Honey & Lime Shrimp

So I posted Paul's favorite 'I could eat this every week' meal  here, so today I wanted to share mine.  These shrimp are hands down what I could eat every day of my life, no joke.  I typically meal plan a soup every week, but  this week was an exception I don't know why it didn't make the meal plan cut.  So what do you know, the one week I don't plan soup, I get sick. So, I treated myself with extra coffee and these delicious shrimp.

original recipe:

the dough will rise again

Ingredients:

1 pound of shrimp peeled and deveined (This works best with uncooked, my grocery has deveined, shell on, uncooked in the frozen seafood area)

4 tablespoons honey

1/2 cup olive oil

4 cloves garlic (pressed)

Juice of 1 medium lime

Zest of 1 medium lime (I bought my zester just for this)

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1. If you are using frozen shrimp like me, I put them in a colander and rinse with COLD water, not hot.  For real, depending on your hot water heater setting your hot water could actually start to cook the shrimp.  The thawing typically take 5ish minutes, maybe longer.  

2.  While that is going on, I start the marinade combine ALL the ingredients except for the shrimp in a bowl and mix well.  If you have kids, this could be fun to show them the different densities of the liquids or the whole polar and non-polar oil and water(lime juice) situation.  After all what is cooking? SCIENCE!

3.  Time to peel the shrimp!  I have a shrimp bowl, and a shell bowl it just works for me.  Also, feel free to play with the shrimp, I totally make them pretend they are still swimming.  

4.  Dry them off, and plop them in your marinade.  Either a quart sized bag, or a small bowl will work, as long as you can get all the shrimp covered.  Place in the fridge and let sit for 30 minutes to an hour.  

5.  Once your marinating time is up, let the shrimp set for 10 minutes at room temperature.

6. Remove the shrimp from the marinate, and cook over medium heat until they are pink and start to curl and then flip until other side is also pink.  About 1 minute for the first side, and then 30 second on the other side.  Don't crowd the pan here, cook in multiple batches if needed. 

7.  Remove and enjoy!  I like mine with green bean and yellow rice.   But this is also a great way to marinade the shrimp for shrimp tacos, or serve over angel hair pasta.  You can reduce the marinate after you are done cooking the shrimp for a great sauce with pasta.  (always reduce it since you had raw shrimp hanging out in it!)  

a few notes:  You can use precooked shrimp, but I found it more difficult to get that nice glaze on the shrimp crispy without over cooking them... since they are already cooked and all.  My mom and I had success with using precooked if cooking in an iron skillet.  For me at my home in a nonstick pan, FAR more difficult.  No one likes overcooked shrimp... 

second:  you can substitute lemon in this if it is all you have, but trust me and just buy a lime.  

So now I have shared our families favorite meals, how about yours? Anything you think I should try?

-Meg