The following recipe is a great way to add flavor to your seafood. Cooking with shrimp is simple because this type of seafood cooks so fast. Also, you can see when it is done. When you are cooking a pork chop, a chicken breast, or a steak, for example, it can be hard to determine when your food is cooked, unless you are an expert and can tell by touching it. You cannot tell by looking at the outside of a piece of meat on the stove or grill what it is like inside, unless you know how long it has been cooking and you feel it.
With shrimp, they turn from gray to pink when they are cooked and this might take thirty seconds for small shrimp or a couple of minutes for bigger ones. This makes shrimp a wonderful ingredient to opt for if you are new to the world of cooking and you want to make something easy and not overcook the meal. Seafood is terrible when it is overcooked because it goes tough and rubbery.
Too many people have tasted overcooked calamari at a bad Spanish restaurant or tapas bar and it has put them off it for life, which is a shame because properly cooked seafood is amazing. The following recipe combines the shrimp with tangy lime and lemon, as well as parsley, cayenne pepper, Worcestershire sauce, garlic and a little sugar, so you can imagine how flavorful and delicious this garlic lime shrimp recipe is going to be.
Ingredients -
1 cup butter
2 ½ tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon grated lime peel
2 minced garlic cloves
1 teaspoon white sugar
10 large shrimp in their shells
2 tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley
1 pinch cayenne pepper to taste
Preparation:
Melt the butter in a medium-sized skillet over a medium heat.
Add the lemon juice, lime juice, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, white sugar, and cayenne pepper.
Sauté for 30 seconds before adding the shrimp.
Sauté the shrimp until they are opaque in the center (this should take about 3 minutes), turning them occasionally.
Stir in the parsley and serve with pasta or rice.
(Serves 2 as an Appetizer or 1 as an Entree)
Wine Suggestion:
Sauvignon Blanc is a fruity white wine which is full-bodied enough to stand up to the strong shrimp taste and will flatter the flavor of your meal at the same time. Sauvignon Blanc has a combination of grassy and herby aromas and fruity ones. Anything too sweet will not bring out the citrus flavor in the shrimp so Sauvignon Blanc is the best pairing here. Actually this wine is nice with most citrus-based fish or shellfish recipes or those in creamy sauces because it can cut through the creaminess.
Photo Description:
You can either peel these shrimp before you cook them or leave the shell on and let people peel their own. A good compromise though is to remove the shell, leaving the tail on. Then people have the choice of whether to eat with their fingers or whether to use their knife and fork. Not everyone likes peeling seafood because it is messy and can leave an odor on the fingers. You can see from the picture how juicy and appetizing these shrimp are and this is one of the nicest shrimp appetizer recipes ever.
Although Sauvignon Blanc is the classic white wine to match with shrimp because of its aristocratic crispness and dry finish, there are alternatives if you prefer something else. If you enjoy stir-fried, sautéed, grilled, or steamed shrimp recipes, or even shrimp cocktail, why not try pairing your succulent seafood with some dry fino sherry? Make sure you get real Spanish dry fino sherry to drink with your garlic lime shrimp recipe, because the imitations are not very good.
Of course, when serving garlic lime shrimp recipes, you do not want to serve a wine which is not strong enough to stand up to the strong shrimp, lime and garlic flavors, and you will not have that problem with a dry fino sherry because the flavor is bold enough to complement the food perfectly. If you do not have some Californian Sauvignon Blanc, dry fino sherry is the next best thing, although the alcohol content is higher than wine so small glasses will be sufficient.
Dry fino sherry from Spain is slightly salty, which sounds strange but it is also very dry and together this makes dry fino sherry the perfect accompaniment to your shrimp dish. It has a really crisp bite to it, which you will find unusual if you are more familiar with cream sherries.
Dry fino sherry is excellent with anything almond-flavored too so if you are cooking an Asian shrimp dish with slivered almonds, make sure you get some dry fino sherry to go with it. The same applies if you are making something almond-flavored for dessert!
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