Day 3 - Feb 25, 2015: Simple, yet, delicious Shrimp - Απλές, αλλά πεντανόστημες γαρίδες

Our final delicious marinated shrimp

Today, we will share how we made the simply prepared but delicious marinated shrimp which we ate on Clean Monday.  The problem with making a shrimp dish is that there are no leftovers, so you always have to start the dish anew.  That's great in the sense of having fresh food, but when you want shrimp, and you know it will be an hour or so before you can have some, it becomes a greater test of strength.  We are thankful for our plentiful lives and for our ability to have food on our tables, unlike many of our brothers and sisters throughout the world.

When we do decide that shrimp is on the menu, there are several dishes that come to mind.  Now, you might think of a certain charming character in a wonderful Oscar-winning film who listed numerous  types of shrimp dishes.

First and foremost, in our home the preferred method is boiled shrimp, which is often served with lemon or cocktail sauce, and used as an appetizer to some other main meal.  Next, we may think of shrimp microlimano, a baked shrimp with a lemon-tomato sauce, but that often has feta cheese, and that will not be good right now during Great Lent.

Then, there is an absolutely delicious original recipe of marinated shrimp that we have had from a member of our family (who first created this recipe as a gift for an expectant mother twenty years ago!) With this method, the shrimp is seasoned and marinated overnight, then served with a coating of light oil and lemon dressing. It can be served as an appetizer, snack, side dish, or any time of day food.  Yes, it is really that special.

We typically use frozen shrimp, thawed in the fridge overnight

To make the marinated shrimp that we enjoy, we asked the member of the family to share his secrets.  He gave us an explantation of his process, a list of spices, and now, we will share with you, too.  It is important to remember that when we re-iterate directions form someone else, they may be guessing at the amounts, as are we, and when we try the dish, we take a little time to adjust seasonings, as will you.  So, it may not be perfect for your taste, but adjust as you need to.

Our ingredients for our original-recipe of marinated shrimp

For this recipe you will need the following:

1 pound shrimp, cleaned, peeled, tail on or off
1 TBSP Montreal steak spice
1 TBSP oregano
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup oil
1/3 cup lemon juice

Make sure the shrimp are thawed, peeled, and cleaned.  You can leave the tail in place to use this as an appetizer, or remove the tail if you want to use as a side dish. As you see in our pictures, we left the tail in place to use as an appetizer.  The tail is a good place to pick up the shrimp for eating.

Start with the herbs and seasonings.  After measuring ally he dry seasonings, combine them in a large mixing bowl (large enough for all the shrimp).  Make sure the spices are well distributed, and add the lemon juice.  We add the lemon before the oil, and this is important to do in a dish like this because the oil will push away the seasonings, whereas the lemon juice will saturate the seasonings.  By adding the lemon first, the steak spice will re-hydrate with lemon juice, to make a lemony steak spice.  Same with the garlic powder and the oregano.  Then, it is the spices that will help carry that lemon into the oil and distribute the flavours.

Then, add the oil and mix well.  You should now have a lovely, lemony marinade.

Pouring the dry spices into the mixing bowl

Mixing all the dry ingredients

Add the lemon juice

Add the oil

Combining all the wet and dry ingredients together

Now it is time to add the shrimp to the marinade.  You could add the marinade to the shrimp or the shrimp to the marinade, just make sure to mix well so each shrimp is fully coated.

Put the cold and drained shrimp into the marinate

Thoroughly cover all the ingredients together before putting them into a large Ziploc bag

At this point, you can cover the bowl and allow it to sit for an hour or overnight, or until you need it.  For us, we usually are in need of space in the fridge, so we try to keep the shrimp cold, marinating, and covered in the least amount of space possible.  It is a perpetual goal to have an empty fridge.  And, to help us with condensing packaging, we use a zipper top  bag (Ziploc), remove the air, and seal the shrimp.  It is almost as good as vacuum packing, but it is much more simple.

If you a re going to use a zipper top bag, you want to remove as much air as possible so that the shrimp are coated evenly with the marinade, and you can move the bag around without having constraints because of the big air pocket in the bag.  We thought it would be good to show you how to remove air from the zipper bag, without having to get a straw and suck all the air out.  It is a trick that we learned about 15 years ago, and works with liquids, solids, and everything in between.  Here it is step by step:

First, fill the zipper top bag with the food item (or liquid).  We will continue to use the term food, but please  know that refers to food, liquid, soup, or any edible item you plan to put in the bag.

Stand the bag to make sure all the food is at the bottom of the bag.

Pinch the sides of the bag, right at the top of the food and fold the bag over at that pinch point.

Now, press down on the top part, where there is no food, to release all the excess air.  You can either just flatten this dry, empty section with your hand, or you can fold back the top zipper part toward you, so the bag will be folded in thirds (give or take).

Seal the zipper.

TA-DAH! Now you have food at the bottom of the bag, that is sealed in a bag with very little air.  This is really an ideal way to marinate anything, and it prevents you from spilling liquid all over the place!

Now that you have a trick to help you preserve foods and marinate effectively in a zipper bag, and you have a recipe for the shrimp. We look forward to hearing your comments about the shrimp you made, and if you made any changes to the amounts or the variety of seasonings.  


"It is better to pray with good will for our neighbor, rather than to denounce him for every sin." (St. Mark the Ascetic, Homilies, 1.132)
Source of quote: http://orthodox.cn/patristics/300sayings_en.htm