Whenever I write a shrimp recipe, I wonder if cooks will get the right size shrimp, peel and devein them, and then, if needed, cut them appropriately for prep. Shrimp are costly so I do my best to help cooks succeed. But let’s face it, with my recipes, you can’t just buy pre-cooked, pre-peeled shrimp. I often ask people to peel and devein shrimp and then cut them a certain way – split them horizontally for rice paper rolls, for example. That cut isn’t the norm for many English-language cookbooks.
Because cooks come to my recipes from all levels of cooking skill, I’d like to make sure that you have knowledge to help you make the most of my recipes and those of other folks. After writing up the shrimp shopping guide, which included some prep tips, I decided to follow-up with videos to highlight the nitty gritty aspects of shrimp prepping. We all learn by watching and doing so I hope after you watch these videos, you'll go to town on cooking up shrimp dishes! These are titled "Shrimp School" because unlike crab or lobsters, shrimp like to hang around in a crowded school.
How to Peel, Devein, and Refresh Shrimp
For tasty food, buy shell-on shrimp to peel and devein them yourself. It's not difficult, just a little dirty. I've made this video to walk you through three basic prep steps: peeling, deveining and refreshing. Why refresh shrimp? As I say in the video, it helps to restore a bit of the sea in the shrimp. What I didn't include is this: the flesh becomes a little snappier too!
This video and the following one should play on all browsers. There is no URL link. The videos are embedded via code on this webpage. If you have issues accessing the videos, refresh your browser. If you have an ad blocker activated for this site, try deactivating the ad blocker. Ad revenue helps me keep things going on this site. And, if the video prompts you to "stay" -- choose "stay" or it will jump to another video!
How to Cut Shrimp for Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls, Soup, Dumplings, and Batter Frying
Each time I write recipe instructions for cutting shrimp to slide into Vietnamese rolls, I hope cooks will understand what I mean by aiming for symmetric halves. The small nuggets for dumpling fillings may also trip folks up. There can be a lot of knife work for Asian food but once you figure them out, there's little stopping you from making incredible dishes loaded with wow factor.
To help you in your kitchen, I made this video with tips for four cuts that I use most often in my Asian recipe development. Practice these cuts for a future full of handsome Vietnamese goi cuon (aka summer rolls, spring rolls, rice paper rolls, and salad rolls). You'll find cut tip number 2 to be great for charming canh quickie soups, noodle soups, and other dishes. Tip number 3 for chopping shrimp is meant for well-filled pot stickers and dumplings of many kinds. The final shrimp cut tip reflects my love for batter-coated shrimp treats, such as Japanese shrimp tempura!
I've not covered every shrimp cut. If there's something I'm missing that you think others may want to know, ping me with a comment/suggestion. Meantime, there are two other Shrimp School-related posts:
- Mega Shrimp Buying Guide and Prep Tips
- 10 Asian Shrimp Recipes for a Crustacean Celebration
- Fried Torpedo Shrimp Banh Mi (I missed this cut but I think you'll get the picture)
