How to Peel and Devein Shrimp

Note: Shrimp need to be kept cold. While you are working with them, keep them in on ice, or in ice water. See this link about seafood safety. METHOD 1 Pull off the head (if it is still attached) and legs. 2 Starting with the head end, pull off the outer shell. Depending on how you intend to present the shrimp, you can keep the last segment of shell and the tail tip on, for decorative purposes. Place shells in a plastic bag, securely close, and either discard or freeze for making shellfish stock. Alternatively, you can leave the shell on and use a pair of kitchen scissors to cut along the outer edge of the shrimp's back, cutting the shell so you can get to the vein. The shells hold a lot of flavor, so there is something to be said for cooking shrimp with their shells on. 3 Using a small paring knife, cut along the outer edge of the shrimp's back, about 1/4-inch deep. 4 If you can see it, remove and discard the vein the runs along right under the surface of the back, with your fingers or the tip of your knife. If you can't see the vein, don't bother with it. Return the peeled and deveined shrimp to your bowl of ice or ice water until you are ready to cook.

How to Make Shellfish Stock

INGREDIENTS

4-6 cups shellfish shells, from shrimp, lobster, and/or crab 1/2 cup dry white wine 1 large yellow onion, sliced or chopped 1 carrot, roughly sliced or chopped 1 celery stalk, roughly sliced or chopped 2 Tbsp tomato paste 2 sprigs of thyme Several sprigs parsley 1 bay leaf 10-15 whole peppercorns 2 teaspoons salt METHOD 1 Break thick shells (lobster and crab) into smaller pieces by putting in a sealed, thick plastic bag and either rolling with a rolling pin or hitting with a meat hammer to crush. Cut up thinner shrimp shells with a chef's knife. Don't crush or cut too small. You can even skip this step if you want, if you are already dealing with broken up shell pieces (like cracked crab). Place in a large roasting pan and roast at 400F for 10 minutes (this step you can skip, but it greatly enhances the flavor). Put the shells in a large stock pot and cover with an inch (but no more than an inch) of water. 2 Put the stove temperature on medium high and slowly heat the shells in the water. As soon as you see that little bubbles are starting to come up to the surface, reduce the heat to medium. Do not let it boil.You want to maintain the temperature at just below a simmer, where the bubbles just occasionally come up to the surface. Do not stir the shells. Stirring will muddy up the stock. As the bubbles come up to the surface a film of foam will develop on the surface. Use a large slotted spoon to skim away this foam. Let the shells cook like this for about an hour; skim the foam every few minutes. The foam comes from shells releasing impurities as their temperature increases. 3 Put the thyme, bay leaves, and parsley in cheese cloth. Secure with kitchen string to make a bouquet garni. 4 Once the stock has stopped releasing foam, you can add the wine, onions, carrots, celery, tomato paste, herb bouquet garni, and peppercorns. Bring to a low simmer and reduce heat so that the stock continues to simmer, but not boil, for 30 minutes. If more foam comes to the surface, skim it off. Add salt and remove from heat. 5 Dampen a few layers of cheesecloth and place over a large, fine mesh strainer, over a large pot or bowl. Pour the stock into the strainer. Discard the solids. Either use the stock right away, or cool for future use. If you aren't going to use in a couple of days, freeze (remember to leave some head room at the top of your freezer container for the liquid to expand as it freezes.) Makes 2-3 quarts.

Panko is a Japanese breadcrumb that really shouldnt be named crumb but rather bread flakes. Its incredibly light, airy and crisp/crunchy when fried. Do you know why we have to coat the shrimp in all of those ingredients, in exactly that order? Well lets work backwards. If you want a crunchy coating, whether its panko, breadcrumbs, crushed potato chips or crusted saltines you gotta get it to stick to the food. Try taking a naked shrimp and patting panko on the surfuce. It doesnt stick well. If you try to fry it, all the coating will come off into the oil. But guess what? Panko sticks to egg! So does egg stick to shrimp? Nope. It slides right off. And hey, egg sticks to flour! Flour sticks to shrimp! Now you get it?

