Cooking your Catch: Peel and Eat Shrimp
Thanks to the F/V Vixen for these delicious prawns. Photo By Allison Sayer
With shrimp season just around the corner, I wanted to share some tips for handling and cooking these delicious creatures. This article reveals my nit-picky side for sure, but you will be glad when the shrimp you worked hard to catch come out perfect.
Shrimp are definitely best fresh, and degrade quickly. Make sure you keep them cool after fishing.
If you are lucky enough to have too many shrimp to eat in one sitting, freeze them right away. The best way to freeze them is in salt water. Pack the shrimp into ziplocks, shallow tupperware, or even pie tins. The faster your catch freezes, the better quality it will be. That is why it is best to avoid freezing them in a deep container.
Pour in a brine with 2T salt per quart of water (Clean seawater works too). Leave some room for the water to expand in the container. As with all seafood, try not to stack your containers on top of each other in the freezer while freezing, as this will slow down the freezing process.
Use small packages so you can thaw only what you need for each meal and use them right away. When you thaw them, make sure to let them thaw in the fridge or cool water. Do not thaw in hot water.
Once you are ready to cook your shrimp, do it quickly in very hot fresh or clean sea water. Shrimp have better flavor if they are cooked in the shell. Prepare a large pot of boiling water. You want to use enough water that adding the shrimp will not cool the water. If you’re cooking a large amount of shrimp, do it in batches so you don’t lower the water temperature by putting all of them in at once.
Meanwhile, prepare a large bowl of ice or snow for immediate cooling. Once your shrimp are cooked, you do not want them to keep cooking in their shells.
Drop the shrimp, shell and all, into boiling water. Fish each shrimp out with a slotted spoon and transfer to the ice or snow the moment it floats to the surface. Shrimp will usually start floating in less than a minute. Serve right away! Make sure to provide plenty of napkins, and consider protecting the table with paper.
By Allison Sayer
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