Just cooked shrimp for the first time in my life!

[Michael_in_TX]

I love shrimp, but I've never cooked it myself, ever. Well, it is nearly been a year since I've been in a restaurant, so it has essentially been a year without shrimp for me. (And, seafood takeout is always less than optimal.)

So I decided it was time to get over my "fear" of cooking or grilling shrimp.

After some research, I picked out a few simple marinades. I then added some frozen, peeled, and deveined, 16/21 Wild Gulf Shrimp from a local purveyor to my HEB Instacart shopping list. (Philly Seafood out of Sugarland for those around here.) I'm starting simple here; I am sure I will move up to shrimp I can shell and devein myself in the future. And of course fresh shrimp. (Instacart won't do the seafood counter.)

I defrosted ten of them overnight and then marinated them for 30 minutes in some avocado oil, garlic, salt, lime juice, cumin, and chili powder.

I intended on grilling them on the Weber Kettle, but it is raining right now so I elected for the cast iron skillet. Probably for the best to keep things simple this first time. I heated it to 375 over medium heat and placed the shrimp in it.

I intended to just do a minute this first side, but the pan temperature dropped to 200 once the 35 degree shrimp hit it, so I went for 90 seconds then flipped. I did another 90 seconds. Yes, they do turn white and they do curl, which surprised me to actually see it.

I pulled them off and placed them over a bed of brown rice.

I did good my first time! None of them tasted overcooked. A few of the larger ones were perhaps just a little undercooked, like 1/8" diameter in the middle seemed just a hair transparent. (There is a possibility they had not defrosted fully.) The flavor was delightfully shrimpy and the marinade was a nice spicy and flavorful, although I may pull back on the cumin next time.

I've still got 1.5 lbs of these 16/21 shrimp in the freezer and I plan to do another practice run tomorrow out on the grill. This time it will be a garlic/parsley/cilantro/olive oil flavor. So we will see how that goes!

Other than never having cooked shrimp before the main thing that kept me away from doing this was the "waste" of material and time to set up a full charcoal grill for something that cooks in two-to-four minutes. I may grab a $40 Weber Smokey Joe for this.

Here's what I did today:

[Old Glory]

Looks great! Best advice for shrimp is to avoid imported shrimp and don't over cook. Looks like you nailed it!

[Steve R.]

Shrimp gives you a lot of good eating for the small amount of time and effort it requires. There is a seafood shop about 5 minutes from my house that brings up a box truck twice per week with fresh gulf shrimp and other seafood. Love that place!

Now I'm off to grab a couple of pounds and make some shrimp and grits...

[treesmacker]

I love shrimp served on a bed of garlicy cheesy grits!

[Mr. Bones]

Them look great, amigo!
Nicely done...

Smokey Joe'd are perfeck fer small cooks, I use mine a LOT! Check craiglist, I see em all th time fer $10-$20.

[HawkerXP]

Looks great! We like garlic lemon shrimp.

[N227GB]

A WSJ is perfect for shrimp!

To defrost shrimp put them in pan in the sink and run under cold water, should only take a few minutes.

To peel devined, grab the tail with thumb and forefinger. Use other hand fingers to"unwrap" the shell. Sometimes can come off in one piece quickly with practice. Now squeeze the tail to pop out the last segment of meat.



(Posted from my phone)

[LA Pork Butt]

I cook them skewered over high heat 450+ about 2 minutes per side.

[Panhead John]

Good job Michael! Those shrimp look fabulous! Since you’re so close, your number one choice for fresh Gulf shrimp should be Kemah. There’s several great seafood shops right within a few blocks of each other. All their seafood is fresh off the boat. Never frozen. Bring your cooler in with you and they’ll give you free ice to keep it cold on the way home. And good prices too. Last year I got Super Jumbo shrimp, (10-12 per lb.) for like $10. or $11. per lb. heads off. Invest in a shrimp deveiner, they’re cheap and will make deveining shrimp a breeze. Another good choice is maybe give Costco a try for shrimp. I buy the fresh shrimp and it’s really good, they also come deveined already.
Check out Rose’s Seafood, in Kemah, website. https://rosesseafood.com/
Really good prices on shrimp, and they have a huge assortment of seafood.

[Steve R.]

What is the advantage of using the deveiner over, say, a tine of a fork? The fork method is how I have always done it and it works great, but I'm willing to admit there may be an even better way.

[Panhead John]

Steve R. If you’ll notice the curve of the deveiner... it follows the curve of the shrimp. It is so much easier than the tine of a fork. It splits the shell of the shrimp much cleaner and usually pulls the vein out with it, all in one smooth motion. I’ve done it with a fork a few times also, and this deveiner is a lot easier. Gitcha one and you won’t go back to the fork.
Insert the deveiner in the top, head, part of the shell, opposite the little legs of the shrimp. Push through, EZ PZ

[Troutman]

Rose's Seafood has been my go to shop since 1977 when I lived on Toddville Road in Seabrook (Rose's is actually in Seabrook but who's counting?). I actually remember when those stores were owned by locals, totally Vietnamese now. Still best price and quality in town for sure. Unfortunately not all their stuff is fresh caught like it used to be. Be sure to ask if the shrimp is local or foreign sourced, you'd be surprised.

[RonB]

If you have a charcoal chimney, you can place the grate on it once the coals are hot and cook your shrimp that way. If you turn the chimney upside down, you can get away with a small amount of charcoal.

[Texas Larry]

You might want to look atTroutman Smoked Pan Shrimp recipe. Tried it a couple weeks ago and loved it. https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/fo...e31#post976765

[Panhead John]

There’s a ton of things you can do with shrimp. One of my favorites is blackened shrimp on the grill in a cast iron skillet. Brush the shrimp with melted butter and sprinkle with blackened seasoning. Then get your CI screaming hot over the coals with a little butter already in the pan. Then cook the shrimp in the pan about 2 minutes per side. Done. Very tasty, especially using this blackened seasoning.
Addition: This stuff is also great for blackened fish..catfish, salmon too, and pork chops. Try putting some on your chicken wings instead of your usual rub.

[Troutman]

Nice work on your shrimp cook. Now you're ready for Etouffee and Jambalaya !!!

[58limited]

Don't forget to try making shrimp scampi!

And here is my stuffed bacon-wrapped shrimp recipe: https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/fo...-shrimp-recipe

[Michael_in_TX]

Thanks all.... yeah, this is going to be fun. So many things to try..... The list currently is:

• Garlic/butter
• Garlic/lemon
• Just a simple BBQ rub
• Something Blackened
• Something sampi'ed

I also totally forgot I had my Slow n' Sear for the Weber. That filled with about half a chimney would save on coals and I think I could easily get two 5-shrimp skewers across that.

[Steve R.]

Shrimp loves garlic, and garlic loves shrimp.

[Oak Smoke]

Some of my fondest memories are getting fresh shrimp at the HEB in College Station while the daughter was in vet school there. Some times we had them steam them for us, others we took them to her house and grilled them. Wow they were good!