Shrimp are delivered to supermarket shelves every day, where they are picked apart by consumers, often without paying much attention to the product. Of course, because juicy sweet and salty shrimp goes well with refreshing drinks, goes with low-calorie salads and simply delights you with its original taste on an ordinary day. And with all this, the protein product is extremely important for building muscle mass, and iodine and zinc are for the normal functioning of the thyroid gland.
So let's figure out which shrimps you can really eat and which ones you can't even feed to a cat. Yes, yes, manufacturers can also be unscrupulous, especially when it comes to frozen shrimp. In a thick layer of icy glaze, it’s hard to understand what they’ve given you, but there’s still one indicator – the color of the shrimp’s head. Is a pinkish or red head always good and a black head always bad?
What's in a shrimp's head?
What is the black part of a shrimp's head? Some people believe that this place contains sweet and healthy caviar. Others believe that this area contains waste products that should never be consumed.
To understand this issue, you need to delve into the features of the anatomy of sea crustaceans. The head of a shrimp is a space covered on the outside with a shell. This is where the digestive and respiratory organs, parts of the nervous system and secretory glands are located.
Summer Olympics 2008 in Beijing
The Games of the XXIX Olympiad 2008 in Beijing will be held from August 8 to August 24, 2008. The Russian delegation will consist of 843 people, of which 467 are athletes. Doctors and massage therapists make up 80 people.
You can learn about the Olympic Games in Beijing 2008 on the following Internet resources:
- komanda2008.ru
is the official Internet representation of the Russian national team in Beijing. This single online information resource for Russian fans, athletes and the media at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad in 2008 will allow Russians not only to follow the victories of the Russian team online, but also to support our team at the Olympic Games in Beijing. The most current news, photographs, video reports, schedule and results of the Russian team at the 2008 Olympic Games - sport-express.ru
— The latest news from the 2008 Olympic Games. Information about the performance of the Russian National Team, calendar and results of games, news, photo gallery, newspaper materials, medal standings, broadcasts of competitions. - sovsport.ru
- News, calendar and competition results, text broadcasts. - olymp2008.yandex.ru
- Section dedicated to the Olympics on Yandex. News, photos, competition calendar, number of medals of the Russian team. - en.beijing2008.cn
- Official website of the Beijing Olympic Games (English, Chinese, French, Spanish) - olympic.org
- Official website of the International Olympic Committee (English, French) - olympic.ru
— Official website of the Russian Olympic Committee - pekingames.ru -
a site about the XXIX Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, which will be held from August 8 to August 24, 2008. Competition results, opinions and comments - olymps.ru
- website dedicated to the Olympic Games - olimpiada-2008.ru
- news of the 2008 Summer Olympics - news.sportbox.ru
- Olympics news on the Sport TV channel - china.openup.ru
- information about the cities where the 2008 Summer Olympics will be held, programs, sports complexes, competition dates - sportmanagement.ru
- a selection of articles about Beijing 2008 - olympichistory.info
- Beijing 2008 on the website dedicated to the Olympic Games - olimpteam.ru
- Olympic Games 2008 on the website of fans of the Russian national team at the Olympic Games - 2008pekin.ru
- game calendar, game schedule, Beijing hotels - olimpticket.ru
- selling tickets to Beijing
Additional from Guenon:
- Where can I find out about the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics?
- Where can I find out about the 2012 Summer Olympics?
- Where can I find out about the 2014 Winter Olympics?
Black part of the head
The black stripe on the head of the crustacean represents the digestive tract: stomach and intestines. In the wild, shrimp are omnivores. Therefore, parasite eggs and harmful microorganisms are often present in their stomach.
The intestines constantly contain waste products that give the meat an unpleasant bitter taste. Therefore, when eating seafood, you need to get rid of parts of the digestive tract. When cleaning the product, unwanted organs can be easily identified as they are black in color.
Have you seen an unconscious person on the street? The first three actions that are taught in the Ministry of Emergency Situations
Myths and truth about Lent: what a believer should know
Suits with miniskirts and other trendy looks for spring 2021: photos
Wait, but they... aren’t digestible, are they?
Digested. And they eat very tasty. Especially if you lightly coat them in cornstarch and salt and then deep fry them. If they grind your teeth unpleasantly, this can also be dealt with. This method is used in countries such as Japan and China, where they know a lot about cooking seafood. Just use kitchen scissors and remove the black vein from the shrimp that creates that nasty crunch. Also get rid of the longest pair of antennae. All is ready.
Now fry it all using some aromatic spices like coriander. And please eat with your hands. It tastes much better this way.
Should the head be removed?
A Vietnamese expert does not recommend completely getting rid of shrimp heads. This part of the seafood has many beneficial properties. It contains a sufficient amount of meat.
In addition, the eggs are located in the head of the crustacean. This is a healthy product that enhances the taste of shrimp. Raw caviar is gray in color, but after boiling it turns reddish-brown.
Therefore, there is no need to completely remove the shrimp head. It would be too wasteful. When preparing seafood, you need to remove the skin along with the black part, but leave the body and most of the head.
However, this method is only suitable for large shrimp. If you are preparing small crustaceans, then the black part is removed after boiling. This way it comes off much easier.
Shrimp - how to choose
Oleg, it’s easy to get lost in all the diversity of the shrimp world. How many types of shrimp are there and how do they differ? There are about 2000 species of shrimp . They can all be divided into two groups - cold-water and warm-water. Externally, they differ in size - cold-water ones are much smaller.
