Summer Cooking: Cooking Shrimp for Unlimited Uses

Cooking shrimp at home is a wonderful, casual alte ative to a night out at a restaurant. But that's only if you know how to handle shrimp and produce those beautiful professional results yourself. Unfortunately, most people have trouble with shrimp for a couple of reasons. First, there is the cleaning of the shrimp. This can be a bit challenging, but with the right technique and a little bit of practice, it's a lot easier than you think. The second main obstacle that many face in preparing shrimp at home is not handling shrimp correctly and ruining a great ingredient. Shrimp must be handled well from start to finish to ensure the best possible outcome in your cooking. So - learn these tips and make cooking shrimp a delight in your house! Cleaning Shrimp Cleaning shrimp is a necessary evil of enjoying fresh seafood, but don't be afraid! With a proper technique, this process is much simpler than people imagine and is well worth the end result - yum! Here are the simple steps:

1. Hold the shrimp by the tail between your thumb and forefinger, legs up, holding the shrimp in place with the rest of your fingers - this takes a bit of practice so don't get frustrated!
2. Take your paring knife and run down the legs of the shrimp, 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.
3. 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.

And there you have it - you have finished cleaning shrimp! And it wasn't that bad, right? So I've got another little idea for you. What about butterflying your shrimp? There are so many reasons to do this. It makes your shrimp look bigger and more impressive. From a practical standpoint, a butterflied shrimp will cook more consistently because it is flatter and relatively the same thickness throughout. This also provides a great vehicle for stuffing shrimp as well. Simply lay the butterflied shrimp on a cookie sheet, fill it with some crab meat stuffing, press the tail over top and bake. To achieve this effect, you Make an incision and run down the length of the shrimp to open 2 halves. Be careful not to cut the shrimp all the way through. Once you've cleaned all your shrimp - don't discard those shells. I freeze them to use later in shrimp stock, shrimp sauce and shrimp butter. Cooking Fresh Shrimp Cooking fresh shrimp begins at the seafood market when selecting your shrimp. Always look for shrimp stored on ice with the heads still on. You can be assured that head-on shrimp has not been frozen because the head looks mushy and kind of gross after it's been frozen. Therefore, you won't see it being sold this way. If head-on shrimp is not available and you question the freshness, give it a smell. You should smell salty, ocean - not fishiness. If you smell an ammonia odor, the fish is spoiled. Once you've selected your shrimp, you must handle it correctly from now until you get to cooking fresh shrimp at home. I recommend bringing a cooler to the fish store with you so you can transport the shrimp on ice. It is very important that the shrimp stays at around 34 degrees, to ensure the best shelf life. Therefore, you will probably need to keep it on ice - even in your refrigerator. When you are ready to start cooking fresh shrimp is the only time it should be removed from ice. This will ensure that the product is as close to purchased quality as possible when it gets cooked. Cooking Frozen Shrimp Cooking frozen shrimp is the norm for anyone who lives inland and not right at the coast where fresh seafood is readily available. But that doesn't mean that all frozen shrimp is created equal. Luckily, there are some standard labels that help us identify a few things about the shrimp we are buying - if we understand what they mean. Most often, you will be looking for shrimp that is IQF - individually quick frozen. So look at the bag of shrimp. If the shrimp are frozen together in a clump or covered in ice crystals, you know that this bag of shrimp was defrosted at some time and refrozen. This will greatly diminish a product's quality so you don't want this! Before cooking frozen shrimp, know what you are planning to make so you can buy the correct size shrimp. Little salad shrimp aren't going to work in a shrimp cocktail. Conversely, why spend more money on big shrimp just to cut them up for salad. You know shrimp size based on its number in the bag. 15-20 means that there are 15-20 shrimp per pound. The larger the number, the smaller the shrimp. When cooking frozen shrimp, the shrimp might have been cleaned before frozen, which is called P&D for peeled and de-veined - or you may have to peel and de-vein after defrosting. Always cook frozen shrimp after it has been defrosted in the refrigerator. You can speed up defrosting by placing the shrimp in bowl under slowly running cold water. Cooking shrimp is an easy process that anyone can master with the correct technique and a bit of practice. Start thinking of ways to incorporate this versatile ingredient in your favorite dishes - or think up new ones. Once you've learned the basics, the creativity is the fun part!