Fried Shrimp and Spicy Broccoli

This recipe is one of the first ones that made us into thinking we should make a blog and one of the recipes we like cooking the most. It’s a very easy to make, delicious and packs a lot of flavor. And, hey, you’re eating broccoli, that’s gotta be healthy for you.

For the shrimps, we used frozen (500 grams), but you can use fresh. The idea of cooking the seafood is that you will both boil and fry it for short periods of time, so it doesn’t over cook.
First, you need to boil the shrimp so prepare your stock with 1 onion - quartered, 1 tbs of whole cloves, 1 tbs of whole peppercorns, 2 dried or fresh bay leaves, 1 whole clove of garlic, salt and 1 tsp of white wine vinegar.

Add water over the stock ingredients and boil them for until the onion is cooked through (you need to make enough for the seafood to fit in nicely). Next, put in the shrimp and cook it for 1 and a half minute. The idea is this: when using frozen, I make sure the shrimps are at room temperature when I cook them, because if I put them in frozen, the stock temperature will drop dramatically and the seafood will take too long to cook. When using fresh, that is not an issue, just make sure you don’t overcook them. So, 90 seconds, move the shrimps quickly from water.

Next, you need to act fast, heat up some olive oil in nice sauté pan, about 2 tbs, pop the shrimp in, cook for 30 sec, add some sweet, unsmoked paprika, about 1 tbs, cover the seafood in it, then pour in the juice of half a lemon and some salt, and stir fry everything in for 30-60 seconds tops. Remove from heat onto a plate. The result is a sweet, slightly sour dish, that takes in a lot of flavor from the stock and also a nice fry shine from the sauté.

For the greens, we used around 750 grams of broccoli florets, 1 medium onion, diced, 5 cloves of garlic, also diced, 2 very hot chilli (this part is really up to you), and the juice of 1 and a half lemons. Start of by cooking the onion, chili and garlic in some olive oil, about 4 tbs, for 3-4 minutes, add in the broccoli and cook in the oil for another minute or two.

Next, add 75 ml of water, 3 quarters of the lemon juice, salt, pepper, mix everything really well, bring the heat to a minimum, cover the pot and let it cook for 7-10 minutes or for how long it takes for the greens to be cooked through, but crunchy.

In the end, mix in the rest of the lemon juice and plate the broccoli next to the shrimp. 

A very nice sweet-sour-spicy combination, that goes really well on a hot summer night, next to a chilled bottle of a mellow, slow and powerful Soave… Good times, what can I say.

Enjoy your dish and your summer people, I'm out!