What should I Cook? Shrimp with Rosemary

Shrimp with Rosemary

-- 3/4 to 1 lb of shrimp, with shell on

-- approx. 1 tablespoon of rosemary

-- 3 cloves of garlic

-- 1 teaspoon of coarse sea salt crystals

-- pepper to taste

Prep time: Approx. 10 minutes

Cooking time: 5-7 minutes

Some people go to the supermarket, knowing what they want to cook; I however, sometimes just go to market not knowing exactly what I want to cook, but sometimes knowing what I want to eat... So last week, I bought shrimp and thought I'd figure out how I want to cook it when the time came. Previously, I've made shrimp with lemon in angel hair pasta (substituting lemon instead of tomato sauce) to have a light summer dish... but this time, I decided I wanted to try something else... I didn't want to look up a recipe, so I just kind of cooked it on a whim. Below is how I went about cooking it. I later paired with some bok choy.

I had already bought "cleaned" shrimp, with the shell on and with minor deveining left to do. So I prepped the shrimp and chopped the garlic. I heated my saute pan, threw in enough olive oil to coat the pan and then threw in the chopped garlic. I let that cook for a minute or two, and then added in the shrimp, salt, pepper and rosemary. I covered the saute pan and let the shrimp cook for approximately two - three minutes on one side, under medium heat. The shrimp starts to turn pink and I flip it onto the other side and cover again for a few more minutes. You'll know the shrimp is ready when it has a nice even pink tone -- usually taking 5-7 minutes to cook. And that's it -- easy!

Side notes:

I left the shrimp shell on -- why? I can say it preserves the flavor when cooking, but that's just retarded... I just plain messed up and thought it would taste better with the shell on -- but I you make it easier on yourself and peel the shrimp beforehand.

(Note: if you think you aren't going to cook the shrimp right away, throw it in the freezer and take it out the day you want to cook it -- believe me, I've had seafood go to waste in my fridge because I didn't get a chance to cook it ... and its such a sad thing).

UPDATE: p.p.s. With the BP oil spill in the gulf, approximately 84,000 square miles of the gulf have been closed off to fishing, or 35% of the area is now closed to fishing as of July 13th (watched Diane Sawyer report it today); With that, a lot of seafood fisherman will be out of work, and our seafood sources are diminishing. I wonder who the biggest exporter/harvester of shrimp is?