Shrimp: recipes, cooking features, interesting ideas

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Shrimp is a very valuable food product. These sea crustaceans are a storehouse of protein and vitamins, as well as a variety of minerals, including iodine. Shrimp are common in all oceans and have 250 genera and as many as two thousand species. They are both tiny - with a thimble, and giant, larger than a man's hand. In cooking, king and tiger prawns are especially valued. They are found in tropical latitudes. In the Black and Azov seas you can catch small shrimps. But if you know how to cook them correctly, then they are very tasty. However, it should be remembered that shrimp, like mushrooms, absorb all harmful substances from the environment. So, when buying crustaceans, you should ask in which reservoir they were caught, so that instead of valuable iodine, you do not saturate your body with mercury and lead. But in this article we will not talk about the benefits and harms of this food product, but consider a variety of recipes: boiled, fried, grilled shrimp … Read and use,to enjoy delicious seafood dishes.

What you need to know when choosing shrimp?

If you are in Thailand or a similar country, and you go to the night market to buy seafood from the evening catch, do not bother too much. Take any shrimp that looks at you. All of them will be the freshest and by no means small. In brown shrimp, the taste is very dependent on the habitat. Brindle (it is easy to recognize by the black stripes on the gray shell) has tender and soft meat. The most expensive delicacy is the white shrimp that lives off the coast of Mexico. It has a crispy meat structure and a slightly sweet, refined taste. Well, if you go to the nearest supermarket for seafood, you need to know a few rules for choosing shrimp. The recipe for success is simple. If we take a packaged product, we look at the package. In addition to valuable inscriptions, we pay attention to whether the crustaceans are of the same size. Small shrimp are cheaper than large ones, and sometimes unscrupulous producers mix them. There should be a minimum amount of ice in the bag - why pay for frozen water? You can also buy shrimp by weight. In this case, their body should be covered with a thin and transparent layer of ice. The blackened heads of crustaceans indicate that the product is not very fresh. But the greenery in the shrimp is a sign that the crustaceans fed on plankton. Pay attention to the color of the shell. The more intense, redder it is, the tastier the finished product will be. The crustaceans should have a tucked tail. Well, now let's move on to the recipes for their culinary processing.

Boiled shrimp

This is not even a finished dish, but rather a semi-finished product. Many recipes for salads, canapes, and appetizers include boiled shrimp in the ingredient list. The recipe for their preparation is extremely simple, but not without nuances. Since shrimp meat contains a lot of protein, it must be boiled like an egg. The longer it stays in boiling water, the harder it becomes. Hard-boiled shrimp are not tasty at all, but hard as rubber. Crayfish fall asleep - both fresh and frozen - always in boiling water. After the liquid again reaches a temperature of one hundred degrees, you need to cook for another two or three minutes, no more, large crustaceans and a minute - small ones. And how to make very, very tasty shrimp? The recipe is this. Boil two and a half liters of water. Add three tablespoons of s alt and two tablespoons of sugar. Also throw a few sprigs of fresh dill, a couple of bay leaves, spices (cumin, black pepper) into the pan. Squeeze the juice of one small lemon into the broth. Frozen shrimp should be washed in a colander under running water. So they will slightly thaw and be cleaned of dirt and excess ice. Drop the shrimp into boiling water. After it gurgles again, cook the crustaceans according to their size from one to three minutes. After turning off the heat under the pan, leave it under the lid for ten minutes. In this way, the shrimp are cooked with residual heat and soaked in liquid, reaching maximum juiciness. We catch them with a slotted spoon and serve on a platter with slices of lemon.

How to cook boiled shrimp?

As a rule, crustaceans immediately afterthe catch is subjected to shock freezing. So they retain all the valuable substances and vitamins. But the food industry, in order to please the consumer, who often prefers semi-finished products, also boils shrimp and then freezes them. For the laziest, there are already peeled crustaceans. How to prepare such a product? The recipe for delicious boiled frozen shrimp is as follows. We put a pan without water on the fire. Warm it up for a minute. Pour the shrimp out of the bag into it. We mix. The crustaceans should let the water out. As soon as the liquid stands out, squeeze the lemon juice. Bring this water to a boil, cook for a minute. Turn off the fire, lower the lid and wait five minutes until the crustaceans warm up with the warmth of the broth. Then we clean them from shells and heads. This is an express recipe. Shrimps prepared in this way can be enjoyed in five minutes. But if you have time, just move the pack from the freezer to the refrigerator. And then pour the shrimp into a colander, rinse under running water to remove any remaining ice, and transfer the container to hot water to warm the seafood.

How easy is it to peel shrimp?

