Frying things is easy. I don't know why people are so scared of it. Fried shrimp are particularly easy because you have such a small amount of oil. I had some shrimp I had gotten on sale that I needed to make. This took about ten minutes from beginning to end.
This is my set up. A paper towel lined plate, the bowl of shrimp, an empty bowl to keep the shrimp shells, and a bowl with a half cup each of: masa, cornmeal, and all purpose flour with a dash of salt and pepper. This is the way Chris Hastings of Hot and Hot fries things, so I followed his delicious lead.
In a flat skillet, I put about an inch of oil, and turned it up to burner six, which is medium-high heat. I wanted to oil to be around 350 degrees.
This is the bowl of shrimp and the breading.
You can't have fried shrimp without a good cocktail sauce! For mine, I used a tablespoon of horseradish, three tablespoons of ketchup, a half teaspoon of Lea and Perrins, the juice of one lemon, and a couple of dashes of the ultra salty fish sauce. You can add more horseradish if you like. I would recommend it, though because the flavor of horseradish is glorious.
I tossed the cleaned shrimp into my flour mixture, and mixed until each one was coated. I actually ended up tossing these through a colander because my bowl wasn't quite big enough not to make a huge mess. That worked very well in ensuring that each shrimp was generously coated with the breading.
Freeze your shells and use them to make a shrimp bisque. I'm saving mine for the next time I make gumbo!
Here, you see the top part of the shrimp is barely covered. Toss them in the oil where they are not touching, and fry each side two to three minutes depending on how large your shrimp are. I think mine would be considered small.
This is what my pound of fried shrimp looked like when done. Toss about a teaspoon of salt over the top of them when the come out of the oil.
These fried shrimp are delicious, quick, and easy. I hope you enjoy using my recipe. Let me know your results!
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