Shrimp Scampi

Tonight, we're having shrimp scampi at my house. I think this is the oldest recipe in my book, as I can remember making it before I finished school. LDE didn't much care for it 10 years ago, so it used to be my go-to "Benny's home alone" dinner, but lately she has starting liking it enough that it has worked its way into our rotation.

I like this recipe because it is not so wet. I've certainly slurped down my share of Red Lobster's version (one of my daughter's favorite places), but it is super oily/garlicky and frankly, lousy. I also like to make this because you can do all of the prep work (mise en place) before you start cooking and after that (which is therapeutic for me), putting it together is effortless and rewarding.

The first step is to get the rice going; we ate a lot of super delicious white jasmine rice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasmine_rice) in our 20's, until an endocrinologist told me to just eat ice cream and save my body the trouble of turning all that starch into sugar. Thus, as an adult, we have switched to brown rice, which is a big nutritional upgrade without an intolerable sacrifice of flavor. I make all our rice in a reasonably priced steamer we actually bought a Lowe's (http://www.oster.com/ProductDetails.aspx?pid=2002), because the rice bowl is plastic and while that means some day it might crack, it also means rice will not stick to it. We had a really nice steamer a few years ago with a fancy metallic rice bowl; it was beautiful but you had to be so careful not to burn the rice. I threw it away one night in what could fairly be called a bit of a fit. In my new steamer, you actually can "set it and forget it". It will be ready when you are. You will need about a 3/4 Cup of rice for each person. Once the rice is going, turn your oven broiler on to high.

Next, measure out the spices. In one small ramekin, place 3 minced garlic cloves, 1/2 tsp of white pepper, 1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes, 1/4 tsp of Cayenne pepper and 1/4 tsp of oregano. (We grew a ton of oregano this year so I still have some we dried; I'm pretty proud of that; it was super easy to do). This is pretty spicy, so if you need to, adjust the amounts.

In a separate container, add 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese, 5 Tbs of bread crumbs (wheat is fine for the health conscious) and 1/4 Cup of chopped parsley. Then cut a lemon in half and have your shrimp on stand-by and you will be ready to cook.

To a large oven-safe (meaning no rubber handle) saute pan, add some butter and olive oil (about 2 Tbs each). You do have to use both, as they have different smoke points. When the butter is melted, dump in the spices and toss them around a few minutes, letting the garlic soften but not burn. Then add the shrimp and cook them until they are just pink, which won't be too long (2 minutes maybe). Shrimp are so easy to overcook and turn to rubber. Next comes the juice from the lemon half, followed by the parsley, bread crumbs, and cheese. Mix it up well and put it in the oven until the cheese browns a little. Then serve it over the rice.