails on
for decorative purposes,
but you can't eat it, so personally I like to take it off.
Next up, we have to remove the vein,
which is just a polite word for intestinal tract.
To remove the intestinal tract,
we're gonna place a shallow cut
down the outside of the shrimp,
using the dull backside of our knife to pull out the poop.
And while you're at it, why not strike a pose
with your catch of the day.
Once we got our shrimp peeled and deveined,
I'm gonna show you how to make scampi two different ways,
quick and easy, and a little slower but a little better.
First up for quick and easy,
we are combining three tablespoons each
unsalted butter and extra virgin olive oil
in a large, high-walled sauté pan,
bringing to a bubble over medium heat.
This is gonna be a very quick process,
so we're gonna simultaneously start cooking our pasta.
To the butter we're gonna add
half a teaspoon red pepper flake
and four cloves of crushed garlic,
which we're gonna sauté for about 30 seconds,
or until delightfully fragrant.
Then we're adding half a cup
of dry white wine, like Sauvignon Blanc,
which we're gonna simmer for about five minutes,
or until the wine is almost fully evaporated.
Then to this mixture we're gonna add
our one pound of shelled, deveined shrimp,
giving her a toss
and cooking for about three or four minutes,
until the shrimp are nice and pink
but not totally cooked through.
Meanwhile, we're chopping up
about three tablespoons worth of fresh parsley,
and now at this point, both our shrimp and pasta
should be slightly undercooked.
How do you know if the pasta's ready?
Don't throw it against the wall,
take a piece out and taste it.
Is it ready, Andy? No, I didn't think so.
Give it another couple minutes
until it's just shy of al dente.
How about now, Andy? What do we think?
Oh god, you're gross.
Still a little chewy,
but you don't have to pick it out of your teeth.
That's where we wanna live. At this point, we're gonna add
the squeezed juice of one large lemon
before dropping in our half pound
of just-shy-of-fully-cooked pasta
along with a quarter cup of pasta water.
You guys know how I feel about finishing pasta in its sauce,
and shrimp scampi is an especially important application
of this theorem.
Toss it around vigorously over very low heat,
add more pasta water as necessary,
and season generously with kosher salt
and freshly ground pepper.
If the pasta starts to look oily or the sauce looks broken,
add more pasta water, it will help re-emulsify it.
We're also gonna add about a tablespoon
of high quality extra virgin olive oil.
And if we've done our job properly,
you'll see that the sauce is thick and creamy,
and not oily or greasy.
This, my friends, is the magic of pasta cooking water.
Once the sauce is done, we're killing the heat,
adding our fresh chopped parsley, tossing that around,
and of course tasting for seasoning.
Is it salty enough? Is it peppery enough?
Observing, deducing, and adjusting as necessary.
Then we are plating up, optionally using your carving fork
that you got from Jon Favreau.
Never hurts to name drop if you're on a date,
or a job interview dinner.
Top up the pasta with extra shrimp, and there you have it,
a profoundly delicious shrimp scampi
that takes no more than 20 minutes to make.
How could this possibly be made any better?
Well, with a little bit more time
and a couple extra ingredients.
We're gonna start by dry brining our shrimp,
combining a tablespoon of salt
and a teaspoon of baking soda, tiny-whisking to combine,
and sprinkling evenly over our shrimp.
This is going to improve its flavor,
its texture, and its ability to sear.
Give it a little toss together,
and let it sit out at room temperature
for about 30 minutes before starting to cook.
And don't throw away your shells,
we're gonna use them to make a sort of shrimp stock,
combining a cup of dry white wine, a few peppercorns,
some bay leaves, and our shrimp shells,
bringing to a simmer and cooking
until it's reduced by about half.
Then I'm going to engage in the controversial practice
of adding toasted breadcrumbs to my shrimp scampi.
I'm toasting about a cup of panko breadcrumbs
in two tablespoons of butter
over medium heat for about three minutes,
tossing constantly until golden brown.
Once our shrimp stock has reduced to about half a cup,
we're gonna strain it and set it aside.
Then we've gotta do a little bit of veggie prep
before we head back over to the stovetop.
First up, we are slicing our garlic rather than crushing it,
and we're using eight cloves instead of four.
We're also gonna be adding
one small finely minced shallot to the party,
and three different kinds of fresh herbs,
one tablespoon of chopped marjoram,
three tablespoons of chopped parsley,
and one tablespoon of chopped tarragon.
Using all three of these herbs is optional,
but each one stands to complexify
our already fabulous flavors.
Now back over on the stovetop,
we are heating three tablespoons of olive oil
over medium high heat,
adding our dry brined shrimp once it begins to shimmer.
Then pretty much as soon as we lay down the shrimp,
we're gonna start flipping them
in the order that we laid them down.
We just wanna get a nice sear on them,
we don't wanna cook them all the way through.
Once they've got some nice color on both sides,
we're gonna set them aside,
and in the nice shrimpy oil left behind
we're gonna sauté half a teaspoon of red pepper flake
and our garlic and shallots
about one minute over medium, medium-low heat,
adding more oil as necessary until nice and fragrant.
Then this time we're adding
the freshly squeezed juice of two lemons,
I'll explain why later,
and our reduced shrimp stock wine,
bringing the whole thing up to a simmer over medium heat
before adding a whopping six tablespoons of unsalted butter.
All this wonderful fat is gonna help
mellow out the extra lemon.
Now this time I'm using fresh pasta,
so I'm adding it to the water very late in the game,
'cause it only needs about 90 seconds to cook.
As the pasta finishes cooking and as the butter fully melts,
we're adding the shrimp back to the pan,
adding the pasta to the shrimp
with copious amounts of pasta cooking water,
and then it's the same procedure as before,
cooking over medium-low heat, seasoning to taste,
adding pasta water as necessary,
and emulsifying the sauce into something
rich and creamy and buttery and lemony and amazing.
Once you got the sauce where you want it,
we're gonna kill the heat and add the herbs.
Give everybody a mix
so everybody can get to know each other.
Once again, you should see that your sauce
is thick and luscious rather than oily and greasy.
Give it a taste for seasoning, adjusting as necessary,
and then it's time to serve.
Twist it into a nest, top with extra shrimp,
maybe a little sprinkle of fresh herbs.
And then I'm also gonna top it with our breadcrumbs
and a grating of fresh lemon zest.
And then it's time to tuck in,
hopefully not dropping crumbs out of your mouth on camera,
and bask in the wonder of what you've just created,
maybe also not on camera.
About the only way I could imagine improving this dish
is including a bright winter cocktail,
so I'm gonna harvest some fresh rosemary,
you can harvest some from your fridge,
I am definitely hamming it up today,
to make a light, refreshing winter B&T.
I'm starting by pouring two ounces
of The Botanist gin over ice,
topping with the tonic water of my choice,
garnishing with winter citrus, a half wheel of grapefruit,
my fresh rosemary, and a very trendy metal straw.
Thanks again to The Botanist Gin
for sponsoring this episode.
This beautiful bottle contains a gin unlike any other,
and makes a gin and tonic unlike any other.
Try one for yourself today,
order a bottle of The Botanist on Drizly.
The link is in the description.
Cheers.
(smooth music)