Dad's Baked Shrimp Scampi
Ha, not so fast..we goin' talk story first, brah! :)
Everyone has memories of growing up, right? I have many and one that sticks out in my mind when I cook is of my dad, crouched down, low to the floor, in front of our oven in our Hawaii Kai home, with a pot holder in one hand and peering through the cracked oven door into the broiler watching his precious Baked Shrimp Scampi get that last bit of melting and browning on the top before it's finally done. My Dad, nice Aloha Friday shirt and 'too short' shorts; it was the 70's, brah. Yes, Dad was very proud of his creation and I learned a lot from his passion for cooking. This is what he was looking at as he peered through the cracked oven door.
I grew up in Hawaii. Both of my parents were outstanding cooks, each having their own specialities and favorites, and a luv for mixing and creating new 'Island-kine' favorites that they could make for and serve to visiting friends and family from the Mainland, or the "States" as we called it. But, ya know, they never really cooked together. And by that I mean they never cooked as a team and never shared the kitchen together as one cohesive unit, creating a meal for our family...together. My mother had her specialities and my dad had his; each different and each not needing the skills or help from the other. It's sort of a bummer, actually, but I must say that I did learn a lot from each while watching and I saved, in writing and in memory, a lot of their dishes. Some of them are, unfortunately, extremely hard to re-create because of techniques and ingredients used which I do not have, nor know.
So what is this recipe all about? Dad passed away suddenly in 1993, due to a rare form of liver cancer and Mother passed away in 2009 from the ill effects of Dementia. Many of their memories are now stored here in our home. Sometimes I go through them while on a search for other things, like, you know, car keys, glasses, the remote... Well, recently I was looking through some items in our guest closet and out came an old recipe from my parents. I told my wife about it and I, once again, relayed to her of the memory of my dad and some of his cooking skills, the Baked Scampi broiler crouch, case in point.
Well, this past Christmas I opened one of my presents and it was a set of the ocean shells, just like the ones that my dad used for his prized baked scampi recipe. No, not served on a dish or bowl, but on a special shell he got just for this dish. For you locals of the 70's, I'd bet he got them at either City Mill, Wigwam, or Ben Franklins. Ah, the memories...
He made this dish for friends and relatives when they visited and everyone, I mean everyone, loved it. So, I opened the gift from my wife this past Christmas and there they were, the shells...shells just like I remembered. Leaky? Oh, you better believe it. Does this chick know me, or what?
It was at that point that I committed to making, or rather trying to re-create my father's Baked Shrimp Scampi just like he made when I was a kid. I've never made it since he passed away so this was set to be something special.
So here we go! The shrimps, yup, shrimps brah, they gotta be good and they gotta be big. Not those tiny little things you get at the grocery store and not the frozen ones from Costco. Like any quality cooking, you must use quality ingredients if you want a quality dish.
The seasoned, raw, deveined, and shelled with the tail on shrimp are paced on the cooking shell and then covered with a generous portion of a special paste. Here's what they should look like:
They are then placed in a 425 degree oven for 10-12 minutes. Once removed, they're topped with a bit of fresh parmesan cheese and into the broiler they go. This is where the crouching and watching closely process begins. If you walk away, it is game over, brah. Especially if you have the ADD, if you know what I mean. Look! Squirrel!
Once they are pau with that golden sear from the broiler, out they come and this is what you have:
Golden brown, sweet and buttery baked shrimp scampi. It goes great as an accompaniment to a nice filet, like pictured above, or as great, yummy appetizer.
Looks ono, eh, brah? So, here's the recipe.
And if you don't have the shells, you can easily make it in a small cast iron dish like the one below. Yup, tastes the same, but just without that Island flare.
So, there you have it, my dad's Baked Shrimp Scampi creation. It is definitely a guest pleaser and great when served alongside a nice grilled filet. I hope you've enjoyed my story and I hope you try the dish sometime. I'd luv to hear what you think and how it turned out.
Can you say Onolicious?
Mahalo for cooking with Captain Bobby Mitchel
No comments:
Post a Comment