Crazy About Shrimp

Let's get something straight, one of the few pleasures I truly enjoy in life is cooking. I absolutely love to make meals, and desserts, and snacks, and...well, you get the idea. Which is why, as I've stated before on this blog, how itchy I get when I'm at school and away from my full kitchen. While I'm not terribly creative myself, I'm always willing to try new recipes. If I ever get the chance, I'd love to go to culinary school and really learn my way around food.

Seafood is probably my favourite "meat". Specifically, shellfish. I do like beef and poultry, *I stay away from pork* but there's something about shellfish that just makes me want to experiment more. Perhaps it's the cost of shrimp, my typical weekday meal, or perhaps it's the lack of time and fact that I tend to cook for one. Whatever the case, I just prefer to try new things with shellfish. Shrimp, scallops, crab, all great ingredients to experiment with and serve alongside some delicious pasta.

One of my more favourite recipes that I tried this year is Crab Stuffed Shrimp. It's a fairly domestic recipe, in fact I got it from the Lady and Sons restaurant in Savannah, though, to be honest, I don't recall seeing it on the menu the one time I went. But I digress, this recipe is a little complicated, but delicious! You can view the full recipe here:

Bacon Wrapped Crab Stuffed Shrimp with Lemon Basil Cream

You'll notice I didn't mention the bacon part, like I said, I don't particularly like pork so I left that bit out. I'm sure it's just as good with the bacon though!

On most nights, I just prefer to do a simple recipe like Shrimp Scampi. It's so easy to put together and fast, thus making the perfect after work, lazy dinner. I've gotten to the point where when I cook something for myself there's not much measuring, but here are the ingredients that I use:

Shrimp - 4-8
Garlic -1 clove
Lemon juice
White wine
Butter
Olive oil
Parsley
Linguine or whatever pasta you're in the mood for

It's all trial and error for me, but shrimp scampi is such a basic dish you can't really screw it up. Unless you do something like bombard it with garlic or add peanut oil instead of butter or something.

Anyhoo, I think if I were to compete in a Cook off, say, a Great American Seafood Cook Off, I'd use the crab stuffed shrimp recipe. It's unique, savoury, and quite possibly one of the best shrimp dishes I've ever had. It's also a very domestic seafood dish. I'm all for the positiveness of domestic seafood sustainability, it's one of the few things grown in America that I'm rather happy about. Plus, there is something nice to knowing where the source of your fresh seafood came from, especially if it's local. Yeah, I would like to participate in a cook off one day, that would be really fun. Though, I am a bit afraid that I would get stage fright being up in front of a crowd cooking.

The more I think about it, the more I believe I would enjoy a seafood cook off. Maybe one day I'll get to participate in something like that. Well, I've just got to keep practising!

Are there any seafood recipes you love to make?

If you do try the crab stuffed shrimp or scampi dish, let me know how it was! I'm sure you won't be disappointed.