Roasted Shrimp with Rosemary & Thyme

I came across a wonderful shrimp recipe and just knew that I had to cook it. I realize some of you might be wondering why shrimp, what’s so special about it? In all honesty, I don’t really know. I can’t find the correct wording to describe the texture of shrimp but if you asked me what chips or chicken tasted like I would have no problem giving you a mini description. To me chips are crispy with a hint of salt or any other spice and they are so good that you can’t simply just have one or ten but the whole packet and yes all in one go AND if you’re really feeling brave feel free to lick the packaging as well.

About a week ago I received a recipe for Roasted Shrimp with Rosemary & Thyme emailed to me from finecooking.com.  After reading the recipe and yes also looking at the picture and realizing that I would only need eight simple ingredients I decided that this would be the one.  The recipe called for olive oil which I always have on hand, black ground pepper and salt which is a must in our household, fresh rosemary sprigs, fresh thyme, shrimp and white wine vinegar. I had all of the ingredients at home minus the shrimp and the white wine vinegar which I ended up omitting because I’m not a fan of vinegar. 

The preparation time was approximately five to ten minutes and it was the easiest recipe to make. I first pre-heated the oven to 200‘. I then poured some olive oil into a baking dish, added a few rosemary leaves, thyme, chopped up a few garlic gloves, some pepper and into the oven the baking dish went. This mixture was supposed to cook for roughly 12 minutes.

Six minutes into the cooking time I decided to take a little peek and boy did I freak-out. I had smoke coming from the oven, the rosemary and thyme were black, and although the whole mixture was black nothing seemed burnt (but a brief second I thought I was going to have to start over) and after I showed it to my roommate who said it looked fine, I took a risk added the shrimp and shoved the whole thing back into the oven.  Twelve minutes later I was ready to eat.

It all looked so good; the shrimp was cooked to perfection, the herbs sautéed in olive oil gave the shrimp a pleasant color but (yes, there is a but) the flavor was bland. I was not happy with the taste at all. I think I might know what the problem is; I did not use fresh thyme and maybe didn’t add enough rosemary. If I were to cook this again, I would definitely season it stronger. In all honesty I was disappointed, it all seemed too easy and simple and it didn’t come out as I expected. Not a winner but maybe worth trying again someday.