Lobster, Shrimp, and Scallop Scampi

Apr 16th 10

Lobster, Shrimp, and Scallop Scampi

Scampi, one of my favorites.

While it does have it’s variations from place to place, one thing remains: it typically is shrimp broiled in garlic and butter. A lot of the time, it’s served over pasta. The reduction/sauce usually also contains wine, which I’ve omitted from this recipe.

So to cut corners are far as time went, I bought 1 lb. pre-cooked and shelled lobster (my favorite!), 1/2 pound of cooked shrimp (medium to large, really whatever you like), and 1/4 pound of raw sea scallops. You can use the little ones, I just like mine jumbo! You can also substitute fish, use other seafoods, use raw instead of cooked, etc. to suit your tastes and needs, just be careful. This is shellfish. Keep it in the forefront of your mind to keep the raw stuff TOTALLY separate from the cooked stuff ’till they meet in the skillet, cook the raw seafood first, and add the cooked stuff at the very end to prevent overcooking (as well as cross-contamination).

Scallops, Lobster, and Shrimp

First, I coated the bottom of a heavy-bottomed skillet with olive oil, eye it, but it was roughly 2-3 tbsp. of oil. Turn the heat to medium, and to that, add another 1-2 tablespoons of butter (Yeah, I know, but this serves 4, so you’re not really eating 5 tbsp. of fat…and scampi’s not scampi without the butter!), 2 + cloves of chopped garlic (more or less to your taste- I used 4 or 5 cloves, ’cause I love it!).

When the butter is fully melted, add the chopped garlic. This infuses the butter with the garlicky goodness! When it starts to slightly bubble, add the scallops gently to the pan. Before you add the scallops, however, you need to rinse them, paper towel them, and sea-salt-and fresh-cracked-black-pepper both sides.

Scallops in Olive oil and Butter with garlic

To that, you next add and 1/4 of a red onion, diced small, that you have prepped and waiting on the side, plus the pre-cooked (and re-rinsed and paper-toweled previous to adding to the skillet) shrimp and lobster. In the event that the oil/butter mixture starts to reduce too much, add more drizzles of oil. You don’t want this to cook hard, you’ll want gentle heat, so that the seafood doesn’t overcook, you don’t burn your garlic, and the liquid doesn’t reduce too much or too fast! Your goal here is to keep the liquid part as semi-clear and pale as possible, not burnt/dark orange. The butter will burn if too much is used, hence why the higher concentration of oil to butter.

Only keep the shrimp and lobster in long enough to warm through-basically, add to the pan, cover, and remove from the heat after a few quick stirs. Mine looked like this:

Ready to put on the Spagetti Squash!

Next, take your spagetti squash out of the microwave (that you’ve prepared using this technique), put it in a serving dish or bowl, and top with the scampied seafood with some fresh chopped parsley, and small strips of sundried tomatoes.

Seafood Scampi

This was unbelievably delicious, with a hint of decadence, while staying true to supportive eating. You can top with cheese, and add any other add-in’s you’d like (black olives, spinach, artichokes, etc.). This was a HUGE hit in my house.

Don’t like seafood? My mom didn’t, either. You could definitely subsitute chicken or veggies here, and serve the same way!

Bon Appetit’!

(Oh, and while we’re on the subject of garlic, do you want to know my method of easily peeling the skins? Click here to see how the leanKitchen does it!)