How to make Beer Shrimp Scampi

Since it is still lent, I needed to find a good meatless recipe for dinner on Friday. The week before I had purchased a 2lb bag of jumbo (31-40 ct) shrimp, so some kind of shrimp dish sounded good for dinner. The last couple of weeks, I’ve had Kraft Mac and Cheese with lite tuna on the side, but I’m starting to wear out on that combo. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good combo, but I need something different.

After searching the web for some ideas and inspirations. I started to narrow down what I didn’t want to mix with the shrimp. I really wasn’t in the mood for any cream sauces, it just didn’t sound appetizing tonight. Also I want to somehow incorporate the gnocchi that I made a couple of days ago. Why not shrimp scampi?

Well as usual I changed around the original recipe to fit the groceries in the house, but tried to stay close to the original. Overall I used some items from the typical shrimp scampi, as well as some stuff from a shrimp boil. With a couple of my own twists. So here is a breakdown of the changes:

* I excluded any honey from the original recipe
* The white wine was changed for some homebrewed ale (Poor Richard’s Ale)
* Gnocchi was substituted for fettuccine
* Taking a tip from JRR a long time ago, I’m adding some soy sauce for the umami and saltiness that it will contribute.
* Also added some Old Bay and red pepper flakes for a little bit and heat and flavor, since shrimp and potatoes are pretty bland on there own.

For basically a made up recipe it came out great. Here are the details.

Beer Shrimp Scampi (1 serving)

Ingredients:
Plateful of frozen or fresh gnocchi
2 TB butter
Handfull of pre-cooked and thawed Jumbo Shrimp
A couple of shakes of Old Bay
Pinch red pepper flakes
4 cloves garlic
2 TB soy sauce
1 tsp lemon juice
1/4 – ½ cup Beer
Parsley to garnish

1) Start a pot of salted water to cook the gnocchi.

2) Heat frying pan to medium/medium-high heat, add butter. When the butter is fully melted and foaming add the shrimp. Cook the shrimp for 1 min on one side, flip and cook 2 mins on other side. Toward end of cooking, season shrimp with Old Bay and red pepper flakes. Transfer shrimp to a bowl to cool, leaving as much butter in the pan as possible.

3) Add the garlic to the pan, cook for a couple of minutes to mellow the garlic. Then add the soy sauce, lemon juice, and beer. Reduce the sauce until slightly thickened. While the sauce is thickening, add the gnocchi to the pot to cook.

4) As the gnocchi are floating to the surface, add the shrimp to the reduced sauce and toss. Using a spider, remove the gnocchi from the water and add to the shrimp and sauce, toss a couple times to coat. Plate the scampi and garnish with chopped parsley. Enjoy.

Cooking Note:

If I had to make this again, I would only add 1 Tb of Soy Sauce since 2 Tb made it a little bit too salty after the sauce was reduced.

7 comments on “How to make Beer Shrimp Scampi

  • AuSable says:

    ahahahah….now that’s the old Z i miss. I’ll keep it in mind for future shoots……or maybe I can find a girl that works as a food stylist at Meredith to give me some tips.

  • Szymanski says:

    Hate to say it, but the pictures don’t do it for me. Next time would you mind putting up a soft light box and setting the plate on a white background?

  • AuSable says:

    Ahhh, now that sounds like a good variation. The smokiness of the bacon, mixed with the shrimp. It’s making my mouth water thinking about it. Personally I liked switching out the white wine for beer, a much more practical option for dinner for one. Since half a bottle of wine stored in the fridge sucks the life out of the wine.

  • Bacon! that should be the next variation on this recipe. Also: use un-cooked shrimp and slow saute in the pork fat, not Lenten but delicious.

  • Jamie and I tried out the Shrimp Scampi with some Cheese Ravioli’s I had left over. It turned out really well. I agree with the 1 Tb of Soy, it def. enhanced the flavor but didn’t overpower the palate.

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