Salmon. Crab. Shrimp. Oyster. Lobster. Mahi-mahi. Mackerel.
For millions of people, seafood is a metaphor for heaven.
Most international cuisines have special sections dedicated to seafood. This is always the case with coastal countries where seafood is readily available. Some cuisines, like the Japanese, mainly revolve around seafood. And how could an island country not largely depend on a seafood diet?
But geography is not the only reason why people eat seafood. Some countries, such as Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan, have no coasts whatsoever, but they still enjoy delicious local seafood dishes. So for what other reasons do people love seafood?
Firstly, according to some reports, about 20,000 fish species are in the oceans. Apart from a small percentage of them being poisonous, the rest makes a wide variety of edible fish.
Thanks to human creativity, there are hundreds of delicious ways to cook seafood. This makes the international seafood cuisine for seafood lovers something like Disneyland for kids— a non-stop pleasure.
And lastly, seafood is highly nutritious. It is the only food people can consume regularly and stay healthy and fit, for it is a good source of protein, healthy fats, and minerals. Seafood is also used to make supplements that people who don’t like fish or seafood can consume.
And one can never mention seafood without highlighting some fish that almost every seafood enthusiast loves. Take, for example, salmon. Found in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, it is highly nutritious and super tasty. Still, it happens to be incredibly expensive as well.
But don’t miss our Salmon recipe!
Likewise, shrimp is very popular, and millions of people worldwide enjoy it. Besides its delicious taste and the variety of ways it is cooked, shrimp is an excellent source of vitamin D and B12. It also provides the body with omega-3, which promotes brain health.
Not as expensive and much more accessible than salmon, shrimp can be cooked in many different (and scrumptious) ways. Today, we are sharing with you three delicious shrimp recipes from three different countries, and hopefully, they will provide you with a more indulging shrimp-eating experience.
So let’s hop into it.
Known in German as Granatkroketten (do not try to pronounce it!), these shrimp croquettes are crispy, fried, bread-coated appetisers that can be consumed along with other seafood dishes. It is incredibly easy to make and takes only 30 minutes (excluding a couple of hours of resting in the fridge).
This recipe uses the famous French bechamel sauce with a few more ingredients that give the final croquettes a unique, savoury flavour.
Ingredients
Recipe
First off, we prepare the shrimp. Place a large frying pan on medium-high heat and add the shrimp, unpeeled. This is to ensure the recipe gets a profound shrimpy taste. Add half a cup of water to the shrimp and just a pinch of salt. Make sure to stir the ingredients well. Cover the pan and let the shrimp cook for around six to eight minutes. Once they are fully cooked, take them off the heat, and set them aside for now.
Now, it’s time for the heavenly creamy bechamel sauce! Place a pot on medium-high heat and add two tablespoons of unsalted butter. Stir the butter until melted and make sure it is not burnt. Add the chopped green chilli and half a teaspoon of red chilli flakes and mix them with the melted butter. Then, add half of a finely chopped onion and stir it with the butter and the chilli mixture until translucent.
Now to the tricky yet most satisfying part. Add two tablespoons of all-purpose flour to the butter mixture. Carefully whisk the flour with the butter until they are thoroughly mixed and have turned into a paste. Add half a cup of full-cream milk, but wait! To prevent your bechamel sauce from lumping, add the milk gradually and mix it well with the flour/butter paste. Once you have added all the milk, add half a cup of shrimp stock. Now you see where this sauce is going, shrimpy in every way!
Stir the sauce until it becomes very creamy and un-lumpy. Then, add half a teaspoon of grated nutmeg, half a teaspoon of ground black pepper, and a small pinch of salt.
Add half a cup of shredded cheddar cheese; this will give the sauce a richer taste. Stir well until the cheese completely melts and gets blended with the sauce. Keep stirring and bring the sauce to a boil. By now, it should be thick and creamy. Take the sauce off the heat and put it aside.
Now back to the shrimp, which should have cooled completely. Peel them off and chop them well with an electric chopper (you can also use the knife, but this is way quicker). Once this is done, add the chopped shrimp to the bechamel sauce, and then add a quarter a cup of breadcrumbs with a quarter cup of finely chopped coriander. Mix all the ingredients well with a spatula. When they are all well blended, let them rest for a couple of hours in the fridge.
The final stage is here! Crack two large eggs in a small bowl and whisk them. Add a cup or so of breadcrumbs to a large oven tray, then take a small portion of the shrimp mixture and roll it. You can make it as big or small as you want. Coat the roll with eggs, then once again with the breadcrumbs. Keep doing that until you have a beautiful batch of shrimp croquettes.
