The Daily Balance

Normally reserved for holidays and special occasions, gourmet dishes aren’t regular staples around The Daily Balance household. While I enjoy delicious food, I also enjoy my time and spending hours in the kitchen to whip up something that’s normally gobbled down in 10 minutes isn’t my favorite weekend activity.

But from the brilliant mind of my mother, comes a gourmet recipe with a lazy spin. Make this the next time you want to impress your in-laws. Or make things extra fancy this year for the Super Bowl and serve them as appitizers/finger food. Even better — host a Golden Globes or Oscars party — can you think of a better excuse to make a fancy/high class dinner? 

You’ll need:

• 1 cup chopped mushrooms (about 1/4 pound)
• 3 tablespoons minced onion
• 2 tablespoons minced celery ribs
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic (about 3 cloves)
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 pound scallops, chopped, or lump crabmeat, picked over
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 32 Ritz crackers (or whole wheat crackers if that’s what turns you on) - about two thirds of a 12-ounce package, crushed into coarse crumbs
• 18 jumbo shrimp (about 2 pounds), shelled, leaving tail and connecting shell segment intact
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika

Garnish (to really “fancy” it up): chopped fresh parsley leaves and lemon wedges

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Coat a large baking dish with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.

Make stuffing:

In a large heavy skillet cook mushrooms, onion, celery, garlic, and parsley in butter over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until softened. Add scallops/crabmeat and continue to cook over medium high heat, stirring, 3 minutes. Stir in broth and cracker crumbs and remove from heat.

Here’s the part where we get lazy! Instead of “butterflying” the shrimp and having to stuff it with the stuffing “just-so”, we’re going to simply place two shrimp (shaped like a ying-yang circle — head to tail, tail to head) on the baking sheet. Then top with a mound of stuffing (about 2 tablespoons). Melt butter and drizzle over shrimp. Sprinkle shrimp with paprika and bake 20 minutes, or until stuffing is golden.

Garnish shrimp with parsley and serve with lemon wedges.

By passing the “stuffing” process saves you LOTS of time and aggravation and you are still left with a delicious and BEAUTIFUL looking dish!

See for yourself.

Enjoy!

5 Responses to “Make it – Lazy Gourmet – “Stuffed” Shrimp”

1. VeggieGirl said:

   MMMMMM

   Posted on January 10, 2011 at 10:45 am | Reply
2. Bite Buff said:

   That looks amazing! Thanks for sharing.

   Posted on January 10, 2011 at 11:26 am | Reply
3. Jenn @ Frost Bites said:

   Those shrimps look awesome. I may have to try your recipe. Thanks for sharing.

   Posted on January 10, 2011 at 11:44 am | Reply
4. Kelly W said:

   Even though I’m not a seafood fan, this looks amazing! Great for a Holiday Dish!

   Posted on January 10, 2011 at 12:17 pm | Reply
5. CampingGirl said:

   This recipe sounds soo good! I can’t wait to try it.

   Posted on January 10, 2011 at 3:41 pm | Reply