Cooking shrimp is a wonderful treat to be enjoyed in the summer or any time of the year. And once you understand some simple tips for preparing the tasty crustacean, you can enjoy it whenever you want. With just a little practice, you can easily master the essential steps for cooking shrimp - expertly every time. Here I'll explain my best tips for selecting the best ingredients, the proper method for cleaning and how to prepare both frozen and fresh shrimp for excellent summer dishes that everyone will love.
Whether you are cooking for a simple Tuesday night dinner for your family or attending a neighborhood party, learn how to make shrimp a great addition to any meal! And with an ingredient that is this fast to prepare - you'll have plenty of time to enjoy the season, whatever season it is.
Cleaning Shrimp
If you are working with fresh ingredients, the item must first be prepared and cleaned.. My favorite place to enjoy this delicacy is at the beach on vacation. I love going to the local fish market and buying the freshest fish I can find. So - this entails cleaning shrimp for sure! But don't worry - it's easy and a little bit fun, too. Once you've removed the heads, here are the rest of the steps:
Hold the shrimp by the tail between your thumb and forefinger, legs up, holding it in place with the rest of your fingers - this takes a bit of practice so don't get frustrated!
Take your paring knife and run down the legs, scraping them off as you go. You could even use a clam knife here because you don't need it to be sharp. Now it should be easy to remove the shell.
It's time to take the vein out. Hold the shrimp - vein up - tightly in your hand. With your other hand, make small incision, exposing the body cavity. Now simply pull the vein out.
For another trick on cleaning, try this simple method for butterflying. Make an incision and run down the length of the shrimp to open 2 halves. Be careful not to cut all the way through. You can apply poaching method from here for shrimp cocktail or even lay it flat on a tray, stuff it and lay the tails on top before baking it.
Butterflying increases the surface area - making the item look bigger, helps the shrimp cook more consistently and makes a very nice presentation. Once you've cleaned all of them - don't discard those shells. I freeze them to use later in stock, sauce and shrimp butter.
Cooking Fresh Shrimp
This is a wonderful experience because after cleaning, there are just a few short steps to enjoy a wonderful creation of your own making. But there are some important things to consider when handling fresh seafood of any kind - especially shrimp. First is in selection. I generally try to buy shrimp with the heads still on. This tells you something important about the item: it's never been frozen. Freezing shrimp with the heads on makes a mess (and not a lot of sense) so anytime you need to start by removing the heads, you know they're fresh! Next is temperature.
Shrimp should always be kept at around 34 degrees Fahrenheit. Most refrigerators are around 40 degrees, which might sound close, but it's enough to make a difference in quality. Studies have shown that just a 5 degree temperature reduction (from 40 to 35) doubles the shelf life of fish and shellfish. So before cooking, you will most likely need to store your raw shrimp on self-draining ice in the refrigerator.
I place the ice and shrimp in a colander and then into a metal bowl to catch the water as the ice melts. Incidentally, the same is true for refrigerators at the store. Fresh fish should always be stored on ice. Before cooking fresh shrimp, give it a smell. If it has gone bad, you'll know it by a strong ammonia odor, which is true of most fish.
Cooking Frozen Shrimp
Cooking frozen shrimp is often necessary when the fresh variety is just not available. Don't worry - it happens to me too! Luckily, this is readily available and can be tasty in dishes as well - as long as you know my tips for selecting, handling and cooking. For starters - what does all that terminology mean? "I'll take some 15-20 IQF P & D, please." OK - let me translate. IQF is a term to describe the way in which shrimp is frozen.
It means individually quick frozen. If your IQF bag has ice crystals or the product is frozen together in a clump, don't buy it. This means the bag has defrosted and been re-frozen.This is something that should generally be avoided in purchasing frozen foods.
There is also the number range label (15-20) that refers the the number of shrimp that come in a pound. The larger the number, the smaller the shrimp. Medium is around 15-20; 'salad size" are 96+. It is best to freeze fresh items. The exception to this would be on shrimp boats where they have the technology to immediately freeze the catch at very low temperatures (quickly). So - frozen shrimp can be purchased cleaned or not cleaned.
If they have been cleaned before freezing, they are called P&D - peeled and de-veined. One last thing - always defrost before cooking when working with a frozen protein product of any kind. The best way to do this is in the refrigerator. If you need to defrost more quickly, you can place the shrimp in a bowl under slowly running cold water to defrost.
Cooking shrimp is a skill that enables you to prepare wonderful home-cooked dishes quickly and easily. This is a versatile ingredient that can be prepared in so many different ways, you are not likely to get bored anytime soon. By understanding and applying these simple techniques, you will soon be enjoying this deilcacy at every meal. Shrimp omelet, anyone?
Chef Todd Mohr is a classically trained chef, entrepreneur, cooking educator and founder of WebCookingClasses. You CAN learn to cook without written recipes by taking his FREE cooking class that will change the way you think about cooking forever!
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