I am still maintaining the easy dinners that don’t take forever to prep and cook…

Finally, I came upon some adult curly leaf, not baby spinach. It was perfect for José Andrés’s garlic shrimp dinner…we devoured dinner and I immediately filed the recipes into the “favorites” file. Michael was pleasantly surprised with the ingredients in the spinach a few raisins + pine nuts he thought it was going to be the dash of vinegar version now it is a go-to spinach recipe. The lemon stood in nicely for that tart factor.

The difficult part is finding the spinach as not everyone carries fresh bunches.

Garlic Shrimp and Catalan Spinach…slightly adapted

• 6 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for brushing bread
• 1 Golden Delicious apple, cut into ¼-inch dice
• 4 tablespoons pine nuts
• 4 tablespoons seedless raisins
• 10 ounces of baby spinach, I used 2 bunches of fresh curly leaf lettuce
• Salt, to taste
• 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 5 chiles de árbol, crumbled. I added a pinch of Sicilian pepper flakes
• 1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 5 tablespoons brandy
• pieces of No.2 seafood seasoning
• 5 tablespoons lemon juice, plus 4 lemon wedges for garnish
• 4 slices country bread, ¾-inch thick

Steps

1. Preheat broiler. Add 2 tablespoons oil to a large sauté pan over high heat. Once hot, add apples and cook until caramelized on all sides, 2-3 minutes.
2. Add nuts and stir until lightly toasted, about 30 seconds. Add raisins and continue stirring until heated through, about 30 seconds.
3. Add spinach and toss until just wilted, 1-2 minutes. Remove pan from heat and season with salt.
4. Set a medium sauté pan with ¼ cup oil over medium heat. Add garlic and cook until it sizzles about 30 seconds. Add chiles and cook for 1 minute, ensuring the garlic does not burn. Turn the heat to high and add shrimp. I added a couple of little pinches of No.2 seafood seasoning, but any good seafood seasoning will do.
5. Cook shrimp until they start to color, about 30 seconds. Add brandy and lemon juice to the pan. Flip shrimp and cook until they just curl, about 1 minute more. Remove pan from heat and season shrimp with salt.
6. While shrimp cook, brush bread with oil and place slices under broiler. Toast both sides until golden, about 1 minute per side.
7. Serve shrimp and spinach with toasted bread and lemon wedge.