Sauteed Shrimp

Shrimp is one of God’s gifts to man. They are delicious, versatile, and quick to cook. While my husband does not share my love of these decapoda crustaceans, he fully supports transporting shrimp from my homeland.

Here’s the real reel – you can get good shrimp where you live. I hesitate to put that sentence on here because the Raf might not support my shrimp hoarding tactics after reading that.

I grew up in the land of shrimp and we FROZE them. We’d get raw shrimp by the ice chest full, put them in Ziploc bags full of water, popped them in the freezer, and ate them year-round. I snubbed my nose for years at flash frozen shrimp (what most commercially frozen shrimp are today) because I didn’t like the texture. I found out the texture gets weird because the seafood could be thawed and refrozen (sometimes multiple times). During each cycle of freeze, ice crystals form and puncture cell walls which changes the texture. There isn’t typically a noticeable difference after 1 cycle of freezing. The worst offenders of multiple freeze and thaw cycles are restaurants (not all) and seafood counters at the grocery.

Unless you’re buying shrimp from a trusted seafood shop, buy the shrimp in their frozen bagged state. I am a believer that the origin of seafood is important – trust me the flavor is different. I’m partial to Gulf shrimp – I love their flavor. Ask me if I prefer pink shrimp, brown shrimp, or white shrimp – honestly (and a bit embarrassed) I can’t tell you the difference except in theory. I will now brace myself for ridicule. Maybe I’ll do a side-by-side comparison one of these days.

Here’s my shrimp buying guide

- Best source is find a trusty seafood market.
- Do not buy frozen cooked shrimp. The texture and flavor is TERRIBLE.
- If buying truly fresh shrimp – get them heads on because they make the best dishes.
- Buy frozen shrimp with heads off and shells on. The convenience of pre-peeled shrimp is not worth the sacrifice in flavor and texture.
- Read the ingredient label — it should only say shrimp.
- Gulf shrimp are my favorite, then other wild caught. I’ve had fresh shrimp raised indoors as part of a aquaponics unit and they lack flavor.
- Shrimp count means how many shrimp it takes to reach a pound.

In loving memory of the shrimp, do not overcook them. That will ruin the enjoyment of eating them.

Ingredients
12 ounces of shrimp after you peel them
½ tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp cayenne
½ tsp garlic powder
1 Tbl olive oil

Directions
Read shrimp safety in the notes. You don’t want food poisoning.

Peel and devein your shrimp. I put detailed directions in the notes.

Dry your shrimp with a paper towel and toss them with salt. Refrigerate for 15 minutes. This will help to preserve moisture in the shrimp when cooking.

Mix the remaining dry ingredients. And toss it evenly on the shrimp.

Coat the shrimp in oil. If you oil the protein instead of the pan, you’ll have less grease splatters (thanks for the tip America’s Test Kitchen).

Heat a frying pan to medium heat. Add shrimp to the pan and make sure they have plenty of space. You should hear a sizzle. If not, remove the shrimp and keep heating the pan. As soon as the shrimp turns pink flip it and let the second side cook until pink. The vein line will turn from translucent to opaque. The total cooking time varies on the heat of the pan and size of the shrimp. Usually, it’s shy of 3 minutes in total.

Notes
SHRIMP SAFETY: I am guilty of stretching the lifespan of food. I eat things often that are probably too old – just ask my former co-workers. However, I do not mess around with raw poultry and seafood when it comes to food safety. I always thaw my shrimp in the refrigerator. If you must, you can thaw it under cold running water.

After the shrimp are thawed, I place them in a bowl of ice water (ice in the water). I remove one at a time, peel it, then stick it in a second bowl of ice water. I remove the peeled shrimp one at a time to devein the shrimp and put them back in the first bowl.

When working with shrimp have a clean space that you won’t splatter shrimp juice on things you don’t want to clean (spices, bags of flour, other ingredients, jars of oil, etc). Immediately when finished with shrimp, clean your work space with soap and water.

PEEL SHRIMP. Before I give directions let me preface I am a confused soul. I am ambidextrous, but not the kind that has equal use of the hands. Certain tasks I do with my left hand (eating, chopping) and other tasks with my right hand (brushing teeth, writing). I’m not sure what hand is typically the dominant hand in peeling shrimp. Try it both ways and see what feels better.

Hold the tail with the right hand. Hold the head with the left hand and twist your forearm towards the outside to remove the head. Hold the end portion of the tail with your right hand. Grab a section of the legs with your left hand and twist outward while grabbing a piece of the shell. The tail shouldn’t move. The shell and legs will move. Repeat.

Depending on how easy the shrimp is to peel, you can remove a couple of rings of the shell, squeeze the end of the tail with the right hand and pull the flesh with the left hand away from the tail. It’s faster, but it takes a little bit of practice to get the right feel for it. Whatever you do, don’t leave tail meat behind!

Hold the shrimp in the right hand. Use a pairing knife with the left land and score the shrimp in a single line across the entire top of the shrimp. You will almost always see a black line. Lay the shrimp on a paper towel and take the point of the pairing knife to pull the middle of the line out towards the paper towel while lifting the shrimp up. I pull from the middle because it typically won’t break and you can pull the whole line out with one motion. The black line will stick to the paper towel.