We love to eat shrimp. When it’s cooked just right over hot coals, it melts in your mouth- succulent, rich, and buttery. Ordering shrimp out can be a bit risky; sometimes it arrives perfectly cooked and delicious, but just as often, it comes to the table rubbery with a vein of shrimp shit running through it.
To mitigate the risk, we prefer to prepare them ourselves. However, it’s not a simple task; they are covered in armor plating that must be carefully removed. Next, each one needs to be slowly and deliberately butterflied and rinsed to eliminate the waste vein. Only then can they be oiled and seasoned for the grill.
“Barbecue may not be the road to world peace, but it’s a start.” – Anthony Bourdain
When we come down to hang out on Galveston Bay during shrimp season, we rarely get through a week without barbecuing a mess of shrimp. Whether served solo straight off the grill, paired with a big steak, or mixed into a jambalaya, it’s hard to resist Gulf of America shrimp. Eating shrimp is the fun, easy part; prepping them, not so much.
I shoot for a relaxed Zen meditation vibe to completely immerse myself in the process of turning the shellfish into food. Once I have my breathing set in a nice rhythm, I run a sharp knife up the underside of the shrimp as I shift them from one pile to another. Then I shuck off their exoskeleton again, moving them from one pile to another. Using the sharp knife I butterfly each little crustacean, again moving them from pile to pile.
“The feeling that any task is a nuisance will soon disappear if it is done in mindfulness.” – Thich Nhat Hahn
The final step is to remove the dark, stringy digestive tract, which is the least pleasant part of the process, but think about the alternative. Now it’s time to fire up the grill and make magic!
