I forgot to get my ashes today, but Lent is underway and I want to at least do meatless Fridays. I also happened to see an awesome commercial for Taco Cabana’s shrimp quesadillas - and I realized how easily I screw up shrimp.
I love shrimp but I am always disappointed with what I do to it. Usually it comes out stringy and rubbery. I’d love to learn how to saute or pan fry 'em up, and put 'em with pasta.
I made an awesome Giada de Laurentis dish once, with homemade pesto and pasta but it took forever. If I’m gonna work shrimp into my repertoire it’s gonna have to be made a lot quicker than that.
So shrimpists, what are your recommendations? Should I stay away from any frozen kinds and just go to the (overpriced) fishmonger at Whole Foods? How do I keep the shrimp from becoming a watery mess? Can I buy shelled, deveined shrimp so my lazy ass can just cook? And awesome recipes, especially of the Mexican and Italian variety, are greatly appreciated!
I have been lurking since around 2000, signed up in 2006, and only have 3 posts, but I will try to help with this one. I know some of the better cooks out there are going to have issues with some of my answers but I cook a lot of shrimp and always have good results, so here it goes…
Stringy and rubbery = overcooked. Unless you live on the ocean or gulf, near an area where a lot of shrimp are pulled out of the water, do not buy fresh. Shrimp are generally flash frozen and take to it very well. Most fresh shrimp aren’t, they are frozen shrimp that have been defrosted at the store. Buy frozen and do not buy bags where the shrimp are in big clumps. It generally means the shrimp thawed slightly and then refroze. I like to buy raw frozen shrimp with the shell and tail on that have been deveined. They are usually called EZ peel or something similar. Throw them in a strainer under cold water and they are ready to peel in minutes.
One of my favorite recipes is peel 1 lbs. shrimp and mix with 1 pack of McCormick’s Original Buffalo Wings Seasoning Mix. Throw it in a bag in the fridge for 20 mins. Put a pan on medium high, throw a quarter stick of butter in until it just starts to bubble. Toss the shrimp in and cook for maybe 2 mins. If you have too much water in the pan from the shrimp, run it to the sink and pour it off. You want it to be a kinda dry fry, not a boil. After the first 2 mins, start tossing the shrimp for another 2-3 mins until done. I am color blind so I have some serious trouble judging shrimp and ground beef by color for doneness, so I just start eating them after about 4 mins until I think they are done. Serve over white rice.
I have a few more recipes including a few that can be done with cooked cocktail shrimp when they are on sale after Christmas, I can post a few if you like.
Yeah, you’re probably overcooking your shrimp. In general, you should cook/fry/grill them only as long as it takes for them to turn pink all over and “roll up”.
I almost always buy raw* frozen whole shrimp. You can buy them peeled and deveined if that’s what you want - I just buy a big box of the things for the freezer and like to have a choice when I feel like eating shrimp (plus you can make awesome broth from the peelings). As desulting notes, frozen shrimp defrosts quickly in cold water. I generally just put them in a big pot of water and leave that on the counter top while I’m preparing the rest of the meal (maybe change the water once or twice).
One simple method for dealing with whole shrimp is to but them in a pot of boiling salted water, bring back to the boil and simmer for a few minutes. Take the shrimp out and peel them - should be faster when they’re cooked. Now you’ve got cooked shrimp and a basic shrimp broth.
Optionally, put the trimmings back in the pot and cook for another 15 or 30 minutes with some veggies to make broth. Use the broth in risotto - add the shrimp back in at the last minute just to warm it through.
As for other recipes; I’m quite fond of barbequeud shrimp; string the shrimp on skewers, marinade the shrimp for an hour or so in a mixture of lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper and fresh herbs (I like cilantro, but parsley and basil works very well too), then put on the BBQ. This probably works best with unpeeled shrimp.
You can use the same marinade for peeled shrimp or squid slices and just put the things with a little of the moisture on a baking sheet under the broiler for a couple of minutes; turn once or twice to make sure they’re done on both sides.
just mentioning, because over here much of the peeled shrimp is already cooked. You don’t want that.
One of my favorite shrimp recipes is Jamaican hot pepper shrimp. The recipe is weird: you make a broth, boil it, take it off the heat, throw the shrimp in, and let them sit there for 20 minutes while the broth cools. The shrimp cook perfectly and are intensely flavored by the broth.
The other thing I’ll say is that there’s a huge taste difference between farmed and wild shrimp. The farmed ones have very little flavor, IMO, whereas the wild ones are wonderful and sweet.
