Cooking question..
 

I had no idea where to post this, general, life, or somewhere else, so I chose general.

Anyways, I'm fairly new to the whole cooking situation, and I'm making a stir fry tonight. I have some frozen shrimp I was gonna cook and de-shell and fry up with some green and orange peppers, mushrooms, soy sauce and teriyaki sauce, then put it all over white rice and put crunchy noodles on top.

My question was, will the shrimp be enough protien or should i cut up a piece of chicken to go with it? I'm making the stir fry for 2-3 people.

Thanks guys!

The shrimp should be just fine. I like to make veggie stir fry when people come over and they either really like it or are really good at sparing my feelings. What oil are you using? Do you have a wok?

I don't have a wok, and I hadn't even thought of oils. We have canola and veggie oil in the cupboard. As I said I planned to kinda throw them in the frying pan with soy sauce and teriyaki sauce. The shrimp i have to cook in boiling water so i can de-shell them.

I personally like to throw some peanut oil in before I start adding everything else. Not only does it help stuff not stick, it also adds a nice Asian taste and it helps the consistency a lot. Then again, I don't usually use mushrooms. Just my $0.02.

Hmmm we don't have peanut oil, but I'll definitly put a little oil in the pan, that will probably help it not stick and stuff to, or should I just throw some margarine in?

Cook in oil, add the flavoring sauces later on. Veggie oil ought to be fine. Olive oil has too low a smoke point, and will add flavors you don't intend. Don't use too much. Tablespoon or so.

You don't have to boil the shrimp before shelling them. What I'd do is, peel the shrimp raw, heat up a little oil (but don't let it smoke), toss the shrimp in there, and stir-fry them until the shrimp are more or less cooked. Then add the tougher veggies (zucchini, peppers, etc) and whatever aromatics you're using (onions, garlic, etc). Finish up with the more fragile veggies or the things you don't want wilted too badly (sprouts, herbs, etc). I'd serve just like that, with sauces on the side.

You'll be fine doing this in a frying pan. If you get into making this sort of dish, you'll want a wok before long, but it can totally be done in a flat pan.

Hmm alright, should i just run the shrimp under some water to thaw them then?

You said you have frozen shrimp, and that you are serving 2-3 people, but you didn't say how much shrimp you have.

A lot. A big bag of like 50.

Sorry, I missed the "frozen" part. The concerns about thawing meat go double for shellfish.

Thawing them in cold running tap water is the fastest thing. If you have time, you could thaw them in a container of water in the fridge. Do NOT thaw them in a microwave or at room temperature.

How big are these shrimp? Shrimp are coded by a one- or two-part number that describes the number of them in a pound. 31/35's have between 31 and 35 shrimp per pound, for instance. You also find terms ranging from "extra small" to "large" to "jumbo" to "colossal".

EDIT: Of course, you've probably thawed, cooked, and eaten them by the time I got back to this thread.... :\

Yup. They are average size for shrimp, smalish when cooked. I fried them and put everything in and such it was fantastic. Thanks for all the advice guys!

Our pleasure! :thumbsup:

too late on this to be helpful, but for future reference, make sure you don't overcook the shrimp (we antipodeans call them prawns). I'd probably fry them first, then set them aside while I stir fried the vegies, then re-add them right at the end.

There is a difference between shrimps and prawns: LINK

I stand corrected, though I guess the difference from a cooking perspective would be small.