So the other night I was in the mood to eat lots of garlic. Maybe there was a full moon, maybe I was just hungry. I knew I wouldn't be kissing anyone or trying to impress anyone with my garlic breath, so I went for it. Garlic shrimp, garlic spinach, and quinoa. This entire dinner didn't take more than 15 minutes to cook, which was extra awesome! Garlic faster than the wait for takeout.
The Quinoa was easy. See it there in the little yellow bowl? I cooked it like I would cook rice, in my rice cooker. The rice cooker did all the work. It tastes amazing cooked in chicken stock, but since I haven't made any of that, I cooked it in water. That's pretty much as from-scratch as you can get. Or something. . .
Quinoa is something more than a trendy grain for the Whole Foods set. It isn't in the grass family, but related to beets and spinach. Unlike rice, it is a complete protein source, making the shrimp somewhat redundant. Delicious, but redundant. It's also gluten free, though that isn't important to me. Clearly. I make bread. Finally, It's high in iron and magnesium. Clearly, it is as awesome for you as it is awesome tasting.
This was a one- pan meal (we're not counting the rice cooker here). To start with, I put a whole lot of garlic in a pan with some olive oil. Eight cloves worth. You don't have to use this much. I just REALLY wanted garlic. Cook the garlic over medium heat until it gets golden brown and delicious. Remove everything from the pan as soon as it does.
The key thing to remember in cooking garlic is that toasted garlic is delicious, but burnt garlic is foul. Because I removed my garlic from the heat as soon as it was done cooking, I wound up with delicious, not foul garlic. I ended up draining most of the oil out this way too, including most of the stuff seen in the bottom of the ramekin in the picture.
Next, i threw a bunch of raw, thawed shrimp in the same pan. You can use fresh. I had frozen on hand so I just defrosted them and went to town. I think frozen shrimp are some of the most useful things to have in the freezer. They cook quickly, go with almost anything, and work with any meal of the day. Yes, Even breakfast. Don't believe me? We'll talk.
As the shrimp cook, they go from translucent and greyish to opaque and pinkish. You want them cooked through, for sure, but barely. Once shrimp get overcooked, they like to either get mealy or rubbery. Neither is delicious. In total, over a reasonably high heat, my shrimpies took about 4 minutes to cook.
Once the shrimp are almost cooked, add about half the garlic, plus a little oil back into the pan. If you like food spicy, like I do add some chile flakes. Not too many. A little goes a long way. Also, now would be a good time to salt your food. To taste. I like salty food.
Shrimp done? Good. Turn them out onto a plate. They can sit for a minute. They won't suffer. Add some of the delicious oil from the garlic to the pan and crank the heat to high. Dump a load of fresh, washed, dried spinach into the pan. This is baby spinach from the salad section, but grown up spinach will work too. Just make sure to rinse any grit out.
Keep the spinach moving constantly in the pan. It just needs to wilt, and will do so quickly thanks to the hot oil. This amount of spinach took about a minute, maybe 2.
Put the spinach on your plate. Top with the remaining toasted garlic, salt, and, if desired (and I desired) some sesame seeds. Doesn't it look good?
This is one of those vegetable dishes that can go with anything, provided you're not a vampire or planning on doing any kissing. It works with chicken, shrimp, fish, pork, beef, or on it's own. It makes a nice, healthier substitute to creamed spinach if you're in the classic steakhouse mood, or a nice side to sushi if you're in an Japanese mood. Seriously versatile side dish.
Plated up, this made a really garlicky and delicious meal. It went great with a bottle of beer and my history textbook (I was studying for finals), but would be good any time.
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