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If you enjoy a making butter-garlic shrimp or a seafood pasta with tomato sauce at home, or anything to do with shrimp, you’d notice the rubbery texture it gets to after being overcooked. It might taste delicious but the experience of biting into tender, juicy shrimp is always a higher form of pleasure gained from eating. What most people usually get wrong or miscalculate is the temperature and cook time that shrimp, or seafood of any kind needs. Because of its ability to cook within a matter of moments and how delicate the flesh is, all it needs is a little bit of precision.
Most seafood like squid, mussels, clams and shrimp cook through completely with minimal application of heat. If you plan on cooking the shrimp on its own, make sure to cook on a medium high heat and not more than a minute on each side, making sure they’re taken right out of the pan in a couple of minutes. Like most other meats like beef or chicken, shrimp also tends to cook even after it has been taken off the pan. Resting the shrimp for a couple of minutes before serving will ensure that all the juices run inwards, making the shrimp tender.
Tenderizing, as a technique, is highly underrated too. The process of using an acidic ingredient like lemon juice or vinegar is known to help in breaking down complex meat fibres and tissues in the meat. While seafood is a lot more delicate in its form as compared to meat, a little goes a long way. Marinating your shrimp with a bit of lemon juice right before it is added to curries or sauces comes highly recommended.
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A sureshot way of ensuring that the shrimp cook through and remain tender in a sauce, soup or gravy is to cook the shrimp in a passive heat source like the warmth of the sauce taken off the heat. While it is natural to be concerned about whether the shrimp has cooked through without any active cooking, this method just requires you to mix the shrimp in well and cover the cooking pot with a lid for a few minutes.
Cooking shrimp is one of the easiest things when done right. Go on and enjoy your favourite recipes using these tips and tricks.
