Another vote for dry, high heat from broiler or BBQ. Will only take a couple of minutes.
I’ve read that when they curl into a C they’re cooked and if they curl into an O they’re overcooked.
Nthing all the people above who’ve said to err on the undercooking side.
There’s this roasty, nutty flavor, you can get out of the shrimp, when you quickly saute some peeled and deveined fresh large shrimp in high temp olive oil, about 45 seconds a side. You toss in a couple teaspoons of chopped garlic, squeeze some lemon in, alittle white wine, reduce and emulsify with some butter, season with pepper and salt.
Shrimp Picatta.
I have a fairly quick, easy and tasty shrimp recipe:
Shrimp Thing: (don’t know what to call it; I’m sure it’s some form of an existing dish)
1/2~2/3 lbs raw shrimp, peeled, deveined (I leave the tail on)
A couple of plum tomatoes
A few scallions
A bit of lemon juice
Olive oil/butter/garlic for sauteeing
Crumbled Feta w/ basil and sun dried tomato
Rice Pilaf
Herbs (basil/oregano/thyme, etc.), if you got 'em
Make a box of rice pilaf (I know, a box…I use Near East)
While that’s cooking, chop up the tomatoes and scallions, peel and devein the shrimp (frozen EZ peel works great)
Sautee the shrimp in any combo of butter/olive oil/garlic you like for maybe 3 min.
When the shrimp’s about done, turn off the heat, add the tomato, scallions, herbs, & lemon juice and toss, just to warm them a bit.
Put a mound of the rice pilaf on a plate, sprinkle the feta on top of that, then spoon some of the shrimp saute over that. You can garnish with more herbs if you like.
Shrimp should be steamed, in shell, in copious amounts of Old Bay. Approx 7-8 minutes for 1/2 lb, little longer for 1 lb. Any other method of cooking makes Poseidon angry.
I like shrimp just about anyway they come. If you boil them, have your seasoned water boiling and using a slotted spoon, drop a handful of shrimp into the water. as the shrimp float to the surface, skim them off to drain and add more shrimp. The shrimp will be perfect.
Thanks for this great advice, everyone.
So here’s what I did: Got the jumbo frozen “EZ Peel” shrimp, left 'em in the fridge. Came back from work, ran 'em under cold water to thaw, and shelled them. (This step was kind of annoying.) Boiled up some fettecini, chopped up some garlic and sauteed it in a pan. Meanwhile I dumped a mess of Old Bay and pepper on the shrimp in a bowl, then drizzled with olive oil, and tossed it. Put the shrimp in the pan over medium heat, kept 'em moving and they changed from translucent to white with orange tint. Got them off heat as suggested, then dumped a tub of pesto into the pan, coating the shrimp. Zested a lemon and tossed that in. Finally, plated the fetticini, spooned pesto/shrimp mixture on top, and that was it.
Freakin’ awesome, and the shrimp were pleasant - not stringy or tough. I’m inspired… more shrimp dishes will be tried by me in the coming weeks!
Shelling is something that you get lightning fast at with experience. My mom (who grew up on the dirty third coast) taught me shrimp shelling when I was but a young one, and to this day I’m usually the one to do it.
They sell shrimp deveiners, but I’ve always found that to get it done fast, I just use a table fork. Use the one tine on whichever side of the fork works for you, run the tine under the shell on the top of the shrimp, then follow the fork with the same hand’s palm–pull the now-loose shell off, drop it, drop shrimp to your bowl, move on. Done right, you’re peeling and deveining in one fell swoop.
YMMV.
One big piece of advice–it’s a huge pain in the ass, but cook them with the shells on, THEN peel (assuming you’re doing a saute or dry-heat thing)–the shells seem to add just a metric ton of flavor.
It depends, I think cooked prawns are easier to peel than raw ones, but you don’t want to overcook them, so you can’t just cook them first and then stir-fry them later.
But as I mentioned above, if you’re going for some kind of broth-based sauce, cooking the whole prawns first, then peeling and then reducing the broth with the peelings makes for a very nice base. Just remember to put the cooked prawns back in for the minimum amount of time.
This is what I call love 'em/ hate 'em chicken fried shrimp, because folks either love them or hate them.
Buy whatever frozen, deveined, cooked shrimp you can find on sale at your supermarket.
Rinse them in water, let them thaw a bit. A dash of salt, a sprinkle of pepper and a dusting of Goya Saizon seasoning. Dump the seasoned shrimp into a bowl of white flower and coat. Shake off the flower and deep fry the shrimp in vegetable oil.
Remove the crispy golden shrimp and pour them into a sauce pan that has been slowly simmering a little Country Sweet Sauceor Boss Sauce*, both of which can only be purchased in upstate NY or online. (you can find some, if your heart is pure.)
Let the sticky, hot sauce lightly coat the crispy shrimp. Remove from heat, plate it and eat them up.
People either really like this or they call it gross. Actually most people call it gross. I really like it.
*Country Sweet or Boss Sauce is like a thick, very sweet chicken sauce.
On this I agree. And IMO its easier to peel cooked shrimp than uncooked. It certainly isnt significantly harder. Cooking with the heads on also adds flavor as well and probably makes it a bit cheaper too. Taking the “veins” out is for Monk characters IMO.
As far as boiling. Its easy. Bring the big pot to boil with Crab Boil or Zatarans or whatever. DO A TEST RUN. Just throw in a few shrimp. Boil for some short time period. Take out, cool a bit, peel and eat. If they seem a bit raw, increase the time a bit. Find out what time for you is just past barely just a smidge raw. Use that time. Now do larger batches, but not so large that it takes any significant length of time for the water to come back up to a boil.
As for frying, here is something I like to do with fried seafood. Make a significant fraction of your corn/flour meal finely powered parmesian cheese.
I do it the other way around. I peel the raw shrimp and reserve the shells. I make a quick stock out of the shells (just cover with water, add salt, bring to boil, simmer for 15 minutes). If I feel like it, I’ll reduce the stock. I’ll then use this stock as part or all of the liquid for whatever I’m making. So, if it’s risotto, I’ll use this or a mix of chicken and shrimp stock for my cooking liquid. If it’s some kind of stir fry with a starch-thickened sauce at the end, I’ll use a reduced version of the shrimp stock to make my sauce.
Just wondering, as I’m not Catholic, but shrimp counts as “meatless”? It’s an animal.
Yes. For the purposes of Lenten abstinence, only the flesh of mammals and fowls is considered “meat.” Catholics generally don’t even worry about gelatin and animal by-products that don’t taste of meat. The Orthodox are a little more strict.
We’ve always eaten fish on Fridays on Lent.