Are cold-water shrimp our common shrimp? You can say that. The most commonly found shrimp are northern red shrimp, with northern chilim and red comb shrimp also common. By the way, they are red even when raw. These shrimp are boiled alive in sea water and immediately frozen after boiling. You can distinguish a boiled shrimp from a raw one by its tail: a boiled one has a curl, while a raw one has a straight tail. But here it is important to know that northern shrimp are supplied to Russia only boiled frozen, and such shrimp have a straight tail - a sign that the shrimp was already cooked when it was dead. An interesting point - Russian fishermen shrimp , but supply them to the USA, South Korea and Japan, and we buy shrimp caught by the Danes and Canadians, they say it is profitable from an economic point of view. Another nuance concerns the size or “caliber” of the shrimp. On the packaging you can find the following numbers - 50/70 (pieces per kilogram - editor's note), 70/90 and 90/120. The larger the number, the smaller the shrimp. So, cold-water shrimp are small, and size 70/90 is already rare for them. Therefore, I advise you to buy 90/120 caliber shrimp, all the others have more ice than meat.
So we have to be content with the smallest shrimp? Small doesn't mean bad. On the contrary, the smaller the shrimp, the juicier their meat and the brighter their taste. For this reason, I like northern shrimp much more than tropical ones. Moreover, cold-water shrimp are caught in their natural habitat, while warm-water shrimp are grown on an industrial scale on farms.
Are you saying that warm water shrimp are inferior? I would say that they are not for everyone, and besides, it is really easy to get confused when choosing them. For example, “king” shrimps do not exist in nature. All large warm-water shrimp , with the exception of tiger shrimp, so named because of the specific color of the shell. Different countries have their own king prawns - there are white Pacific, Indian, Chinese, Japanese sweet shrimp, Atlantic red and even giant freshwater shrimp that live in Southeast Asia. But only 20% of the total king prawns are caught in their natural habitat. The remaining 80% comes from farms where shrimp are bred in special ponds.
Where do king prawns come from in Russia? We mainly source shrimp grown in China, India and Bangladesh. Farmed shrimp are always larger than wild shrimp, and the manufacturer’s packaging should indicate that this is a product of aquaculture. Boiled frozen king prawns are sold in three types - uncut, with the shell without a head, or completely peeled. By the way, despite its impressive size - 25-30 cm in length, the meat in a king prawn is only 30% of the total weight, the rest is the head.
Are tiger shrimp farmed too? To a lesser extent than king shrimp, but farmed tiger shrimp are supplied to Russia. Black tiger shrimp are brought from India and China, and ordinary shrimp are brought from Indonesia and Thailand. They differ in color - ordinary ones have dark stripes on a light carapace, while black ones have the opposite. The size of tiger prawns is even larger than that of king prawns - 30-35 cm, and meat is 50% of the total weight. These shrimp are sold raw, with or without heads. They look very impressive with the head on, and are often used to decorate dishes.
What's so scary about farmed shrimp? Some people do not like the taste that shrimp grown on artificial feed acquires. Some are afraid that they are being bred using stimulants, dyes and antibiotics. I just like northern shrimp better - they are tastier and have much more nutrients. But all this is true only if the shrimp is fresh.
What should fresh shrimp taste like? Fresh shrimp must be properly frozen. The coloring should be even, the ice glaze should be thin, and the tail should be pressed against the belly. White spots on the shell or snow flakes in the package mean that the shrimp have been defrosted several times. Pay attention to the shrimp's head, if there is one. Pregnant shrimp have a brown head; their meat is the most delicious and healthy. A green head indicates that the shrimp fed on algae and a special type of plankton. But a black head indicates a serious illness; eating such a shrimp is dangerous to health. Black spots on the shell are also unacceptable.
Squid - how to choose There are about two hundred species of squid in the world. Several dozen of them are commercial fisheries. But at most a dozen reach the shelves of our stores . See more...
Seafood recipes We have selected several recipes for you - with mussels, shrimp, octopus, cralmar, crayfish tails, seaweed and sea cocktail. See more...
Shrimp recipes
We have figured out the question of how to properly cook frozen shrimp, but there are other cooking recipes, because from them you can create simple hearty dishes or light savory snacks, or you can create an exquisite masterpiece that will delight your household and surprise your guests.
Tiger prawns with soy sauce
Defrost a kilogram of tiger fish in their shell, heat a frying pan, pour a little olive oil into it, and add shrimp. Fry them over low heat, stirring occasionally, for five minutes. Add three cloves of chopped garlic, pour in a little soy sauce and add lemon juice, simmer for another minute or two.
Serve immediately after cooking, placing on a large platter, garnishing with lemon slices and pouring over the resulting juice. A delicious snack to go with beer.
Shrimp skewers
This kebab will become a real decoration for the holiday table and is very good for health. Marinade for one kilogram of king prawns: take three tablespoons of olive oil, dry white wine, lemon juice and a drop of Tabasco sauce, add a pinch of salt, finely chopped herbs and garlic.
In a deep bowl, marinate the shrimp for six hours, then dry them on a paper towel. Next, fry them on the grill or coals for eight to ten minutes, turning often. Serve with fresh salad on skewers, tasty, beautiful and satisfying.
Mexican pilaf with shrimp
Take 150 grams of long grain rice and fry it in oil in a deep frying pan. Add 400 milliliters of water, spices and 2-3 large sliced tomatoes, bring the mixture to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes over low heat. Then add 350 grams of peeled shrimp and 200 grams of zucchini, cut into cubes, 100 grams of corn and olives cut into rings.
Simmer the entire mixture until the rice is completely cooked; before serving, sprinkle the dish with herbs and grated Cheddar cheese. Pilaf is served hot. Bon appetit!
