fried shrimp

on this trip home to new orleans, i decided i had to find a way to get some louisiana seafood back to los angeles with me. i actually bought a cute little cooler bag, and froze some shrimp we had gotten from the bayou that morning and some frozen crawfish tails and then put a couple freezer packs in the bag and everything was still frozen solid 6 hours later when i made it back to los angeles. so of course we had to have fried shrimp! [the others we made cheese and bacon wrapped shrimp that we put on the grill!]

Fried Shrimp

1 egg
tabasco
yellow mustard
zatarain's seasoning
shrimp fry

peel, de-vein, and butterfly your shrimp. make sure to wash them really well, then dry them. make sure to get as much of the moisture off of the shrimp as possible [this is the most important part]. this will allow the egg wash and batter to stick to the shrimp better and not fall off while frying.

mix the egg, about 10 shakes of tabasco, 2 - 3 good squirt overs of mustard, and about 2 shake overs of zatarain's seasoning. [by squirt and shake overs, i mean i usually gage by how big my bowl is, i shake and squirt lines across the whole bowl] the egg wash is mostly about color, you want it to be a yellow-orange color. if you are doing a lot of shrimp, you may want to add another egg.

put the shrimp in the egg wash, then toss a couple in the shrimp fry. make sure to get the batter in the butterfly of the shrimp and under the bottom of the shrimp, then place them on a platter.

heat your oil to 375 degrees, then use a small clump of batter to put in the oil to test if it is ready. if the batter floats after just a second or two of being in the oil, then you are ready to go. place a couple shrimp in, and fry for 3 - 5 minutes or until golden brown. let them hang over the oil for a minute to get some of the excess off, then lay them on a platter covered with 2 - 3 layers of paper towels.