I absolutely love everything about summer! And of course, since I love to eat, I love all the wonderful seasonal foods that become available. But even more so than the season items to cook with, it brings sheer joy to me that it's grilling season and I try and find every excuse I can to cook dinner on the grill. Not only is it much healthier, but there is also way less clean up at the end. Which makes my husband very happy because he is the clean up crew to my creations : )
This weekend my husband is out of town and when he is out of town I get excited for only one reason: I can cook all the things I love that he refuses to eat. The main thing I get excited to cook: seafood!! The first night he was gone I decided that I was going to get wild and grill some shrimp! Watch out now!
I didn't really feel like going to the store after a long day at work and stuck in fun traffic so I made it a point to use whatever I had on hand to make a marinde for the shrimp. And that is how I came up with the combination of Lemon, Rosemary and Basil Shrimp. We are so lucky to have a never ending amount of rosemary and basil growing in our yard, so those are always two of my go to herbs for cooking. We are also very lucky to live on an old orchard and the original farm house just happens to be behind our house. Why does this make us lucky? Because the old owner of the orchard still has some trees in their yard and one of them just happens to be a lemon tree that never seems to be lacking in fruit. And it just so happens to hang in my yard! I hate seeing any food go to waste so when a few drop into my yard I make sure to put them to good use! Thanks neighbor!
The Line Up:
2 Tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/4 Lb Fresh raw large (not jumbo) shrimp
3 lemon slices
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
2 Tablespoons cut fresh basil
2 minced garlic cloves (not pictured)
1 gallon size freezer bag, or some sort of plastic or glass container to hold the shrimp while they marinade.
Since I was only cooking these for myself I only bought 1/4 lb of shrimp, but if you are cooking for more people then just add 1/4 lb for each person you are serving to.
Start by chopping your basil and rosemary, then slice your lemon wedges. Set that aside and get ready to peel your shrimp!
Peel the shrimp by taking off the hard tail and the outside hard shell, then slice up the middle of the shrimp where you see this black line like pictured above. Slice right up that line and then pull it out. Do this for each of your shrimp. Yes, it's a tedious task but at lease you have fresh shrimp and not frozen!
Once you have peeled all your shrimp place them in your bag or container, squeeze the juice of the lemon wedges and add it and the left over lemons to the bag, then add all the other ingredients. Seal the bag and lightly massage all the ingredients together in the bag.
Place this in your fridge and let it marinade for at least one hour, but overnight or all day for the best flavor!
When you are ready to grill take the entire contents of the bag and pour it into a greased grill pan and then head out and fire up your grill!
Turn your grill on high (or medium if you have a really good grill, we have a lack luster excuse for a grill so high is really our only setting), and cook though till the shrimp turn pink. Stir while its cooking and turn shrimp over for even cooking. While you're waiting....
Grab a glass of your favorite white wine, sit back, relax and enjoy!
Serve over brown rice and enjoy!!!
Bon Appetit Friends!
Yummy!!
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