The last article was about garlic shrimp recipe, in which the whole shrimp has been cooked, but there are recipes where shrimp prepared completely peeled and de-veined. Removing the head and shell, and de-veining are unnecessary. Usually, the purpose for that particular procedure is for aesthetic. And also the vein is the shrimp digestive tract, especially if the shrimp is large, usually those in 10 pieces per pound frozen packaging, contains a lot of grit.
This is not a food preparation that I like to do, and as much as possible, I truly avoid, hence I prefer cook whole shrimp. Plus, it brings more aroma and flavor. I like the taste of certain head part of the shrimp dipped in Kikkoman soy sauce. Another reason I don’t like doing this is it makes my hands itchy and smelly, even if I wash it with white vinegar to kill the odor, then wash with soap and water, still the icky feeling lingers. Plus it s time consuming, it is only worth it when cooking big batches and cooking for large crowd.
However, since it is a pre-requisite to a previous recipe and other future recipes allow me to share a common technique, so here goes:
Procedures:
1. In a large strainer or colander, wash shrimps thoroughly with cold water. Keep them on ice, if a large batch to work on.
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| Anatomy and Physiology of White Shrimp |
2. TO REMOVE THE HEAD: First, be aware and be careful with the pointy parts of the shrimp, the telson at the tail and the rostrum at the front of the head. For cooking a whole shrimp, cut those parts with paring knife against a cutting board. For cooking with tail-on, cut the telson off. But for now, avoid those while removing the head part or the cephalothorax, use the thumb and forefinger of the dominant hand, hold the gill region or the carapace, apply tension, snap and pull. Do this to all shrimps before removing the shell and de-veining, for efficiency. Anyway, there is another technique used by professional chef: with the dominant hand wrap the abdominal or tail area with three fingers and use the thumb to snap down the head part by hooking under the gill region. However, that technique only works for people with big hand, this is coming from a person with small hands.
3. TO REMOVE THE SHELL: Hold the shrimp with non-dominant hand while the dominant hand pull off the legs. Remove the shell from where the legs where removed. And if one prefers to keep the tail, simply hold the tail and the last shell of abdominal segment firmly with one hand while shell is remove with other.
4. TO REMOVE THE VEIN: Hold the shrimp right side up, then with a sharp paring knife, as a de-veining tool, makes a shallow incision along the vein. The vein is the black line running along the shrimp back. Use the tip of your knife to pull the vein up and out.
5. When done, rinse the shrimp with cold water and cooked as desired or store and freeze. Only rinse and defrost shrimp in cold water.
NTS:
Keep the heads and shells to be use in making a great seafood stock. Clean and freeze for later use.
Shrimp is sold by size: small, medium large and jumbo, and/or by number of pieces per pound. A good medium size shrimp, ideal for barbecue, are packaged about 20 to 30 pieces per pound. While smaller shrimp, four soup, comes 35 pieces per pound.
This is month is basically for a friend who loves fried rice with shrimp. And I am happy to dedicate this month, which also serves as an inspiration. This is a great concept to draw ideas for the blog and I might do this often.
For readers, have you tried this technique? Do you have another efficient and easy technique? Please share your thoughts down below. Feel free to post your reactions, suggestions, and corrections as it will help us cook and create better article and blog content. Thank you!
As always enjoy cooking and eating!
Reference and Inspired by
1. Waineru, S. (2018, June 28). Friend Rice with Shrimp. [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://inourhomesweethome.blogspot.com/2018/06/fried-rice-with-shrimp.html
2. The Culinary Institute of America. (2015, March 31). How to Peel and De-vein Fresh Shrimp. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3cwoaWhhoc
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