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About Shrimp

Category: SeaFoods

Author: The Savvybearcat

Date: 1/1/2007

Rating:

(3.0) by 1 users

Ingredients:

***** Not Found *****

Instructions:

If I may, I'd like to give you some unsolicited advice on handling
your shrimp. The better it's treated, the better it's going to taste
in the end.

1. Only defrost the quantity you're going to use at any one time (I'm
hoping here that the shrimp arrived frozen in manageable blocks. If
not, place it in your refrigerator until it's thawed enough to
portion, but still icy and essentially frozen. Portion and re-freeze
what you're not going to use immediately).

2. Thaw the shrimp in the refrigerator or in a bucket, by running
COLD running water over it. If you use the cold water method, allow
the water to run over the top of the bucket and into the sink, to
ensure a constant supply of fresh water (the temperature of the
thawing water should never exceed 70 degrees, and the temperature of
the thawed shrimp should never exceed 40 degrees.) If your tap water
is hotter, add ice to the thawing shrimp. If the shrimp exceeds 40
degrees, place it in a bath of half ice and half COLD water, and
refrigerate until it comes down to below 40. Store thawed shrimp
under refrigeration in a mixture of half shrimp, half ice.

3. To peel, devein your shrimp, go to your local seafood market or
gadget center, and pick up a nifty little gadget called a
"shrimptool". It will cost a couple of dollars, and for the quantity
of shrimp we're talking about here, it's worth it.

4. If you want to peel/devein the shrimp for a recipe, keep the
unpeeled shrimp on ice as you work with it. Do not let the
temperature exceed 40 degrees. Drop your peeled, deveined shrimp
into an ice water bath until you're ready to use it. Peeled deveined
shrimp may be held this way for up to 24 hours without much loss in
flavor/texture.

This seems like a lot of trouble, but shrimp begins to lose
flavor/texture almost immediately once it gets the least bit warm.
Health/safety questions aside, the ice method, while troublesome,
results in a MUCH better tasting end product.

One other tip -- the iodine in the shrimp will be irritating to your
hands, if you handle a large quantity at a time. To avoid this, soak
your hands in a strong solution of baking soda and water after
working with large amounts.

Finally, a quick recipe for fried shrimp that we enjoy:

Go to the store and purchase a package of tempura batter mix. Make
the mix according to package directions, substituting cold beer (or
cold club soda, if you prefer to avoid alcohol) for the water called
for in the recipe.

Dip butterflied peeled, deveined shrimp in the batter, and fry in hot
deep fat until light gold (it won't and shouldn't get deep brown).

The leftover batter makes unbelievable onion rings.

Kathy in Bryan, TX