This past weekend, I thought I’d try Grandmama Morton’s method for frying shrimp to take to our monthly family pot luck dinner.
I started with shrimp, salt, pepper, cornmeal and vegetable oil.
The seafood market we bought the shrimp from took the heads off for me. But, I had to peel and devein them (with the help of my mom).
The cleaned shrimp were seasoned lightly with salt and black pepper. I’d like to try adding cayenne pepper one time but I like to do a recipe without any modifications the first time.
The shrimp were dredged in cornmeal. I did not dip them in egg or milk anything first. The trick here is to get a light breading on the shrimp.
I heated about 1/2 an inch of vegetable oil in a cast iron skillet and dropped the shrimp in the oil to fry for about five minutes or until they were golden. Once they were golden, I removed them from the pan and drained them on paper towels.
And, here is a photo of the whole batch of fried shrimp. They were a big hit at the reunion. By the time I got my plate, they were almost gone.
I’m not the world’s biggest fan of fried shrimp (that would probably be Matthew) but I have to say that these shrimp were very tasty. The light breading and seasoning allowed you to actually taste the shrimp and they were not greasy at all.
