shrimp scampi on rice

The shrimp is cooked hardly at all. Water is brought to the boil, shrimp still frozen is dumped unceremoniously into the boiling water and the pot removed from the heat immediately. The frozen shrimp lowers the temperature of the water. The cook stands there and watches the shrimp fibers change from translucent to opaque within mere minutes, from the outside edge to the core. It takes a bit of guesswork because the edge being viewed where the head was once attached is itself an outside edge. Ideally a shrimp could be cut to see how far the change has advanced but that would sacrifice the wholeness of one shrimp so just deal with it.

The cooked shrimp is doused in iced brine. 

ARTS ! 

Rice is prepared but the starch needn't be rice and actually a starch is not even necessary. 

The rice is prepared in the same pot the shrimp was cooked, now that the shrimp is chilling in iced brine. The water used for the shrimp is reserved for the rice. Eh, why not? 

While the rice cooks, vegetables are prepared in another pan to mix with the rice in the manner of a fried rice. Once the rice is completed the vegetables are added to the rice pot and gently mixed. 

I used broccoli and red onion because it is what I had on hand. There is no rule that states a vegetable must be included, but don't you think spinach would be nice or some type of chard? I also have a lot of sugar peas, those would work well too. 

The pan that heated the vegetables is now available for the butter and garlic that makes this the American version of shrimp scampi. In this case, 50% butter and 50% olive oil. Lemon juice is added to the flavored fats along with the zest of one lemon. Dry white wine to finish the sauce, more of a warm dressing actually. The chilled brined shrimp is added to warm sauce until heated through. 

[ Originally scampi referred to shrimp, a type of small lobster. Now in the US it refers to the method, specifically garlic-butter. The starch can be anything, even bread, or nothing. ]