The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern_ Knockout Dishes With Down-Home Flavor - Matt Lee [15]
2 Put the shrimp in the bowl of a food processor and add the remaining ¼ teaspoon salt, the butter, lemon juice, sherry, and black pepper. Pulse until the mixture becomes a fine-textured spread, about ten 5-second pulses. Season to taste with lemon juice, salt, and black pepper, if necessary, pulsing again to incorporate.
3 Transfer the pâté to a large ramekin or a small bowl, pat plastic wrap directly on the surface to prevent oxidation, and refrigerate for no more than 2 days.
4 Remove the pâté from the refrigerator 10 minutes before serving, to let it soften. Serve as a spread with crackers, celery sticks, or toasted baguette slices.
notes on deveining shrimp ••• The “vein” of a shrimp is its digestive tract, which is flavorless, harmless to eat, and doesn’t pronouncedly affect its flavor or its texture; still, some eaters detect a certain grittiness when it hasn’t been removed. Whether or not you devein shrimp is a matter of personal preference. We do it when presentation is paramount and, in the case of this shrimp pâté, it is. You can devein raw shrimp with the shell on or off, but larger shrimp with tough shells may require shelling first. Either way, the technique is the same: hold the shrimp between your thumb and forefinger one-third of an inch behind where the head was cut off. Place the tip of a sharp paring knife with the blade facing up in the slight indentation at the top of the shrimp body (which may or may not have a dark spot of vein marking it), and push the blade toward the tail, making a shallow incision the length of the shrimp’s back. This will expose the dark vein, which you can then remove with the tip of a paring knife.
shrimp shopping notes ••• In our books, shrimp always appear in the ingredients list as “headless shrimp, shells on.” That’s because fish markets and supermarkets commonly sell fresh shrimp as such, so finding them is easy. Also, leaving the shells on until you’re ready to use the shrimp keeps them from losing their natural moisture, thus retaining both flavor and texture. And the shrimp shells themselves bear a bounty of flavor, so we often use them to make shrimp broth.
Buy shrimp only according to the count per pound, and never by descriptions such as “large” or “medium.” We’ve found these descriptions to fluctuate from shop to shop. A good fish market will always know the count per pound of each variety of shrimp it offers. These are average numbers, of course, which is why they are always expressed as a range. If the market does not know the piece-per-pound count, ask them to place a dozen or so on a scale to determine how much they weigh. The size we favor for most of our recipes—unless specified otherwise—is 26 to 30 shrimp per pound, which is generally considered “large.” Don’t be tempted to buy jumbo shrimp if large or even medium are equally fresh. We find jumbos can be rubbery on the outside by the time the inside is cooked through, so unless the jumbos are the freshest variety in your market, go for “large” (26–30/pound) instead.
Wherever you shop for fish, demand fresh shrimp caught wild in American waters. Much of the shrimp sold in American markets comes from farms on the far side of the Pacific Ocean, where it is frozen and then shipped to wholesale markets in the United States. These shrimp are damaged by their long journey, and you can often tell simply by looking at them: the meat will be flaking from freezer burn, the shells turning opaque and falling off. This severely affects the flavor, texture, and the appearance of your dish. And while it goes without saying that when you encounter several varieties of shrimp at the market, you should buy the shrimp that looks freshest,