Dirk's Favorite Shrimp & Marinade
If I could only only eat one type of seafood, I would be very sad and unhappy but my choice would wild Gulf of Mexico shrimp. There are so many recipes and ways to prepare shrimp that it would take you a lifetime to try them all. Simply steamed in the shell, popped on the grill, or in a paella are great but I always fall back on my favorite way to cook shrimp on the grill.
While there are hundreds of varieties of shrimp in the world, I think that wild gulf shrimp have the very best flavor and taste. The typical supermarket shrimp is a farm raised tiger shrimp. I have no problems with farm raised shrimp, if done in an ecologically correct way (there are many good farms) but the species, tiger shrimp, just does not have the right taste and texture for me. We only use wild gulf shrimp for our cooked and cleaned shrimp, which is one of our signature items. When I sample one those cooked shrimp to someone for the first time, they are always amazed by the taste!
You can even cook these shrimp ahead of time and serve them cold as an appetizer or for use in salads.
If you are serving a crowd and want to slow your guests down, serve shell on shrimp(I know, it's a little mean:)). If you want the simplest way to serve and eat shrimp and you like your guests, use a peeled shrimp!
Ingredients
You can use any size on the grill but here I think bigger is better just for ease of cooking and flipping. I like to use 10/15 to the pound shrimp. These can be shell on or peeled and deveined.
I figure about 1/2 pound per person as a main course. Cut that in half for appetizers.
Directions
Take peeled shrimp and soak them in the marinade for a couple of hours minimum. You can even do them overnight.Take them out of the refrigerator 45 minutes before cooking to warm to room temperature. About 15 minutes before cooking, remove the shrimp from the marinade and set aside in a bowl. Take the remaining marinade, place it in a small pan or pot on the grill (Tony's broiler pans work great) and bring it to a simmer and reduce until thickened.
Don't burn it! Set aside.
Now lay your shrimp on the grill in a row, by the time you place the last shrimp down it will be time to flip the first one. Shrimp cook for about 2 minutes per side on a hot grill.
Remove from grill and use your reduced marinade as a dipping sauce or just pour it over a plate of hot shrimp. You will have to be sure to get yours first because they won't last long!
My personal favorite marinade on shrimp would have to be our Te-kill-ya Chili marinade that we sell at the shop. That's the marinade in the picture. Other marinades work well but almost always I'm using this one!