Maine Shrimp

Season is basically over - very small quotas this year - so I was only able to get fresh the last two Saturdays.

Last weekend I used the Union Square Cafe recipe for shrimp risotto:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3073146300331.144917.1013867676&type=1&l=53a8fd6e10

Yesterday I made Shrimp & Grits, more or less using the Lee Bros recipe:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3121268463355.145547.1013867676&type=1&l=8fb4113356

This afternoon I’ll make a ceviche appetizer. Tomorrow, shrimp & linguine.

Chris,

Is that a bottle of Chehalem in the risotto pictures? Did you just cook with it, or drink it also?

Nice Chris!!

Are these things, something new to sustainable food, supply?

I cant wait to try mine!!

I cooked with that one and surely sipped on it, too - I can’t even tell if that is a gris or a blanc. With the shrimp & grits I wanted an unoaked Chard so I opened the 2010 Chehalem INOX. Always been a big fan of the winery - especially the whites. (I think of Chehalem sort of being to the Willamette Valley what Navarro is to the Anderson Valley.)

I love Maine Shrimp and there are strict limits on the annual harvests, so there are sometimes very short seasons. They are tiny and sweet. I don’t understand why they have yet to get the kind of following that, for instance, Dungeness Crab has in the Pacific Northwest. (In some of the years in which large harvests were allowed, price declines ended the harvests before they reached quota. Crazy.)

Just got back from my local whole foods and they had Maine shrimp. I was interested by I’d never heard of them before. Funny too by my wife was asking for shrimp risotto tonight but I convinced her to do pork chops.

Last week I saw them at my local Whole Foods, too - which was the first time I’d ever seen them in a local supermarket.

I did also see that they were on one of the local restaurant menus (Bill Taibe’s new and fabulous The Whelk).

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3128106474301.145702.1013867676&type=3&l=a1a935a883

I buy them out of a fisherman’s truck who comes down @ 3 pounds for $12. Unlike the Whole Food which washes them, I get the orange roe attached which I like.

That’s what I love about getting them from the guy at the Farmer’s Market (Pemaquid Lobster) - can get them whole, headless, or peeled, depending on what I need. Got 3 pounds of frozen to have off season a few tmes. You are lucky to get them down where you are!

Chris - Have you tried the Stonington red shrimp from deep waters? I think they are the sweetest shrimp going. … http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1031&context=wracklines&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Furl%3Fsa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3Dstonington%2520red%2520shrimp%26source%3Dweb%26cd%3D1%26ved%3D0CCkQFjAA%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fdigitalcommons.uconn.edu%252Fcgi%252Fviewcontent.cgi%253Farticle%253D1031%2526context%253Dwracklines%26ei%3DLLRBT8irNYLw0gHf54HfBw%26usg%3DAFQjCNE0fz1RL8tH0SMEIejSBox1ZuuNXA#search="stonington%20red%20shrimp" …Gary

I haven’t (that I recall), but thanks for reminding me of them, Gary. Somebody had a Stonington Shrimp CSA plan a couple of years ago - I passed on it, and they had completely faded from my mind until you mentioned. I’ll look into them again.

I love Maine and all its bounties of the sea. We have a cabin in a lobster village, and IMO, I eat better there than any place in the world, France included (though a week in Brittany in 1990 was pretty close). Having said that and feeling that, I do think Maine shrimp are a weak link. They are a pain to eat, a la crawfish, as there is little meat to the weight. And, they are very very easy to overcook…a minute’s steaming is about it. To use them in a dish, they have to be picked. Buying them picked in Maine is iffy…many places that sell them as meat add a chemical similar to those added to scallops. Then, those that don’t…are used, even by me, before I fouind out, rinsed off. It rinses away much of the flavor.

I’ve frozen the fresh shucked, no preservative meats and they have almost always disappointed those being served them. The meat turns mushy. Freezing them whole is even worse.

Eating them barely steamed fresh out of the sea is good. The rest of the ways very iffy. (Though restaurants will bread and fry the frozen meats.)

This is the local cooperative that fishes them and picks them and will send them wherever. Impeccable. http://www.portclydefreshcatch.com/productcart/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=4

Even in Maine, though, chefs rarely really mess with them. Even the “following” in Maine is not that great. There are much better seasonal seafoods to clamor for: scallops, clams, etc.

To be clear, I like them, but other than freshly steamed (barely steamed or they will turn to rubber)…and just picked, I’ve most often been disappointed with them, as much as I cherish Maine and its bounty.

FWIW.

I love native shrimp season. I’m on the NH coast and during the short season, these shrimp can be found in every fish market and even in larger grocery stores. They are a pain to clean, but when they are plentiful, they can be dirt cheap. My local grocery store was selling them for $1 a pound. I made some shrimp stock after eating a bunch for dinner one night, but then forgot about it…was going to make a risotto.

Curious, who sells these and when is the season?

Stuart,

I picked mine up from Port Clyde, they are dated and packaged peeled and frozen… But they have this pink liquid in the bag with them? Curious as to what this is?

Paul, I have gone there at Xmas time and watched them pick them (“peel them”). The liquid is just water. The color from teh shells leeches out into that water. I used to buy the packets freeze them for use later in the year, at home in PA. I stupidly rinsed them, before I learned that that is where most of the flavor is.

I would have tried more this Xmas, but…the season was shortened, as the supply is threatened. They’ve had to cut back shrimp and Maine scallop season, too, this year. Always concerning.

Stonington Seafood Harvesters(Bomster family (860) 535-8342) has them when in season which I believe is sometime early summer through mid Fall. They were the folks that started the shrimp business in this area but then handed it over to others as they have a thriving sea scallop business to take care of. Their scallops are shucked, cleaned, vacuum sealed, and flash frozen onboard ship and now highly desired by restaurants from MA to NY. If you’re interested in the red shrimp I would call the Bomsters and ask when the season is and how to get them…Gary

Thanks…Gary

Here is my take on Ceviche :

Paully’s Ceviche

1/2 lb Maine Shrimp
1 lime juiced
1/4 orange juiced
1/4 Serrano minced fine
1 medium shallot minced fine
Celery and Pomegranates to taste

parsley and pepper to finish, allow to sit two hrs

What I really like is the sweetness provided by Pomegranates and the crunch of celery, the texture of the firmed shrimp…

Enjoy with Frito Scoops ( this is the salt )

Perfect for Lent, right Chris Freemott??

We try and stick to Lent practices too…

Last year I gave up Soda( never to return )… this yr wine ( yikes )

Happy Fat Tuesday…Bro