Many cooks face this problem. After all, no matter what recipes for cooking shrimp we choose, they still need to be cleaned of inedible paws, shells, and heads. You can do the preliminary preparation of crustaceans and before heat treatment. But things will go much easier if we first boil the shrimp, and then quickly drain them and dip them in ice water. Such a "contrast shower" leads to the fact that between meat andthe shell forms an air gap. The protein shrinks a little, and it becomes much easier to clean the edible parts of the crustacean. Chilled shrimp can then be used as an ingredient in salads and other dishes. They can be fried or barbecued from seafood. And if we want to enjoy boiled tender shrimp, we put the same colander in boiling water for a while and warm the product. It will be easier to clean the crustaceans if we boil them "in their own juice" in the microwave. Pour quite a bit of water into a suitable container with shrimp and set it to full power for two minutes.

Fried shrimp recipe

This is a great gourmet snack. If you bought raw shrimp, they should be boiled a little first. We put a pot of water on the fire (per kilogram of crustaceans - 2.5 liters of liquid). S alt, add bay pepper and other spices to taste. Bring to a boil. Squeeze juice from one lemon. We fall asleep in boiling water shrimp. We stir. After boiling again, cook for one to two minutes. Strain in a colander and pour over very cold water. After this procedure, the shell and legs with the intestines of the crustacean can be separated very easily. When all the shrimp are cleaned, proceed to the next step.

There are several ways to fry seafood. The easiest is to pour the crustaceans into a pan in heated olive oil and stir for three minutes until the meat acquires a golden hue. Shrimps with garlic are very tasty. The recipe suggests dipping a few peeled but whole cloves in vegetable oil. Then, when they give theirflavor, fish them out and add the shrimp. You can do it differently. Finely chop three garlic cloves. First, pour the shrimp into the heated vegetable oil. After three minutes of stirring, add garlic, two tablespoons of soy sauce and juice from half a lemon. So fry for another minute. Serve shrimp hot, sprinkled with chopped fresh dill.

BBQ

Those who have been to Southeast Asia must have tasted this delicious dish. How to cook grilled shrimp? The classic recipe prescribes to pre-marinate seafood, that is, to do with them, as with any meat for barbecue. To do this, mix 80 milliliters of olive oil, half a glass of lemon or lime juice, three tablespoons of table white wine, a handful of finely chopped green onions, a clove of garlic, a pinch of s alt and a drop of tabasco sauce. We lower a kilogram of large shrimp (without heads, but with a shell) into this marinade and leave it cool for the night. Then we take it out and let it drain in a colander. Fry over coals, strung on thin skewers, or on a grill grate. They should be baked in a low heat for no longer than ten minutes. Don't forget to turn the shrimp frequently and baste with the marinade from time to time. This dish is served with some fresh vegetable salad as a side dish.

Shrimp in batter

Stir-fried shrimp can be a bit dry, because all the liquid evaporates from them in a pan. To prevent this from happening, we will hide everyonecrustacean in a shell of delicious crispy dough. For this dish, it is not necessary to boil the shrimp, but you need to clean them. Then they should be slightly s alted and sprinkled with ground white pepper. Then, as in the recipe for shrimp with garlic, fry three whole cloves peeled from the husk and remove them. Put into two different bowls:

• a mixture of two beaten eggs and a tablespoon of Dijon mustard,
• a mixture of a quarter cup of corn flour and ¾ of rice flour (these exotic products can be replaced with semolina or wheat flour, but coarse grinding).

Heat up the garlic oil. We take each shrimp by the tail, dip first into the egg mixture, and then into the flour. Fry in a large amount of oil for about three minutes, until the batter acquires a golden hue. This dish is served with a spicy tomato, paprika and onion sauce.

Shrimp in soups

Seafood gives the first courses an indescribable "oceanic" taste. And such soups are no less famous than the legendary Caesar salad with shrimp. Their recipe is always simple. But you need to remember that shrimp are laid in cold water, and not in boiling water. This is how seafood gives all its flavor and aroma to the broth. Do not forget to pour one and a half glasses of dry white wine into the pan for a more refined shade. Shrimps go well with garlic, dill, coconut milk. These crustaceans will find a place in the ear, the French fish soup Bouillabaisse, mixed with other seafood. But if you have boiledfrozen shrimp, then you need to add them to the dish at the end of cooking. And to make the broth fragrant and rich, we cook either chicken or shells of sea mollusks. But even ready-made shrimps are poured into a saucepan half an hour before the end of the culinary process. Just make the fire minimal and simmer the soup under the lid. Serve garnishing the edge of the plate with a slice of lemon and a sprig of fresh dill.