FREID RICE ESSENTIALS Use previously chilled leftover rice To get the perfect fried rice, youll want to use yesterdays rice as its had a chance to dry out a bit in the refrigerator. The heat of the pan and the liquid seasoning (soy sauce) will re-steam and hydrate the leftover rice. If you try to use freshly cooked, hot rice (like I did years ago,) youll end up with too much moisture in the rice and will make a heavy mess in the pan. High heat is essential But high heat doesnt mean that you need super high BTUs or a gas stove. All it takes is a bit of patience to let your pan or wok heat up. The high heat ensures that whatever ingredients that you put into the pan gets fried quickly and that each grain of rice gets hot to the core. Dont touch A common mistake of stir frying is to constantly poke, prod, turn and flip every second. In a restaurant kitchen where flames are so powerful they can singe your brows, chefs have to keep things moving. But in home kitchens, our stovetops need a little more time to do their work to heat up and cook our food. If you keep poking at the rice, the grains will break, release more starch and turn the entire thing goopy. It will never have a chance to fry correctlynot enough wok time as my Mom likes to say. The best thing is to do is to spread out the rice, use the entire cooking surface of the pan and just leave it alone. Put your spatula down and back away from the stove for a minute. Give the rice a chance to heat up. Then flip, toss and redistribute the rice, again spreading it out and leaving it alone to cook another side. Fry ingredients separately Fried rice has many different ingredients, and in my home its usually just a mixture of whatever vegetables, meats or seafood I can scrounge up from the refrigerator or freezer. But whatever the ingredients, you want to make sure that you can taste each individual one. To do this, youve got to fry your meat or seafood first, remove from the wok or pan when 80% cooked through and then toss it back in towards the end of the stir fry to finish cooking. Because if you try to fry all of the ingredients at the same time in the same pan, theyll all compete for wok time and everything will end up tasting exactly the same!

Shrimp Fried Rice

Make sure to use leftover, day old rice when making fried rice. Freshly made rice will make a fried rice that's mushy. INGREDIENTS

8 ounces small raw shrimp, shelled and deveined 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt freshly ground black pepper 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch 2 tablespoons cooking oil, divided 3 eggs, beaten 2 stalks green onion, minced 4 cups leftover rice, grains separated well 3/4 cup frozen peas and carrots, defrosted 1 tablespoon soy sauce (use gluten-free soy sauce if you are making a gluten-free version) 1 teaspoon sesame oil METHOD 1 In a bowl, toss the shrimp with the salt, pepper and cornstarch. Let marinate for 10 minutes at room temperature. Heat a wok or large saut pan on high heat. When the pan is hot enough for a bead of water to instantly sizzle and evaporate, add just 1 tablespoon of the cooking oil and swirl to coat pan. 2Add the shrimp, quickly spreading out around the cooking surface area so that they are not overlapping. Let fry, untouched for 30 seconds. Flip over and let the other side fry for 30 seconds, or until about 80% cooked through. Remove the shrimp from the pan onto a plate, leaving as much oil in the pan as possible. 3 Turn the heat to medium, let the pan heat up again. Add the eggs, stirring in a quick motion to break up and scramble the eggs. When the eggs are almost cooked through (they should still be slightly runny in the middle), dish out of the pan into the same plate as the cooked shrimp. 4 Use paper towels to wipe the same wok or saut pan clean and return to high heat with the remaining 1 tablespoon of cooking oil, swirling to coat. When the oil is very hot, add the green onions and fry until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Add in the rice and stir well to mix in the green onions throughout. Spread the rice all around the wok surface area and let the rice heat up, untouched until you hear the bottoms of the grains sizzle, about 1-2 minutes. Use the spatula to toss the rice, again spreading the rice out over the surface of wok.5 Drizzle the soy sauce all around the rice and toss. Add the peas and carrots, the cooked eggs, shrimp and sesame oil, tossing to mix the rice evenly with all of the ingredients. Let everything heat back up again, until the rice grains are so hot they practically dance! Taste and add an additional 1 teaspoon of soy sauce if needed. Yield: Serves 4.

Spicy Garlic Shrimp with Coconut Rice

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups long grain white rice 1 pound, about 20 large jumbo shrimp (peeled with tail on or unpeeled, but veins removed) 6 large garlic cloves 1 1/2 cup of water Salt 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded, de-ribbed, julienned Juice of one lime (or 2 inches of white tender end of lemongrass, finely sliced) 1 Tbsp olive oil 2 small cans (5.6 ounces) coconut milk 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of red chili powder or red chili sauce (to taste) Cilantro for garnish (optional) METHOD 1 Start cooking rice, following package instructions. 2 Pulse garlic, water and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a blender, just a few pulses, so you can still see chunks of garlic. Pour over shrimp to marinate. Marinate for 10 minutes. 3 Strain the water from the shrimp and garlic mixture. Add the lime juice (or finely sliced lemongrass), jalapeo, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the shrimp mixture. 4 Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in high heat in large saut pan. Add shrimp. Cook one minute. Add 1 small can of coconut milk. Cook 30 seconds more. Mix in a teaspoon red chili powder or sauce. 5 Put rice into a large bowl. Mix in the second 5.6 ounce can of coconut milk to the cooked rice. Serve shrimp on rice. Garnish with chopped fresh cilantro (optional). Yield: Serves 3 to 4.