Cold Poached Shrimp
- 1 1/2 pounds shrimp
- Salt
- Better Cocktail Sauce (page 306), Marjoram Pesto (page 298), or other sauce for serving
- Put the shrimp in a saucepan with water to cover and a large pinch of salt.
- Bring to a boil and turn off the heat; let the shrimp cool in the water for about 5 minutes, then rinse in cold water until cool.
- Peel and devein if you like.
- Serve with sauce or chill until ready to serve.
- Almost all Shrimp are frozen before sale.
- So unless youre in a hurry, you might as well buy them frozen and defrost them yourself; this will guarantee you that they are defrosted just before you cook them, therefore retaining peak quality.
- There are no universal standards for shrimp size; large and medium dont mean much.
- Therefore, it pays to learn to judge shrimp size by the number per pound, as retailers do.
- Shrimp labeled 16/20, for example, contain sixteen to twenty per pound; those labeled U-20 require fewer (under) twenty to make a pound.
- Shrimp from fifteen to about thirty per pound usually give the best combination of flavor, ease (peeling tiny shrimp is a nuisance), and value (really big shrimp usually cost more than $15 a pound).
- On deveining: I dont.
- You can, if you like, but its a thankless task, and there isnt one person in a hundred who could blind-taste the difference between shrimp that have and have not been deveined.
shrimp, salt, cocktail sauce
Taken from www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/cold-poached-shrimp-386600 (may not work)