I found this recipe on Food52 which the meeting place of excellent home cooks on-line.  There are a lot of wonderful recipes to be found here.  In fact, the collective wisdom of home cooks on this sight  is positively overwhelming.  It’s a little bit like visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  You need a strategy to avoid overload.

Strategy number 1… go to find one particular thing like a roasted cauliflower recipe (Food 52) or the new African Heroes exhibit (Met).

Strategy number 2…leave all day and wander around.  I found this recipe while wandering around.  It reminds me of the shrimp scampi dishes that were all the rage in fancy restaurants on Maui during my childhood, although unlike shrimp scampi, this dish has no garlic.

This would be a spectacular dish to make for a romantic dinner (Valentine’s Day?).  It makes just enough for two people.  I actually halved the recipe, because I was making it just for lonesome little me, so the pictures just show one portion.  It is fast, easy and elegant and I will make it again for my husband when he gets home!

I ate my sherried shrimp with roasted gremolita cauliflower (which I also found on Food52) and it was perfect!  I will post that recipe very soon.  They would also be nice with roasted asparagus in the spring or savory sweet corn pudding in the summer. When I make them again, I will probably make some polenta, grits or new potatoes to sop up the delicious sauce.  These shrimp would be great on top of fettucine and served beside an elegant green salad topped with kumquats or some other sort of citrus, asian pears, fresh blueberries, roasted fresh figs or Fuyu Persimmons (depending on what fruit is in season when you make it).

VERY SIMPLE SHERRIED SHRIMP

from Food 52

• 1 stick of butter
• 1 pound medium or large shrimp, peeled and deveined (make stock from the peels!)
• 1/3 cup dry sherry
• juice and zest of 1 lemon
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• salt & freshly ground black pepper
• chopped parsley or chives for garnish

1.  In a frying pan or large skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat until foamy but not browned.
2. Increase heat to high, add shrimp to pan all at once and saute, tossing and stirring constantly, until shrimp is pink and almost cooked through (about 3 to 4 minutes).
3. With a slotted spoon, remove shrimp from pan and set aside.
4. Turn heat down to medium, add sherry, and cook, stirring constantly, until sherry and butter are integrated and have formed a glossy, syrupy, bubbling and thickened sauce.
5. Add lemon juice, lemon zest, cayenne, salt & pepper, and continue cooking and stirring until lemon juice is integrated and sauce syrups up again (about 1 minute).
6. Return reserved shrimp to the pan and cook, tossing the shrimp until they are napped with sauce and cooked through.
7. Serve garnished with minced fresh parsley or chives.