Sunday, January 30, 2011

Delicious Sambuca Shrimp - Only 8 Ingredients!

Delicious Sambuca Shrimp served with freshly steamed asparagus.

2 lbs Jump Shrimp (de-veined)
5 Tbsp Butter (salted)
2-3 Tbsp Sambuca (add more or less if desired)
5 green onions
1 cup wild rice
1 cup long grain rice
1-1/2 to 2 cups heavy cream
Salt & Pepper (to taste)

1 bunch of asparagus (or two)  This meal fed 5 people so we got two bunches of asparagus.

Our friend Cindy B is the guest cook in the kitchen today.  Robbie, Alexia, and I baked and decorated cookies and cupcakes earlier in the day. I'll post those photos later! 

Let's get started.  First, we're going to get the rice started because it takes about 20 minutes.  Cindy combined a cup of wild rice and regular long grain rice to accompany this dish.

Rice Cooker (Pay no mind to the mess behind the cooker!) 
Clean and rinse the rice until the water is clear then put into rice cooker.  Add 2 cups of water.  I've found that the ratio of 2 cups of water to one cup of rice works best.  When the chimer goes off, it's done (usually cooks within 20 minutes)!  Disconnect cooker when rice is done.

If you don't have a rice cooker, you might want to consider getting one. They're not that expensive. You can get one as cheap as $14.  All you do is add rice and water and that's it!  If you don't have one, follow this link, How to Cook Rice, for instructions on making the rice over the stove.

While the rice is cooking, clean the asparagus.

Use running water to get any dirt off of the asparagus.

Now, cut off about an inch off of the ends of the asparagus as they are hard and dry.  We want to expose the soft part.
Cut ends off.

Put the asparagus in a vegetable steamer and squeeze half of a lemon into the pot.  If you don't have a steamer pot you can use a collapsible vegetable steamer and put that on the bottom of the pot and add water. Catch the seeds in your hand as you squeeze so they don't fall into the pot. This is a great shot of Robbie's hands.  Doesn't he look all chef-like already?
Squeeze one half of a fresh lemon over asparagus. 

Cover the asparagus and cook on medium high.

Next we're going to cut the green onions.  Cut into small pieces as shown below.
Cut green onions as shown here.

Once the onions are chopped put them aside and add butter to deep saucepan.
Use medium heat to melt the butter.

Add green onions once butter has melted.
Add onions.

Add raw shrimp and stir mixture at medium heat until the shrimp turns pink, approximately 4 minutes.
Add shrimp.

Add salt and pepper to taste.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Add 1-1/2 to 2 cups of heavy cream (depends on how creamy you like it), stir mixture as you add.
Addition of heavy cream.

Add 2-3 tablespoons of Sambuca,  You can use a little less if you prefer. Stir mixture as you pour it in.  You can also pour a small amount in a glass and drink it as you prepare this meal.  Just don't over do it!
Add sambuca.

Stirring occasionally, let mixture simmer for 5 minutes.
Let simmer for 5 minutes.

Add 1 Tablespoon of Wondra Quick Mixing Flour (sauce and gravy).  If you don't have this, you can make your own roux.  Roux is a mixture of butter and flour.  Follow this link for instructions on how to make roux. (It's not that hard!)
Add WondraQuick

Stir mixture until liquids are thickened.

Now it's time to "plate" the food! Plating is a term used in the culinary arts for making your finished dish look attractive.  Presentation is everything! Follow this link on how you too, can plate like a pro! Your femme and/or significant other will be impressed once she see's the finished product!  Robbie handled this part of the meal.  He did a wonderful job as you will see.

Spoon a portion into a bowl or plate.
Add rice to a plate or bowl.

You don't have to spend an arm and a leg for bowls and plates.  These two only cost me a total of $5.00.

Arrange the rice and shrimp in the bowl.  Drizzle a little sambuca sauce over the rice. Add asparagus to plate.
Doesn't that shrimp look delicious?!

Thanks to Robbie's plating expertise, the finished dish looks beautiful!
Serve with freshly cooked asparagus. Drizzle sauce over asparagus.

Thank you, Cindy for sharing your wonderful recipe, cooking this delicious dish, and enduring being photographed nonstop though out the day! By the way, you were a gracious model.  You're welcome in this butch's kitchen any day!

Contributors 

Rather than post a photo of Cindy, she asked me to use one of Ellie, her beloved pet who passed away earlier this week.  We'll miss little Ellie.  She was the "BIGGEST" and peppiest little guard dog we ever met and kept us all in line.


Robbie is currently in Culinary School right now and hopes to be a chef.  This is my guy friend who I drag around to weird events. He's always game and we have a blast. Thanks for helping make the delicious meal and plating the food for the photographs!



Special thanks to my friend, Dan for taking the many photos! I'll post more of his photos in the gallery.

3 comments:

  1. That looks fabulous!

    Also I am very sorry for Cindy's loss. Was Ellie a Schipperke? They are such awesome little dogs, and I imagine Ellie was awesome no matter her breed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi there. Yes, Ellie was a Schipperke. She was a little cutie with a big personality :-)

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  3. ok, so tonight's menu called for me to make shrimp. Before i saw your post i was not sure how i was going to prepare it. Thanks to you, I was inspired. I did, however, made a few changes to how you prepared it.

    First, I am not a fan of Sambuca so I used a nice dry white wine for the sauce. Second, I replaced the wild rice with couscous with Mango Salsa.

    It turned out perfect. My teenage son is a huge fan of sauces and even Pirate liked it, and she usually is not such a sauce fan. I am very partial to French cooking (can you say Escoffier?) so if it has a sauce I am all over it!

    ReplyDelete