Yup, I butterflied shrimp...

I thought I was going to cook these two dishes on Wednesday, but due to my forgetting "Meet the Teacher" night at school, I postponed till Thursday night. Armed with the usual suspects of cutting board and favorite knife, I diced, chopped, and butterflied my way to two DELICIOUS dishes from Cooking Light.

Shrimp Scampi


When you click that link and go the page, ignore the rating of three stars. I would give it at least 4 1/2. I must admit, butterflying shrimp made me nervous. In an effort to eradicate that nervous energy (nervous people should not use knives), I studied my cookbook, looking intently at the written directions and the corresponding pictures. I soon realized that placing the shrimp on the cutting board and cutting through that way is easier than the directions in the book. In other words, think of each shrimp as a filet of fish or breast of chicken that you're slicing in half, but do remember to not slice through all the way. I did cut the recipe in half, and I used frozen shrimp (Target: shell on, "easy to peel" 16 oz bag). I thought the frozen shrimp would not be as good as fresh, but my dear friend Susie dispelled that myth saying that frozen shrimp is the best option aside getting your shrimp directly from the boat. The recipe also calls for gratin dishes, of which I have only one. I instead took a glass pie dish and arranged my pound of shrimp on it. After a few minutes under the broiler, the result was pure shrimp deliciousness. If you don't want to serve it on pasta, simply have some crusty French bread to dip in the scampi sauce. You won't want to waste any of it!

Greek Couscous
With minimal effort, you will have a taste of Santorini. Well, at least a taste of your favorite local Greek restaurant that also uses couscous. You could do many variations of this recipe, substituting various veggies or using different olives. Some recipes online call for basil or parsley. Here's the one I used (sorry it's not online):

1 1/2 cups water
1 cup uncooked couscous
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 1/2 cups plum tomato, diced
1 cup peeled cucumber, diced
1/3 cup (1 1/2 oz) crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup small kalamata olives, halved
3 tbsp onion, diced
1 (15 1/2 oz) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained
1/4 cup water
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 1/2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

Bring 1 1/2 cups water to a boil in a medium saucepan; gradually stir in couscous and oregano. Remove from heat; cover and let stand 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork and transfer to a large bowl. Combine couscous, tomato and next 5 ingredients. Combine 1/4 water, and next 4 ingredients; stir with a whisk. Pour dressing over couscous mixture; toss gently to coat. Yield: 7 servings (serving size: 1 cup)

The original recipe called for regular black olives, but I thought that since it had "Greek" in the name, those olives should be kalamata ones (plus I still had some from the polenta dish a few weeks ago). I think this dish would be great anytime of year, but especially in place of the classic (sometimes boring!) pasta salad. It's an easy one to whip up, and the ingredients are far from obscure. Enjoy it's fresh, simple flavors.

Here's the final presentation of both dishes:


Now to pick out this week's recipe...