The Best Shrimp Recipe Ever

 

Are you ready for this? The best shrimp recipe ever? Yes, you are. Because it is so delicious, and so easy, it will become your new go-to, and you'll make it again. At least I do.

100% credit - maybe 110%, it's that good - goes to my dad for this one (and, admittedly, for many others!). He made it for us when we were home over the summer, and oh my God. I mean, I love shrimp already, but even people (ahem, Joef) who don't go insane for shrimp (really, though? How could you not?) love this recipe.

I made it for the first time on one of the first nights in our new place, accompanied by some truly amazing steak from The Local Butcher Shop (yet another reason to love Berkeley, by the way). Unfortunately, I lost/deleted pictures of that steak (gah!). Fortunately, we made the shrimp again (as if we wouldn't!), so at least we have that going.

The secret is my dad's marinade, and cooking them up nice and quick over the grill. Oh, and leaving the skin on. You can turn it into a big meal (serve with steak and fresh salad for some surf-and-turf), medium (maybe some nice aglio e olio), or relatively light, just the shrimp and, say, a nice arugula salad with fresh cherry tomatoes, baby mozzarella, and a cherry balsamic vinaigrette. Drooling...

           

This might be one of my favorite recipes, period. I mean, I don't want to artificially raise hopes and all that, but I'm pretty confident it won't fail you.

Because it's a marinade, the recipe is rather loose. Here's what my dad said:

Olive oil, garlic, ginger, black pepper, parsley, lemon juice.

You can kind of play with the amounts of the ingredients, and my general guidance would be:

1-2 lbs shrimp, cleaned and deveined, but NOT peeled
Juice from two lemons, and some pulp (take the end of a spoon or tongs and just jam it into the lemon while squeezing)
2-4 cloves garlic, smashed a bit with the side of a knife, then roughly chopped
2-4 twists of the black pepper mill
Small bunch of parsley, chopped
Generous amount of ginger powder (yes, powder) - 5 or so shakes?
A few glugs of olive oil 
Bamboo skewers, soaked in water beforehand

You should have enough liquid to coat the shrimp, and some will pool in the bottom of the bowl as well. You combine all of these ingredients in a bowl, stir them up to coat the shrimp, then pop them in the fridge for about 3 hours. Skewer them, making sure the skewer pierces the shrimp in two places, and that all tails are facing the same direction.

Shrimp cook really fast, so just cook them a couple/few minutes on each side on the grill, so that they get nice and pink. Eat outside with a nice white wine, and it will be a wonderful evening.