Freddie is one of those people who can open a cupboard or fridge, stare at everything for a minute, and figure out a delicious meal to make with whatever he finds. Are you the same? It always impresses me, and I love to sit at the counter, do the New Yorker crossword puzzle, and watch him in action.
This summer, one of the meals he whipped up was spaghetti with tomato sauce, a green salad, and baked shrimp. A few readers asked about the shrimp, so I called Freddie this morning, and he told me the steps. Here goes:
Baked Shrimp
by Freddie
“My dad is a great cook, and one thing I’ve learned from him is how to make multiple courses at home and make it feel special. In our Italian-American family, macaroni is always part of the meal, always with a homemade sauce — that’s a point of pride. (Regardless of what kind of noodle it is — usually penne or ziti — we call it ‘macaroni.’) For this specific dinner, I was trying to make something easy, so I could hang out with my parents and Joanna. Sliding a big tray of shrimp into the oven was a good way to do that.”
You’ll need:
bag of frozen, pre-cooked shrimp
flour
salt
pepper
eggs
panko bread crumbs
spices, like paprika, garlic powder, onion powder (optional)
olive oil
lemon
Non-recipe recipe:
Preheat oven to 350F. Defrost the shrimp. Pull off the tails (if they still have tails) and pat dry.
Set out your standard three plates: flour (you can salt and pepper the flour, too, if you’d like; Gordon Ramsay seasons almost every layer with salt and pepper; it seems like such a small thing but it really helps the final product), egg wash, and panko bread crumbs (seasoned, if you’d like, with paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper). Gently coat each shrimp in flour, then egg; then press the shrimp into the bread crumbs.
Put tin foil on a baking sheet and spread a thin layer of olive oil on top of the tin foil. Arrange the shrimp in a single layer on the foil. Then drizzle a little oil on top of the shrimp.
Bake in oven for 10-15 minutes. Before serving, drizzle lemon juice on top of shrimp.
Serve with pasta with tomato sauce and green salad, if you’d like. You can eat the shrimp with the pasta or separately — breaded shrimp and red sauce can be so, so good. Enjoy!
Thoughts? What other shrimp recipes do you like? Here are a few CoJ favorites:
* shrimp with feta
* shrimp rolls
* chilled buttermilk-pea soup with shrimp
* five-ingredient Trader Joe’s shrimp tacos
* shrimp salad platter
(Photos by us:)
