CRISPY BAKED SHRIMP

Two crispy panko breaded shrimp on a bed of arugula, strawberry, almond salad

I. Love. Seafood. That’s really all I need to write for this post. That’s how much I love it. There’s nothing more to say. In fact, if you loved it as much as I do, you would’ve stopped reading by now…just threw your hands up and went out somewhere.

This crispy, lemony shrimp is delicious and pretty healthy. I’m not exactly a sucker for healthy food, but when I do make things that are relatively good for you, it’s certainly a bonus worth pointing out. The only part of this recipe that takes much effort is the breading of the shrimp, and it’s not difficult. The recipe below serves two people as a main course.

Crispy Baked Shrimp:

olive oil

a few handfuls of breadcrumbs

handful of parsley, finely chopped

zest and juice of a lemon, plus extra for serving

handful of freshly grated Parmesan

12 medium (or 8 large king) shrimp, cleaned and peeled

flour for coating

2 eggs, whisked

sea salt and pepper


Simple Salad:

3 handfuls of arugula

8 strawberries, sliced

slivered almonds, toasted

balsamic vinegar

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Heat your oven to 425 F. Now, make the breading. I love using Panko breadcrumbs whenever possible. They’re made without the crust of the bread, so they’re crispier and fluffier. Mix the breadcrumbs, parsley, lemon zest and a shot of olive oil in a bowl. Spread this out on a baking pan to dry.


Now, set up your breading station: bowl of flour, bowl of beaten eggs, breadcrumbs. Toss the shrimp in the flour and shake off the excess; dip them in the egg and coat them with the breadcrumbs. Make sure they are completely coated. Use your hands and get dirty. Remove the shrimp so you can clean off the baking sheet and rub it with olive oil. Finally, bake your shrimp in that sweet, hot oven for about 10 minutes. Flip them after 5 if you want them evenly browned. Don’t worry if you forget.


While the shrimp is baking, toss together the arugula, strawberries and almonds with a bit of lemon juice, olive oil and a splash of balsamic.

Once the shrimp is done, sprinkle it with a bit of salt and serve it on top of that salad you just tossed. Pun intended.


Serve it with a chunk of lemon.

THE INAUGURAL BITE

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Everybody eats. This is a blog for everybody.

I have no idea where my passion for food was born. I don’t come from a rich history of family chefs. I wasn’t raised on particularly exquisite cuisine (although both of my parents were great at what they did cook). I spent my childhood and adolescence wrinkling my face at every dish put in front of me, uttering profanities at anything with flavor. Pepper terrified me. Spinach literally made me sick. Vegetables were French fries and tomato ketchup.

Ironically, this may actually be why I love food so much now. I can’t say that there was a moment in my life when my taste buds actually woke up and I had a new 5th sense, but I do remember some stepping stones. Dragging my feet around Western Europe for a year in my early 20′s bred a certain craftiness in me. I couldn’t afford a haircut for a year and I certainly wasn’t eating in any restaurants with this so called “table service” (at least, not on my own dime!). Fortunately for my free-loading ass, European food markets and street vendors are unparalleled in their quality and abundance.

Learning to make a kind of Egg Foo Young in exchange for a bed in Barcelona; wolfing down Vacherin Mont d’Or like it was a Kraft cheese string as a guest in Lyon; wafting the scent of Haggis baked in yellow pepper like it was a chemistry experiment before I tore through it in Inverness. These new floozies made an honest man out of me.

With a new appreciation for taste, but next to no knowledge of food, I started experimenting with meals in college and pumping up my palette, 3 sets of 15 reps, 5 times a week. I started to develop some culinary intuition. When you’re guessing, disappointment should be reserved if the final product does not taste like the sum of its parts. Meals tasted, looked, or felt wrong. But, that’s how I learned. Since then, I’ve worked in no more than 1 kitchen and have taken a total of 3 hours of cooking lessons. Nothing to blog about. But, I’ve made a point of exposing myself to everything food. Food TV; food blogs; kitchen stores; cookbooks; textbooks; restaurants, restaurants, restaurants.

Eight years and a couple of meals later, I live in New York City. New. York. City. $#@% is this place a culinary juggernaut. What inspires me most about food is the reaction it invokes. And that is the reason for this blog.