Why You Should Never Throw Out Your Shrimp Shells
Kardea Brown’s tip will take your seafood game to the next level.
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As a Charleston native, Kardea Brown knows a thing or two about cooking with shrimp. South Carolina is home to the white shrimp variety, which, according to Kardea, is “the sweetest shrimp on earth.” In an all-new episode of Delicious Miss Brown, Kardea shares one of the ways she uses the shells of this delicious crustacean to add even more flavor to her seafood.
In this episode, Kardea invites a friend over to sit by the creek and share a great meal. Her menu includes a Seafood Salad Roll, a “very simple” dish that Kardea says is traditionally made with “some type of seafood, mayo, maybe some Dijon, and a little bit of veggies.” Kardea adds her Lowcountry spin to this classic dish by making a shrimp stock to “infuse some flavors inside the seafood.”
While the idea of making a shrimp stock from scratch might sound like a long process, Kardea’s version only takes about 10 minutes. She starts by bringing a pot of water to a boil and then adds her ingredients. She adds a whole lemon, since it goes “really well with seafood,” celery, which is “normally found in stocks,” a whole white onion, peppercorn, fresh parsley, and “heavy pinches of seafood seasoning” to ensure the stock packs plenty of flavors.
Her final ingredient? Shrimp shells! “Don’t discard the shells,” she says. “The shells have a lot of flavor in them so you can use that to make your stock.” Kardea uses this flavorful stock to cook her shrimp, but the bold flavors that the shells add are a great complement to any seafood dish.
“Once that comes to a boil, I’m going to turn it down, remove the contents on the inside and drop my shrimp in there,” she continues. “The shrimp, again, does not take long at all to cook, maybe 5 minutes, that’s it.” The natural flavors of the shrimp will intensify as they cook in the stock, leaving you with “meaty, sweet” and all-around delicious seafood!
To get even more of Kardea’s tips don’t miss new episodes of Delicious Miss Brown, Saturdays at 12p|11c.
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