Jenny Lang is an Author currently working on a novel inspired by the life of Sarah Winchester, builder of the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California. If you would like to be notified when the book is available, please sign up here.
Quick Recipes for Busy Writers
One of my passions is cooking. I’m perfectly content to spend an entire afternoon pulling together a fancy dinner, or playing with a new recipe. Thanksgiving is my holiday, and I’ll spend three days putting together side dishes and desserts, and prepping the Thanksgiving turkey.
But there are times when I just need to get dinner on the table. I still want to serve something yummy, something that looks like I put at least a little effort into it. I’m sure you’d like some inspiration for your dinner table as well. So I decided to include a regular series of articles on my blog called “Quick Recipes for Busy Writers”.
The first article in this series was for Pasta Puttanesca, and boy is this a favorite at my house. You can find the recipe here: Pasta Puttanesca
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The idea behind the Quick Recipes for Busy Writers is to have a store of ingredients on hand that you can pull out and whip up a dinner in those moments when you don’t have time for anything else. Imagine – you’ve been writing all day, lost in the moment, and you look up. It’s dark outside. How did this happen? Next, your stomach growls. Carry out? No! You can make Garlic Shrimp and White Beans. How? Let me tell you.
Like the Pasta Puttanesca recipe, everything for this recipe is shelf stable, except for the meat. I buy a bag of pre-peeled, deveined shrimp in the freezer section of the seafood department of my grocery store. If you’re thrifty, you can wait for these to go on sale. And don’t worry about paying the up charge for the jumbo sized shrimp. Just your regular 25-30 shrimp per pound bags will do. In fact, depending on how many people you’re feeding, a one pound bag will likely work for two separate meals!
TIP: TOMATO PASTE
One thing that annoys me is when a recipe calls for a Tablespoon of Tomato Paste – and let’s be honest here, they always call for just one tablespoon. But a small can of tomato paste has about 6 tablespoons. What do you do? Throw away the extra? Here’s what I do. Get a piece of wax paper and measure the tomato paste into 1 Tbsp blobs. Just drop them right there on the wax paper. Stick this in your freezer for an hour, and then transfer into a ziplock bag or freezer safe container. NEXT time your recipe calls for 1 Tbsp of tomato paste, take out one of your blobs and drop it in. No need to even defrost!
OTHER HINTS:
- Note that I always use pre-minced garlic. I buy the big jar, because my family likes garlic. A lot.
- Also, I generally keep a box of chicken broth in my refrigerator. The boxes are nice versus a can because you can just screw the lid back on and it’s ready for next time. You could also just use a bullion cube, or “Better than Bullion”. We’re all about keeping it easy here!
Garlic Shrimp with White Beans
Ingredients
- 6 Tbsp Olive Oil divided
- 3 Tbsp Garlic minced, divided
- 1/4 – 1/2 tsp dried pepper flakes
- 1 Bay Leaf
- 1 8-ounce Can Tomatoes, diced
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1/8 tsp ground pepper
- 1 Tbsp Tomato Paste
- 1 15-ounce can White Beans such as cannellini, rinsed and drained
- 1 cup chicken broth (can use bouillon)
- 1 pound shrimp, medium
- 1 tsp paprika
- 2 Tbsp Chopped Parsley (optional)
- 4 pieces Texas Toast (optional) frozen
Instructions
- Preheat broiler
- Heat 2 Tbsp Olive oil in a large, heavy, ovenproof skilled (e.g., cast iron or other) over medium heat.
- Add 1 garlic clove (or 1 tsp pre-minced), red pepper flakes, and bay leaf. Cook, stirring constantly, until just fragrant, 1-2 minutes (do not allow garlic to burn)
- Add tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring and smashing tomato with back of a wooden spoon, until tomato is completely broken down. About 5 minutes.
- Add tomato paste and cook, stirring constantly, until paste is deep red and caramelized. 3-4 minutes.
- Combine remaining 2 garlic cloves, 2 Tbsp olive oil, shrimp and paprika in a medium bowl. Season with salt and pepper and toss to evenly coat shrimp.
- Scatter shrimp over beans in an even layer
- Broil until shrimp are golden and cooked through, about 3 minutes.
- Drizzle remaining 2 Tbsp olive oil over shrimp and beans; garnish with parsley (optional).
- Serve with bread, if desired.
