Food Friday: Lowcountry Peel-n-Eat Shrimp

I’ve been making this shrimp for years but it never gets old. If you are a shrimp lover, you’ll love this.

Right after we graduated from college, Braydon and I spent a year living in Charleston. I worked as a paralegal in a small private practice law firm downtown in the historic district. The secretary in the office was Sue– a super nice lady who had spent her entire life — as she liked to say, “born and raised!” — living in the South Carolina coastal region. She was an impressive chef, and loved nothing more than local seafood. She and I bonded over cooking, (and complaining about our boss), and became great friends despite our age difference (I was 22 at the time, and she was at least 20 years older than me). Sue taught me most of what I know about Lowcountry cuisine. She also taught me how to shuck an oyster– raw or roasted.

Above all, Sue taught me how to make what she called “Lowcountry Shrimp.”

After I moved back north, I started making this as an appetizer for dinner guests, friends, and family. I’ll never forget how much my cousin Karen loved this shrimp. She’d request it at family holidays, and I started making it for pretty much every Christmas, Thanksgiving, or family–get-together-of-any-kind. Once you have shrimp this way, you’ll never want to eat typical “shrimp cocktail” ever again. This is so yum. Try it and you’ll see!

Lowcountry Peel-n-Eat Shrimp

This is not a precise or fine-art recipe. Lots of people add other stuff too, so don’t hold back from experimenting. If you want to add whatever herbs and spices seem good to you, just go ahead and throw ’em in the pot. Here’s how I am currently doing it:

— 2 cans/bottles of beer. The darker the better, but use whatever you have.

— 3 lemons, quartered.

— Handful of chopped fresh parsley (or use a whole bunch of dried if you don’t have fresh).

— About 1/4 cup of Old Bay Seasoning.

— About 1 tablespoon of whole peppercorns.

— About 2 pounds shrimp. This should be de-headed, but with shell and tail on.

Put everything, except the shrimp, into a pot. Add just enough water so that the shrimp will be submerged once added (just eyeball it– but the less water, the better). Set the pot onto high heat, and bring to a rapid boil. Add shrimp. Stir to ensure that all of the shrimp are fully submerged. Bring back to a boil. Here is the tricky part: DO NOT OVERCOOK THE SHRIMP. The trick is to only leave the shrimp in until they are just starting to curl up. You do not want them to get so cooked that they are in tight circles– that is overcooked– you want them to be only curled a bit, not tight (look at the pictures above and below– notice: the shrimp aren’t tightly curled up). As soon as the shrimp appear to be starting to curl up, test one right away by cutting through it with a knife. It should be slightly curled, the texture should be tender (not at all tough), and it should be just barely cooked all the way through. If these are fresh shrimp, this will literally take less than a minute. If they have been previously frozen, or are very large, it might take up to 3 minutes. Quickly dump out the whole pot into a colander to remove the water. Dump out the shrimp onto a serving tray. You can eat these immediately (hot), or you can serve them at room temperature. You can also chill them. They can keep overnight in the refrigerator to serve the next day. They are great hot, room temperature, or served cold (or, if you want to be fancy, on ice)! Serve with fresh lemons to squeeze, cocktail sauce, and/or melted butter. Peel a shrimp, dip in the cocktail sauce (or butter), and enjoy! In the Lowcountry they are often served with no plates, and with newspapers as the “tablecloth” — that way when you peel them, you can just put the shells onto the table, and quickly clean it all up afterwards. They are so good with a cold glass of white wine or an icy beer! This is a great appetizer, or can be served as part of a main meal. They are also great with bloody marys for brunch!

Photos below– a shrimp boat off of Harbor Island the other day; Lowcountry Peel-n-Eat Shrimp (with a couple of steamed crabs on top) that we had for dinner the night before last.