Once your croquettes are ready, it is time to make them crispy! Add vegetable oil to a deep frying pan until it is one-third full, then place it on medium-high heat. Once the oil is heated, place as many croquettes as the pan can take, not too many though! You want to make sure that they are well-fried on both sides.
Fry the rolls until they are golden brown, then take them out of the pan and place them on a wire rack or a paper towel to drain any excess oil. Let the croquettes cool down for a few minutes, then serve them with ketchup, mustard, or any other sauce you choose.
This is a typical sweet-and-sour shrimp side dish.
In Japan, they call it Ebi no Chiri-Sōsu (again, don’t try to pronounce it). As the English name suggests, this dish has shrimp in red chilli sauce flavoured with ginger and garlic. So be prepared! It is incredibly savoury.
And yes, this is quite a spicy dish. So if you are not into spicy food but still want to try this particular —and luscious— shrimp dish, just make sure you have a cup of cold milk or a bowl of yoghurt nearby (just in case!).
Ebi no Chiri-Sōsu is a delicious dish and surprisingly easy to make. Interestingly, the recipe comes from China, but it is very popular in Japanese restaurants and is widely cooked in Japanese households as well.
This recipe uses the famous Japanese beverage, sake, so make sure you get hold of some. If this is unavailable, you can go on with the recipe without it. But just be aware that the dish will not taste exactly the same.
And without further ado, let’s hop into the recipe.
Ingredients
Recipe
First, peel the shrimp and make sure you cut the tail, then place them in a large bowl. Add one tablespoon of cornstarch and mix it well with the shrimp with your hands or a spatula. Wash the shrimp with fresh water to remove the starch. This helps the shrimp lose their odour. Finally, dry them using a paper towel.
Once the shrimp is all dry, place them in another bowl and add two tablespoons of sake, a pinch of salt, and half a tablespoon of cornstarch. Mix the ingredients well with the shrimp and set them aside for around seven to 10 minutes.
To make the chilli sauce. Add the ketchup, chilli paste, half a tablespoon of sake, one tablespoon of soy sauce, a little bit of sugar, half a cup of water, and half a teaspoon of sesame oil to a small bowl. Mix them well and set the sauce aside.
Place a frying pan on medium-high heat, then add one tablespoon of vegetable oil. Heat it, add the shrimp, and fry them on both sides until golden brown. Take the shrimp out of the pan and let them cool down on the side.
In the same frying pan, add one tablespoon of oil, the chopped onions, one tablespoon of finely chopped garlic, and one teaspoon of ginger. Stir and cook them for a minute or so, then add the chilli sauce you prepared earlier. Stir everything and bring the mixture to a boil. By that time, it should be a little thick.
Add the fried shrimp to the pan and mix them with the sauce. Make sure the sauce coats all the shrimp. Cook everything for two minutes, then turn off the heat. Place the Ebi no Chiri-Sōsu on a plate and serve hot.
Despite looking similar, scampi are different from shrimp. Well, it is something between lobsters and shrimp. In this recipe, scampi just makes up the name, but the recipe uses shrimp.
It seems like many countries have their own versions of cooking scampi. One of the most famous recipes is the American one. Yet, the one we are about to demonstrate is Italian, and we are cooking it along with spaghetti.
Like the Japanese recipe above, his recipe uses white wine but again, you can take it out and still enjoy a tasty spaghetti shrimp dish.
Ingredients
Recipe
Start with peeling the shrimp but leave the tail. Rinse them with water several times to lose a little bit of their odour, then dry them using paper towels.
Add two tablespoons of olive oil and one tablespoon of butter to a frying pan. Stir them until the butter has melted, then add the shrimp. Add a pinch of salt and a little bit of ground black pepper. Fry the shrimp until they become golden brown on both sides. Take the shrimp out of the pan and set them aside to cool down.
In the same frying pan, add two tablespoons of oil and two tablespoons of butter, mix until melted, then add four teaspoons of garlic. Stir the garlic well and cook it for a few seconds (make sure not to burn it), then add half a teaspoon of red chilli flakes, white wine, and one tablespoon of lime juice. Stir the sauce, lower the heat to medium, and let it cook for a few minutes.
While the sauce is cooking, fill two-thirds of a large cooking pot with water, add half a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of vegetable oil, cover it, and then bring it to a boil. Add the pasta and cook it for seven minutes or according to the directions on the package.
While the pasta is cooking, go back to the sauce and add the fried shrimp. Mix the shrimp with the sauce and let everything cook for a minute. Take the cooked pasta out of the pot and place it in the frying pan with the shrimp and sauce. Mix all the ingredients well, then sprinkle a little bit of chopped parsley.
Take the pan off the heat, place the shrimp spaghetti on plates, and serve hot. Bon appétit!
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