Armed with a new tool – a garlic press – and a pound of shrimp that was on sale at the local market, we bread and panfry shrimp for a succulent, flavorful, side dish. We use Japanese Panko crumbs for an extra-crispy coating, yet the shrimp still have an Italian taste with the garlic, lemon and parsley flavors.

We start off by rinsing the shrimp in the sink in a colander. We need to peel, devein, and butterfly, but we decide to get the coating ready first.

We will use “standard breading procedure” to coat the shrimp. On a plate, we place a piece of wax paper and pour on the flour. We add some salt and pepper to taste. In a bowl, we lightly beat the eggs with the water. Using our garlic press, we add the garlic, along with some salt and pepper. On another plate we place another piece of wax paper with the bread crumbs and mix with the parsley, salt and pepper. We also get two other plates ready to place the shrimp, uncoated, and then coated.

With the water running slowly in the colander, we peel a shrimp, leaving the tail and the small piece of shell close to the tail intact. Using a paring knife, we devein and rinse the vein out under the water. We continue the same cut that we used to devein the shrimp, cutting through almost completely – such that the shrimp can fan out like a butterfly. We set on a dinner plate and continue with the remaining shrimp.

Holding the tail, we place each shrimp first into the flour mixture, then the egg mixture, and finally the bread crumbs. We have just enough of the flour, eggs, and crumbs.

Meanwhile, we pre-heat the oven to 300° F.

In a 10-inch nonstick pan, we heat ½ cup of olive oil over medium heat. When hot, we add 4 breaded shrimp, tail up. We pan-fry for 2 minutes, turning when the bottom is nicely brown. We continue to cook on the other sides for another couple of minutes, then we drain on a paper-towel-lined clean plate. We add a little more oil to the pan and put the drained shrimp on a parchment lined cookie sheet in the oven to keep warm. We repeat with the remaining shrimp until all are nicely browned and cooked through.

We serve the shrimp sprinkled with coarse salt and a squeeze of lemon.

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