Sauteed shrimp is one of THE easiest, quick meals. Not only is it very tasty, but not much has to be done ahead of time, other than have shrimp in the freezer. So, you need to know how to thaw frozen shrimp, which can be done especially fast with a simple fountain made out of a plastic cup and a colander.
I like to start my rice cooking before I even thaw the shrimp. I don’t have a rice cooker, but find that using the ratio of 1 cup of dry rice to 1.5 cups of water (as I saw on a cooking show a while back) makes it cook just right. For 2 cups of dry rice and 3 cups of water, I also add about 1 teaspoon sea salt, ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper, and ½ teaspoon of celery seed. I bring it to a boil without a lid, or the lid sitting sideways, then turn it down to a simmer for 20 minutes. (click on any photo to enlarge)
Now is a good time to start the shrimp thawing. To do this, find a short, plastic cup and a medium large colander. Set the colander in the sink in it’s normal ‘bowl-like’ posture. Put the cup upsidedown in the middle of the colander. Place the shrimp around the cup. Turn on the kitchen faucet to a medium flow, but right now all you need to do it line up with the center of the bottom of the cup. Then you can adjust the flow so that it umbrellas out over the sides of the cup, but doesn’t hit hard enough to spray the whole kitchen. Depending on how much shrimp you are thawing, you might want to move the shrimp around once or twice, but I didn’t have to.
While the shrimp is being gently showered, get your green vegetable or salad ready. When the shrimp is either all the way thawed or very close to it, begin melting your real butter in a skillet. I use ½ cup butter for about 50 shrimp, approximately 1.5 pounds worth of raw frozen shrimp with tails on from Costco. When the butter is at least mostly liquid, sprinkle in about 1 teaspoon of sea salt and 1 teaspoon of dehydrated garlic (ideally from the garden). But freshly minced or dry granulated garlic work fine, too.
About now, the timer for the rice will go off, so it needs to be turned off, fluffed with a fork, then have the lid put back on. If green vegetables are cooking, they are probably at a safe simmer or roasting in the oven. (We had green beans frozen from last year’s garden harvest) With everything else very close to being done, it is time to turn up the heat on the skillet and dump in the well-drained shrimp, or sea bugs, as my husband calls them so that I might be less inclined to eat them and he can have more for himself …. It only takes a few minutes for the shrimp to turn pink, showing that they are cooked.
The buttery liquid in the bottom of the skillet can be dribbled on the rice. My husband sometimes adds drops of hot sauce or soy sauce to the rice. The shrimp do look nice on top of the rice in my bowl, but I really have to eat them separately to get the tails off. Start to finish, it usually takes about an hour to prepare this simple, yet gourmet, meal; and is as good as any meal to be had in a restaurant. Shrimp might be on the expensive side for a home cooked meal, but this meal is more cost effective than going out to most places.
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