Marry Me Shrimp, but Make It Greek

Hey everyone, yasa, skakalos ispeta to another episode of Dimitra's Dishes. Today we're making a quick and easy weeknight dinner idea that comes together in 30 minutes, but this is elegant enough to serve at a dinner party because it's packed with flavor. We're making marry me shrimp with orzo and I'm adding sun-dried tomatoes, feta, spinach, a delicious luscious cream sauce. Of course you can serve this with orzo like I'm doing today, rice, you can leave the carbs out and make low carb and serve vegetables on the side or a nice salad, toasted bread to soak up that delicious sauce, but it's so good you definitely want to make this one. Let's get started. Okay so in this recipe everything moves really quickly so all of the work is in the prep. If you prep everything ahead of time then you won't have any issues because there's really no time to you know cook as you go. So prep everything first, just a few things that we have to do and then the recipe will be on the table in no time, probably under 30 minutes. So get a pot of water boiling for the orzo and in the meantime finely chop a small onion, just you know roughly chop it just like this, set it aside, you can put in a little bowl so it's nice and ready. Then I have garlic cloves here. I usually have garlic cloves in the freezer that are already grated, I'm running low and I have to get to that, so I'll just grate these four garlic cloves with my microplane zester and just set them aside really simply like that. If you don't have a zester you can definitely finely chop these with a knife if you want or put them in a food processor and just dice them up until they're you know very very finely chopped just like this. And then I have sun-dried tomatoes that are packed in olive oil. I would not recommend sun-dried tomatoes that are just in a bag because they're super chewy and dry and I feel like they need more hydration, but the ones in olive oil have lots of flavor. I would use even a little bit of the olive oil that's in there to make this dish because it's packed with flavor, just roughly chop those. So my recipe calls for half a cup but I go heavy with these sun-dried tomatoes and they add lots of delicious flavor so you can add more or less depending on how you know you like the flavor. That's just going to get set aside and then next we're just going to prepare the shrimp. I have one and a half pounds, you could do one and a half to two pounds of shrimp. I like to buy them already deveined because that saves tons of time. There's no point in making a 30-minute recipe if you're going to spend more than 30 minutes peeling the shrimp. So they sell them peeled so I buy them that way it makes it so easy. The tail is on, just pat them dry and I buy these frozen but you can use fresh if you find them. Season them lightly with salt, freshly cracked black pepper. I also like to add a teaspoon of dried oregano, half a teaspoon of sweet paprika but you just eyeball this and add as much or as little as you want of each ingredient. A little bit of crushed red pepper flakes and then we're just going to toss everything all together so that way the shrimps are coated. My skillet is heating over medium heat and I'll add olive oil to this. Once it gets nice and hot I'm going to fry the shrimps in two batches. Just cook them about one minute on each side. You don't want to overcook them because they're going to continue cooking later on in the creamy sauce. So one minute on each side, don't overcrowd the pan by adding all the shrimps at once otherwise they won't brown. Then they'll just release the liquid and then it's just going to steam and become brothy and that's not what we're looking for. Transfer the shrimps to a plate and then turn the heat off so that way the pan can cool down a little bit. Add the onion with a little bit more olive oil and then the onion is going to cook until it's nice and soft and golden. That's going to take about six to eight minutes. Turn the heat back on after a few minutes so that way the onions can cook. Don't forget about that the onions will not cook without heat. Medium heat is all you need. Once the onions are nice and soft and then they have a little bit of color on them you can go in and add the garlic. Warm it through for about 30 seconds just so that way it cooks but you don't want it to overcook and burn. Then I'll add the sun-dried tomatoes and half to one cup of either broth or water. I'm using chicken broth today and that's going to help release all the things that are stuck to the bottom of the pan from the shrimp and from the onion and that's going to add so much flavor to the sauce later on. So let this cook and simmer for about two to three minutes so that way everything is released from the pan. Reduce the heat to a low and stir in the heavy cream. So we're doing three quarters of a cup of heavy whipping cream. If you want it a little bit lighter you can do half and half. I'm going to crumble in feta cheese and then about half a cup of shredded parmesan cheese. A little bit of thyme. This is dry thyme. I like to add about a teaspoon of it and then a little bit of lemon zest. It's going to brighten it up and add lots of flavor. We're just going to simmer this gently for three to four minutes stirring it occasionally until the cheese is melted right into the sauce and it's going to begin to thicken. You don't have to boil this rapidly because then the cream might break and it might separate. So just do this over a low heat until everything is warmed through. We're going to add baby spinach to this just like two or three big handfuls. We're going to add the spinach until it's wilted. That takes about one to two minutes. You can taste the sauce at this time and adjust the seasoning with a little bit more salt and pepper if it's needed. We're going to return the shrimp and any juices that the shrimp have in them right back into the skillet and everything is going to simmer for another one to two minutes just until the shrimp is opaque and cooked all the way through. I also like to add a tablespoon of lemon juice or however much your heart desires. Lemon juice is so delicious in cream sauces. It just wakes it up and makes it a little bit brighter and lighter. Again taste the sauce one more time and if it needs a little more lemon juice you could add it at this time. If you need some more salt and pepper you can season it right now and then that's it. This is ready. I'm just going to cover it with the lid, set it aside, take it off of the heat while I cook my orzo. So the water is boiling. I'll add one cup of orzo pasta or your favorite pasta, whatever you like to use. Cook it according to the package instructions. Season it generously with salt. So orzo takes about 10 minutes to boil. Once it boils, drain it and then add it back to the pot. You can add some olive oil to this or some butter and a little bit of salt and pepper. Mix it all up and then you can serve the dish just like this with the orzo and the sauce on top. But you want to get a little bit fancy like they do in restaurants because this is totally a restaurant style dish. It has that delicious flavor that you have paid lots of money for but if you can do this at home you can take a little ramekin or a little bowl and pack the orzo in there. Let it cool down just for a few minutes so that way everything holds its shape and then carefully invert it onto your serving plate. Arrange the shrimp around it and then get lots of that sauce on top of the orzo and all around the shrimp. Squeeze some more lemon juice on top. If you want at this point to garnish it with some finely chopped parsley or dill you can totally do that at this point but for me it's just perfection as it is. Of course if you want to go extra rich you can add some more crumbled feta on top. I'm serving it just like this. Look at how beautiful it is. It is ready to serve. Oh my god. So rich and flavorful. These are basic ingredients that I have on hand all the time and they just come together to make a rich luscious sauce. That shrimp is so juicy and just soft. You cut right through it with the fork and it just takes like minutes to cook in the pan. The orzo is perfectly cooked and it just absorbs all of that sauce. Again you don't have to use orzo for this. You can use your favorite pasta. You can boil linguine and serve this you know with linguine on the side. You can make rice instead if you prefer over the orzo. Bread. I mean if you toast some bread and you soak it in that sauce it's just like magical. I hope you guys give this recipe a try. You can get the full recipe printed out on the blog DemetriusDishes.com. Thank you so much for spending time with me today. I'll see you all next time. Yia sas!