Cookin' with Wood

Fabulous Fast Shrimp

Fabulous Fast Shrimp 

Where I got the recipe: back of the soup can

Tools you'll need: Large non-stick skillet (frying pan), cutting tool, plastic spatula, measuring cups, measuring spoons, saucepan with lid, can opener.

Ingredients: 1 Tbs butter or margarine

2 stalks celery, chopped

1/4 cup chopped green pepper

1/4 cup chopped green onion

1 pound fresh large shrimp, peeled and deviened

1 can Cream of Shrimp Soup

1/2 cup water

a dash of ground red pepper

Paprika

Hot cooked rice

When I made it: Saturday

When you walk into a supermarket, you're literally surrounded by recipes. It's like that movie Stigmata: "Turn over a rock, and you will find me, split a log, and I'll be there." It's the same when you enter a grocery store. Recipes everywhere. On the backs of noodle and pasta packages, soup cans, even at the seafood counter. You can get free recipes wherever you go in the supermarket. Pick up something and look at the bottom of it as if your checking to see what sex it is, and you're going to find a recipe.

So I bought a can of cream of shrimp soup a few weeks ago because I never saw the stuff before, and I thought I might be able to do something creative with it. It had a recipe on the back of the can, so I tried it. Here's what happened: I got an awesome recipe that was easy to make. I can't believe that I let this can sit in my cupboard for so long. My motto is "if it swims, I'll eat it" and I wasn't dissapointed by this recipe. The only way it could've turned out better would be if beer could swim. If I had infiltrated the can of shrimp soup into my beer supply, I probably would've used it sooner.

I made several mistakes while preparing this recipe, so I'll point them out as I go along, and hopefully you can avoid the pitfalls I encountered. One of the mistakes I made was so monumental that I'm sort of embarrassed to mention it, but it's one of the subjects I cover in my book, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to point out that this common mistake can be made at anytime by anyone. That's why I devoted an entire chapter to it.

First, get your rice cooking. Follow the directions on the box or bag to make four servings. That's what you'll need the saucepan for. Boil the water first, and don't forget to stir the rice after you put it in the saucepan, or you'll end up with a solid lump of rice. Of course, don't peek. Cook for twenty minutes, then remove from the heat.

Prep your vegatables. Cut the green pepper and onions into small chunks. Slice the celery into as many small pieces as you can. The celery is easier to cut if you place the top of the "U" shape down. Cut up enough green pepper and celery to fill a half of a cup. Don't forget the onion. Here's one of the mistakes I made: I forgot to buy green pepper when I went to the grocery store. I made the recipe without it, 'cause I wasn't going to go back to the store again just for green pepper. My final product was made without green pepper, but I'm sure it's much better with it.

Peel the shrimp. No, really, before you do anything else, peel the shrimp. It takes a lot longer to peel the shrimp than you think it does. If you buy large shrimp, you'll have less shrimp to peel. Put the butter into the skillet and heat on medium-high. Add the veggies and cook until just tender. Add the shrimp, and cook three to five minutes, just enough to make the shrimp pink. You don't want to over-cook the shrimp. If you do, it'll come out tough. There's nothing worse than a tough shrimp. Well, maybe a tough octopus is worse, but we're not cooking octopus.

Dump the soup into the skillet, along with the water and red pepper. Heat through, stirring constantly, until the shrimp soup is competely dissolved and there are no more large, identifiable pieces.

By this time, you're rice should be done. Put some of that rice into a large, flat bowl and cover with the shrimp recipe. Serve and enjoy.

Bob is the author of "Don't Fry Bacon with Your Shirt Off!  A Single Man's Guide to the Kitchen" a PublishAmerica book.