Greek ShrimpIt seems that the answer to "What I Cook" is usually shrimp. It isn't always so. But sometimes I just can't help myself. This past weekend was one of those times. I wanted shrimp.
I headed to Maine Avenue. For a long time now I've gotten my shrimp at Jessie Taylor Seafood. The big selection is fresh, prices are fair, and the knowledgeable sales staff always bargains fairly. The shop carries at least 8 or 10 varieties and sizes of shrimp. I settled on "medium" and picked up a five-pound box of recently frozen shrimp caught in the Caribbean off the coast of Nicaragua. The box sold for $38, so at $7.60 a pound, I was happy.
I put the shrimp on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator to defrost overnight. By the next morning, it had thawed enough to gently separate the shrimp. I put about three pounds into a plastic bag and then back into the freezer for some future good eating. The remaining two pounds would go into a favorite recipe: Greek Shrimp.
When I lived in Astoria, the Greek section of Queens, NY, I fell in love with a shrimp dish at one of the local Greek restaurants that used feta cheese and olives mixed with a tomato sauce. Years later, I found a similar recipe in – of all places – a Louisiana cookbook! It's sort of a Greek jambalaya and is one of the easiest dishes I cook.
Chop up three stalks of celery and a large yellow onion, and saute them in a quarter-cup of butter until they get soft. Throw in two teaspoons of Greek seasoning, two 16-ounce cans of chopped tomatoes, a half-pound of crumbled feta cheese, a pound of Kalamata olives, four cups of cooked rice and two pounds of peeled shrimp. Stir the mixture gently and place in a 350-degree oven for 30 minutes.
Scrumptious! Dinner for two, and leftovers for four.