Birthday Special!

Special thanks to Aimee Weinstein for this guest blog on my birthday so I don't have to write late! And it sounds sooooooo delicious!!!

Did you know that it’s Trish’s birthday today? It is – today, April 30th. I’m not telling how old she is – but she’s YOUNG! Especially compared to me. Today also happens to be my husband Marc’s birthday and every year he makes the same birthday dinner request. So in honor of Trish’s birthday, I thought I’d share the process, especially since I can’t make the dinner for Trish myself because I live in Tokyo!

Ingredients:
30 or so jumbo shrimp – prawns to be exact. Get them as big as possible! (Note from Trish: Below gives serving of 3-4 shrimp per person. Aimee throws the most fantastic parties, but if you're doing a much smaller gathering, plan accordingly. :) )
1 cup to a cup and a half of panko spread on a plate
a few eggs – beaten in a large bowl
oil
Italian red sauce – on the thin side, not too chunky
mozzarella cheese

The hard part of this procedure is peeling and de-veining the shrimp. The peels often come off in whole pieces if the shrimp are large enough, but not always. Then you have to take each shrimp and cut it in half lengthwise as evenly as possible – but DO NOT cut it all the way through. Butterfly it – cut it so it opens up and flattens out into one big piece. There is usually a big, dark vein that runs the length of the middle of the shrimp that must be removed as gently as possible to preserve the shape of the shrimp.

Heat oil in a large frying pan – but not too hot or you’ll burn the shrimp

Dip then dip each butterflied, de-veined shrimp into egg, then the panko. Some people repeat the process and double-bread it, but I do not. I like the shrimp taste too much to do it that way.

Lay the breaded shrimp in the oil in the pan and fast-fry them so the outside is golden brown, turning once.

After you take the shrimp out of the pan, lay it on a baking sheet sprayed with non-stick spray. Slather each shrimp with sauce and mozzarella cheese. Bake until the cheese melts, 5 or 6 minutes.

I serve the shrimp over or beside pasta, making a full plate for each person. In general, each person eats 3-4 shrimp. It’s a filling enterprise.

This is the dinner that Marc requests every year. I make it only once a year because it is not difficult, but time consuming. But for everything that he does for me over the year, it’s the least I can do for him on his special day.

Someday I hope to do it for Trish too! (That would be sooooo fabulous!!) Happiest of Happy Days, Trish! (Thank you, Aimee! HUGS!! Please check out Aimee's blog at tokyowriter.wordpress.com)