A Happy Mother

My mother will not admit to it but she is a picky eater. Her normal response to any food is "it was ok" (again, she would never admit this). When she came to visit last month I wanted to make sure she had ONE meal she liked. My sister suggested I make shrimp scampi; my mother had recently said she wanted it and my sister assured me it was easy to make. I looked at a few different recipes but after that I decided to go it alone. Here are my results


Shrimp Scampi by Jen:
1 lb peeled, deveined shrimp
1/3 cup butter 
3-4 tbsp chopped parsley 
3 cloves garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
zest of 1/2 lemon
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/3 cup white wine
1/3 cup parmesan or romano
pasta of your choice

This is what I did:

1. Cook the pasta.
2. Chop up the garlic and add it to the butter. 
3. Melt the butter very low in a saucepan.
4. Heat up the olive oil in a large skillet.
5. Chop the parsley and lemon zest very, very fine.
6. When the oil in the skillet is hot, add salt and pepper to the shrimp and cook them. They should be flipped after 90 seconds and only take at most three minutes to cook. As soon as they lose their translucence, they are done.
7. Remove the shrimp from the skillet, and add the butter and white wine. Bring to a boil, cook 2 minutes.
8. Reduce heat to low. Add the parsley/lemon zest. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
9. Add the shrimp and the cooked pasta into the skillet. Add the cheese and let everything heat through.

Taste the sauce at this point. It may need a little of the pasta water to get the consistency you want. It may also need salt or pepper. This is where I decided it was too buttery and added the juice of 1/2 a lemon to brighten everything up. I also added a bunch of pepper.

My sister, who is a much better cook than I, said that this was the best scampi she's ever had; the sure sign that this was beginner's luck and I'll never make it this good again.