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Why not serve this easy shrimp florentine as a mid-week meal?
Shrimp Is Economical
Shrimp has become very reasonable in price lately since there’s many weekly sales that include it. I now consider it to be an economy ingredient and I’m using it a lot more often.
Shrimp is also most people’s favorite seafood. There’s a reason for that–it’s delicious and quick cooking. There’s also many ways to make it so I compare it in many ways to ground beef.
Whether you make shrimp deep fried, in stir fries or with a nice sauce over pasta or rice, it’s pretty much universally liked.
Shrimp Florentine: Less Than 30 Minutes
Who wouldn’t want a delicious and yes, gourmet dinner in less than 30 minutes. Of course the answer to that would be everyone.
Shrimp, as stated before, is very quick cooking. All you need to do is cook it until it turns pink. That takes less than 10 minutes with most sizes of shrimp.
The sauce begins with heavy cream which is a good shortcut to a quick-cooking sauce. Of course it also tastes great! The sauce also gets additional flavor from being reduced after the addition of chicken stock.
You can use less-fatty versions of the heavy cream. Light cream and half-and-half would be good substitutes but bear in mind that those substitutions require a longer time to reduce the necessary amount.
So, the combined cook times for the dish come to 20 minutes or under even with the reduction. It’s 30 minutes or less if you use the lighter creams.
Undiluted evaporated milk can be used in a pinch, however, I don’t recommend it. It does have a certain “taste” which will come through even after cooking. If you don’t mind that, then by all means, use it if you don’t have any cream.
About The Spinach
Frozen spinach requires you to squeeze out all the water you can. I am always amazed at how much water is actually in the stuff. In dishes such as this, I try not to use it for that reason alone.
As always, fresh baby spinach is best to use in this. The measurement for the spinach in the recipe is based on drained frozen spinach, so if you have fresh, double or triple the amount.
The Recipe
Shrimp Florentine
Ingredients
- 1 lb shrimp cleaned and deveined
- 2 tbs olive oil
Sauce:
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 tbs unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup rich chicken stock
- 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1/4 cup Parmesan or Romano cheese grated
- 1 cup chopped spinach thawed and water squeezed out (see NOTES)
- Salt & Pepper to taste.
Instructions
- Heat a large pan over medium high heat. Add the oil and when it shimmers, add the shrimp. Cook just until it starts to turn pink; remove from pan.
- In the same pan, add the butter. When the butter is melted, add the garlic and cook only until it’s fragrant, about 30 seconds.
- Add the stock, cream and grated cheese. Stir well, and cook until the liquid is reduces 25 per cent, about 6-10 minutes.
- Add the spinach and the shrimp. Simmer for about 5 minutes and serve immediately.
