20 Recipes in 2020 - Garlic Lemon Shrimp with Pasta

Because of Social distancing, my friends and I now hold our gatherings via Zoom meetings - like many groups, we have Zoom Book Club, Zoom Happy Hour and Zoom Game Night. To change things up, we started a virtual get-together-and-cook Zoom meetings. The genesis of this came from our "20 Goals for 2020" where I agreed to host at least one cooking demonstration. And so the "Shirley Soufflé Fake Cooking Show" came into existence. When I first announced to my family that I would be holding a cooking demonstration live via Zoom (to warn them of the impending noise and hulabaloo in the kitchen), they dubbed it my "Fake Cooking Show". Hey, if that terminology is good for Jennifer Garner on Instagram, it's good for me! Since then I've added in the moniker of "Shirley Soufflé" to add some fun into all of this - a homage to name created in jest from a housemate who dubbed me "Shirley Soufflé" because I cooked so much.

We've now held two sessions of the "Shirley Soufflé Fake Cooking Show". During the first session, we simply roasted chopped garlic in olive oil (I start easy to ensure success). During last week's session, we used that roasted chopped garlic to prepare Garlic Lemon Shrimp with Pasta.

Here's the Recipe for Garlic Lemon Shrimp with Pasta:
Ingredients:
Lemon shrimp and pasta 1lb shrimp, shell removed, deveined
1/4 - 1/2 C frozen peas or other green vegetable. I like to use asparagus in spring.
One whole lemon
The roasted garlic in olive oil
1/2 lb pasta. I use Bow Ties, but Fettuccine / angel hair would be good too
1/4 C white wine
1/2-1C chicken broth Note - I actually use chicken soup base called Better than Bouillon which is a concentrated gel that I mix with hot water for my broth
1/4 C chopped green onion
1-2 T Butter

Preparation:
Cut asparagus into 1” pieces and blanch or steam / micro cook lightly. Set aside.
Take a whole lemon and zest the rind.
Cut lemon in half and marinate the shrimp with zest and juice from half the lemon and a tablespoon of garlic olive oil.
Get a pot of water for pasta ready and heat it up.
Heat up 2-3 T of the oil and garlic from last week. Cook shrimp until just pink, remove from pan.
Deglaze the pan with chicken broth, wine and lemon juice from the other half of the lemon. Reduce. Taste and adjust seasonings - I tend to like it with more chicken broth.
Meanwhile cook the pasta. When it has a minute left to cook, Add shrimp back to the pan.
Add Hot pasta to the pan, coat with sauce.
Add peas / green vegetable and green onion
Add 1-2 tbsp butter - let it melt in and it will add a nice richness to the sauce.
Can serve with grated Parmesan / freshly grated pepper on top.

Photos from preparation:
Asparagus, looking so fresh and green:


I blanched my asparagus:


Zesting the lemon:


Lemon shown with Roasted garlic in olive oil


Shrimp ready to be cooked:


My Zoom meeting set up with two cameras - one off my laptop to show the stove from the side; the second camera off the iPhone for a mobile view and view of the tops of the pans


Screen shot of the Zoom meeting. All of us cooking together, some simply watching the rest of us cook!


The finished dish


This week, we'll continue to utilize that roasted garlic in Bruschetta Chicken Pasta, a copycat rendition of TGIF's offering with the same name. This is so simple, easy and a favorite in my family.