Shrimp in main courses

Paella, boiled rice and pasta with seafood have gained worldwide popularity. Here is the shrimp pasta recipe. Finely chop two cloves of garlic and half an onion. Melt two tablespoons of butter in a frying pan and fry the vegetables until they acquire a golden hue. Add 200 grams of peeled raw shrimp. Fry, stirring gently, 2-3 minutes. Sprinkle with s alt, white pepper and pour in 150 milliliters of cream. When they boil, season the sauce with fresh parsley and turn off the heat, covering the pan. Cook pasta (spaghetti or tagliatelle) until al dente, as recommended by the instructions on the pasta package. Drain and transfer to the sauce. Reheat if necessary and serve.

Mexican Risotto

Shrimp Caesar Salad (recipe below) and Marisco Spanish Paella share the podium with amazing seafood rice. Make Mexican risotto, you and your family will surely love it. Melt two soup spoons of butter in a pot. Pour 150 grams of washedlong grain rice. Fry until the cereal becomes translucent, like glass beads. Carefully pour in 400 milliliters of water or fish broth, add your favorite spices. We scald four hundred grams of ripe tomatoes with boiling water, remove the skin, cut the flesh into slices. Throw tomatoes on rice. Bring to a boil, lower the lid and cook over low heat for about ten minutes. During this time, we will clean 350 grams of shrimp, cut one young zucchini into small cubes, chop two tablespoons of pitted black olives, and remove 100 g of sweet corn from a jar. We throw all this into a cauldron and simmer under the lid for some more time until the rice is completely ready. This pilaf is necessarily sprinkled with a mixture of crumbled "tortillas" (Mexican chips), grated cheddar cheese and finely chopped green onions. Serve hot sauce separately.

Caesar salad with shrimps

The classic recipe, paradoxically, does not include chicken or seafood. These are all later variations. The very idea of this way of preparing a salad came to the mind of an American chef of Italian origin, Caesar Cardini, out of desperation. When a large company descended on his establishment at the end of the working day and demanded something to eat, the only thing in the refrigerator was lettuce, a few eggs, olive oil, sauce, parmesan cheese and a white loaf. But the resourceful chef did not lose his head and prepared such a salad from this minuscule, which went down in history and became synonymous with refined, but modest luxury. light,the refined basis of this dish was later supplemented with various "nutritious" ingredients. Most of all, two came up to the classic "Caesar": boiled chicken breast and shrimp. But the main highlight of the salad is not they, but ordinary chicken eggs. But let's take a closer look at the recipe for "Caesar" with shrimp.

Preparing food

Romaine lettuce head wash in ice water to restore freshness and crunchiness to the leaves. We peel the loaf (but better the French baguette), cut the crumb into cubes and fry in butter or dry in the oven. We need one hundred grams of crackers. A simple (classic) shrimp Caesar recipe calls for one egg. This point should be considered in more detail. It is prepared neither hard-boiled nor soft-boiled, and not even poached. We put a bowl of water on the fire. When it boils, turn off the stove and immediately dip the egg. With a stopwatch in hand, measure exactly one minute. We take out the egg and leave it to lie down at room temperature for about a quarter of an hour. During such a heat treatment, the yolk will remain raw, and the protein will just turn into a cloudy fleur. Boil several large or 100 grams of small shrimp in s alted water, peel. Finely chop the garlic clove.

Cooking the salad

We take a wide flat dish and begin to fold from the prepared products "Caesar" with shrimps. A simple recipe suggests starting the process by greasing the plate with garlic. Then we chop lettuce leaves with our hands - coarsely. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with s alt and pepper. We mix. Drizzle with lemon juice and add a few drops of Worcestershire sauce. Mix again. We break the egg and try to cover the entire area of \u200b\u200blettuce leaves. Add shrimp. Sprinkle with grated parmesan (two tablespoons). Before serving the Caesar salad with shrimp, the recipe suggests sprinkling it with croutons. By the way, seafood for this dish can be taken not only boiled. If you have a few tiger prawns or king prawns, sauté them, adding some runny honey and mustard grains at the end.

Other shrimp salads

Of course, "Caesar" gained worldwide fame. But there are other equally delicious shrimp salads. Their recipes are incredibly simple. Here, for example, is one of them. Peel and chop three fresh cucumbers into thin semicircles. Cut four small tomatoes into slices. Chop one small bunch of green onions. Pour vegetables with two tablespoons of vegetable oil, sprinkle with vinegar, add s alt, a little sugar and your favorite salad spices. With shrimp, the recipe suggests sorting it out like this. Lightly boil them in s alted water with lemon. We clean. Saute the meat in garlic butter. Add to salad. You can not mix, but put the seafood in a slide in the middle of the dish, and spread the vegetables around. Bon appetit!