Aug 12 2014
When Buying And Cooking Shrimp
When you’re in need of a quick meal, shrimp is the way to go. It can cook as quickly as five minutes, and almost never takes longer than seven. And when prepared with a skilled hand, it makes one satisfying dish. You can also cook in different ways with delicious results every time.
Shrimp is so easy to prepare and it’s one of the most versatile seafood ingredients there is. Shrimp is sold many different ways, but frozen, raw shrimp works the best for most recipes. Frozen cooked shrimp is also very easy to find, but you should never cook with already cooked shrimp since they will become mushy and flavorless.
One tip for buying frozen shrimp is to pay attention to the number on the package. This number indicates how many shrimp per pound the package will contain. The smaller the number, the larger the shrimp.
It’s preferable to buy shrimp frozen as fresh is rare and thawed shrimp gives neither the flavor of fresh nor the flexibility of frozen. The shelf life of thawed shrimp is only a couple of days, whereas shrimp stored in the freezer retain their quality for several weeks.
Avoid brown shrimp, especially large ones, if your palate is sensitive to iodine as they are the most likely to taste of this naturally occurring mineral. Defrost shrimp in the refrigerator or in cold water. Do not defrost in a warm place or microwave because the moisture, nutrients, and weight will be lost.
Cook a couple of shrimps as soon as purchased to check for flavor, texture and presence of an iodine taste. Then store the remaining block in the freezer or return to the store if the test shrimp are mushy or taste of iodine.