I buy raw frozen shrimp, defrost it in cold water, and then dry them as much as possible with paper towels. For pasta I sautee them with butter for a few minutes and then add to the sauce when it’s almost done. Mmm.
Lots of good ideas so far. Pay heed to buying frozen, uncooked shrimp. Shrimp can be cooked so many ways, but like most seafood, it is prone to overcooking.
I have tons of different marinades*, though my favorite uses olive oil, lemon, liquid smoke, and red pepper flakes. Do NOT overmarinate, or you’ll end up with a shrimp creviche. If you are adding to a sauce, you’ll want to undercook them before adding to a hot sauce, as the sauce will finish the process.
If you want to add to your next pesto, find some big shrimp - extra large or bigger. Peel and devein (I prefer to leave the tails on), dry thoroughly, and season with salt & pepper. Fry in a hot non-stick pan with a thin coat of oil** for 1 - 1.5 minutes per side. Toss with hot pasta and pesto sauce to finish the cooking.
And let me tell you, storage is a problem!
** I prefer pure (not light, not extra virgin***) olive oil because it smokes higher than butter and brings a little more flavor than table than vegetable oils. You can substitute freely between any of the oils though, to suit your tastes.
*** I feel extra-virgin olive oil loses its distinctive flavor in frying applications (and I want to smack Rachel Ray every time she suggests using to to fry), and given that it is more expensive than other oils, I don’t want to waste it.
Defrost in salt water instead of fresh for half an hour and the shrimp will be brined as well as defrosted. This will lead to a juicier, crisper shrimp. If you have a thermometer, I love poaching my shrimp instead of boiling them. Heat a pot of poaching liquid (water, old bay & lemon is a popular combination) up to 140F and then drop the shrimp in and keep the temp around there. It takes about 20 minutes for them to be done but you have a lot of latitude as they won’t overcook at that temp. The easiest way to see if they’re done is to just taste one.
Back when we regularly sailed off Baja, we’d come home with kilos of frozen shrimp that we boiled in beer. Quick, easy and tasty. Now I do most of my shrimp on the grill. I use a rub I found from Bobby Flay, and they are some of the tastiest shrimp I’ve ever had.
Grilling or broiling really works best. Even if you overcook them slightly, grilled shrimp will still be fairly tender and tasty. Toss in a bit of olive oil and let 'er rip. Or, if you don’t mind the fat, make popcorn shrimp.
Raw shrimp tastes the most, out of any meat I’ve ever had, like it’s cooked counterpart. Sometimes I just take them out of the refrigerator and eat them raw. It’s not bad, very fresh. Put them in a pan with a tiny bit of oil, green onions, and garlic to get rid of some of the fishy flavor. Don’t cook them too long, just mix them up until they’re all pink and you should be fine.
I buy fresh, nearly straight off the dock, but I live 25 miles from the coast. If you live more than 50 miles from the coast, just get a good quality frozen shrimp. I do not eat any shrimp that come from Asia, but that’s a preference thing.
Just reiterating that most people mess up shrimp because they think it takes 15 minutes to cook it. Ridiculous! 3–5 minutes max.
My favorite method: Five minutes before the rest of my meal is ready, I put about six shrimp on a bamboo skewer (soak those in water for 30 minutes if you are doing this on a grill). Coat each shrimp liberally with either Old Bay seasoning or some sort of Creole/Blackened seasoning. I’m a big fan of blackened. Pop the skewers on a Foreman Grill, snap the lid closed and 3 minutes later, you’re good to go.
Or boil them at 375º for 4 minutes whole and peel and eat like cocktail shrimp.
I highly recommend – if you insist on cocktail sauce – that you mix in a bit of horseradish with it. Gives the cocktail sauce a little extra umph.
If you do live close to a coast and can get fresh shrimp, go for heads-on. The heads rot first, so fishmongers will stretch their stock out an extra day by lopping all the heads off the unsold shrimp before selling them again the next day. Those shrimp are 24 hours too old for my taste and comfort level. If they sell with the heads on, you know they’re that day’s shrimp haul.
I only deal with raw frozen if I have to (because some of them go to mush after they have been defrosted) , but i also stay away from Whole Foods.
