4.04.2015

Shrimp & Spring Vegetable Sauté



It isn't a sauté, strictly speaking, because I let the food melt together at a lower temperature than sautéeing calls for.  This means you have the time to literally prep the food as you're cooking it, which is a nice bonus when you don't feel like doing the mise en place thing with any sort of real gusto.

I have no story for you here, no cute opening.  Just a one-pot meal with lotsa veg and a drool-worthy sauce.  I may have literally licked the plate to get the last of it up.  A civilized nother person may have just made sure they had a little bread in the house.

FYI, the portion is large because there is no grain element here [that would have required another pot and slowed me down in getting to fork-to-mouth time].  So if you did put this over/beside rice, quinoa, whatever, it may be more than one meal.

Me personally, I'm not sharing my feta with nobody.

Shrimp & Spring Vegetable Sauté

Serves 1
Ready in 20 minutes

Note: Because vegetables can vary so much, I will tell you that my asparagus was thick-ish, not the pencil kind.  If you have the thin ones, go 7-8 spears.  My zucchini was medium size/age.  If you have a smaller, younger squash, cook it for a little less time.  My tomatoes were cherry.

Also, if you're tempted to throw this all together in the pan at the same time, please refrain.  All these veggies have different cooking times and to get them tender-crisp together, you have to time it.  Otherwise your zucchini and tomatoes particularly will go to mush.

5-6 spears asparagus
12 deveined shrimp, 31-40 count
1 Tbsp salted butter
1 1/2 tsp oil
generous black pepper
1 heaping tsp oregano
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp wine
3 inches zucchini (approx 3/4 cup)
5-6 tomatoes
1-2 Tbsp feta

Cut the asparagus into 1 inch sections.

Put a pan on the stove on low heat and add the fats.  When the butter is melted, swirl them together and then add the asparagus, shaking to coat.  Increase the temperature to medium-low.

While that's cooking, deshell the shrimp**.  This shouldn't take you long, but all-told, don't let the asparagus cook for 4-5 minutes.  Add the shrimp to the pan.

Generously coat the asparagus and shrimp in black pepper.  Add the other spices and shake/stir to combine.  Add the wine.

Chop the zucchini into 1/4 inch slices and in approx 4-5 minutes, when the shrimp are about halfway cooked through, add the zucchini.  Shake to get everything coated nicely.

Cut your tomatoes in half.  In another 4-5 minutes when the shrimp appear opaque on all sides, add the tomatoes, stirring to coat.  Cook just one more minute to warm the tomatoes through.

Pour everything on to a plate, top with crumbled feta and don't forget to scrape the pan clean of any of that awesome sauce.

Serve with bread so you don't have to lick the plate.

**Keep the shrimp shells if you would ever make a seafood broth - they will be an awesome contribution!  You CAN freeze the shells and dump into a stock pot much later, even if they were previously frozen shrimp to begin with.  (Re-freezing food is generally only an issue because it removes moisture from meat.)  Your homemade seafood broth would go especially well in my version of cioppino!