Here's what I wrote originally:
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My go-to shrimp scampi recipe is from the Rao's cookbook, which includes Worcestershire sauce and is doubtlessly blasphemous. It's also a pain in the ass, as it involves flouring and pan-frying two pounds of shrimp before you make the sauce. But I wanted shrimp scampi last week and didn't want to go to the trouble. There had to be an easier way.
Barefoot Contessa has an equally-if-not-more blasphemous recipe for shrimp scampi - she bakes it, with a butter-and-panko topping that includes rosemary (?). I was so excited when I saw this in one of her books, but even without the stupid rosemary, it didn't turn out so great. Ina has to mess up sometimes, guys. It's part of her plan to convince us she's a regular human.
Anyway, I was all set to make shrimp scampi last night for Sunday dinner, because I haven't been cooking as much lately and wanted to do something special. BTW, not cooking as much is on purpose. I cannot be a decent parent AND an effective career lady AND a person who works out AND a domestic caretaker. Those are three and a half jobs.
So, starting last week, I'm doing the first two, some of the third, and outsourcing the fourth. I am That Woman who has a house cleaner come every week, not just every two; who orders groceries online over lunch; who, in that grocery order, includes pre-portioned stir-fry kits; who just had diapers delivered from Amazon even though they're way cheaper at the Shop-Rite. I do still make most of Henry's food. That makes me an overachiever, right? An ideal woman would feel guilty about the fact that I feel guilty even though there's nothing to feel guilty about, but I'm so wiped out between Monday and Thursday that I mostly feel relieved for the wonderful people at FreshDirect. And then I read this series on refugee families at Humans of New York and hang my head.
But shrimp scampi! That's what this is about, right? I decided to try combining the flavors of the Rao's recipe with Ina's baking method. It's MY OWN RECIPE. I don't have many of my own recipes; I recently started a binder of my greatest hits, but they're all printouts of recipes written by other, actual cooks.
It was good, though. Here's how you make it:
(I never told you how to make it)
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Ok back to the present.
Fortunately, I took a few pictures, which will help me figure out what the hell I did. I do remember the final dish being delicious, possibly because the topping involved a full stick of butter:
What?! Ok.
My best guess is a light marinade of olive oil and "white wine" (Ina's recipe calls for two tablespoons of white wine, which I am not going to open a bottle for) for the shrimp, topped with panko, Worcestershire, garlic, lemon juice, lemon zest, and an egg yolk, all mashed into a whole stick (insert Edvard Munch emoji) of butter. No wonder it was delicious.
Lol I just looked at Ina's original recipe and it calls for one and a half sticks of butter. Pretty sure I didn't do that.
Let's do this!
Also, Happy New Year. It's been a good one.