Here is my secret to tasty shrimp:
[ul]
[li]Peel them. Rinse them. Dry them.[/li][li]Mince 3-4 cloves of garlic.[/li][li]Put the garlic in saucepan with 2 Tbsp Peanut or Tea Oil. [/li][li]Use MEDIUM heat. (4-5 on gas burner, trial and error on Electric)[/li][li]When garlic starts to cook (you will see and smell it), stir the garlic-oil mix, thenput in the shrimp (FLAT - on their sides).[/li][li]Cook until you see that the middle is almost cooked, then turn it over. Cook them on that side for the same time period. Then pull those bad boys out of the pan. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper.[/li][/ul]
I just jumped in to say the same thing: undercooked shrimp are way better than overcooked. I use them in Low Country Boils (shrimp, crawfish, corn on the cob, link sausages, red potatoes, etc.) when we have a lot of people over in the summer, and they’re always the last thing that goes in the pot. Throw them in the boiling water, turn off the heat and let them sit for 4 minutes (depending on the size of the shrimp), then dump the whole pot on a picnic table covered with brown paper. Eat with yer hands. Drink cold beer. Repeat as necessary.
Also, if you like 'em fried, you can’t beat a SD favorite: salt and pepper shrimp. Google it. It’s worth it.
Other than that, when it comes to shrimp I’d just say that simple is best. Cooked hot and fast in a big pan with garlic, olive oil (or red pepper oil) and a squeeze of lemon or lime to finish, there isn’t much better than that.
Buy frozen “EZ-PEEL” shrimp in the 20-24 lb range (the smaller those numbers, the bigger the shrimp–it’s how many of 'em it takes to make a pound). Numbers in the low 20s are the best compromise between “won’t bankrupt you” and “not tiny”. EZ-Peel means that they’ve taken the vein out and split the shell so the shrimp will peel really easily. Cooking the shrimp with the shells on adds a ton of flavor.
Mix a half a cup of hot water with about 1/4 cup of sugar and 1/4 cup of kosher salt and a few peppercorns. Stir until sugar’s dissolved. Add a few cups of ice-water to the mix. Add the shrimp and let 'em defrost for about 30 minutes. Rinse the shrimp and thoroughly dry them. Meanwhile get a metal bowl or metal cookie sheet and put it in your freezer.
While the shrimp are in the brine, get 1 bottle of Heinz chili sauce (you can use ketchup if you must but the texture isn’t as good) a few tablespoons of prepared horseradish (at least 2 per bottle, i like about 5), about 1 heaping tablespoonful of sugar (or more to taste) and a tablespoonful of lemon juice. Mix and POOF. Cocktail sauce. Let it just sit out so the flavors can blend at room temp while you’re cooking, then refrigerate after you’re done.
Get a skillet/frying pan/cast iron pan–you want a large heavy pan with a lot of surface area and heat it waaaaay up.
Pour about a tablespoon of olive (the cheap stuff)/canola/grapeseed oil on top of the dried shrimp. Toss to coat. Take a LOT of “Old Bay Seasoning” and dump it on top of the shrimp and toss to coat–you want a bunch of the stuff on it. 2 Tblspns per lb, minimum.
Dump the shrimp into the now red-hot pan in a single layer. Don’t touch 'em for about a minute or so (turn on your fan–smoke will happen) After a minute or so (you’ll see the shrimp start to change color) flip 'em over and do the same thing on the other side. Once the shrimp are opaque (don’t go by the color of the shells—that can vary. But the flesh should be white and just slightly translucent in the center (there’ll be carry-over heat that’ll continue to cook the shrimp afterwards so if you completely cook them, they’ll be rubbery afterwards)
If you want them served hot, go for it. If not, dump them on the cookie sheet/metal bowl that you stashed in the freezer and then toss 'em in the fridge (or if you’re in a hurry, have your sink partly filled with ice-water and put your metal bowl in the ice water).
Drizzle a little fresh lemon juice (not much–like a 1/6th of a lemon-sized wedge) on the shrimp, and serve (shell on) with the cocktail sauce on the side. Provide a LOT of napkins
Serve with beer, root beer/ginger ale or apple juice.
(A chunk of this was adapted from an Alton Brown recipe)
For clarification, I think Fenris means 20-24 PER lb. You’ll usually see shrimp in the fresh fish case in stores called 16/20U or some such number. That means 16 - 20 shrimp per pound.
Sautee shrimp and chopped scallions, with a sliver or two of garlic, in melted butter for about 2-3 minutes. Add beaten egg, cook till medium firm. There’s a notch-kicked version of this that involves drizzling a little fish sauce over the top of the eggs once they’re done.
