Wild Texas Shrimp ?

A new market in town is advertising wild Texas shrimp. Is there such a thing ? I have not bought shrimp in years because I have been terribly disappointed in the smell, taste, texture. Is this likey to be any different?
I am going to bite anyway only because everything else they have flown in from a Chicago distributor has been superb - mahi-mahi, sand dabs, mussels, snapper, salmon but wondered if anyone has any comments.

Christina,

The shrimping industry has been taking it on the chin from the shrimp farms. Enough so that the bulk of frozen shrimp out there have been imported in reefer containers from pacific rim counties.

So, as I understand it, the Texas Department of Agriculture has begun an advertising campaign pushing the gulf shrimping industry.

http://www.txshrimp.org/vgn/tda/texasshrimp/front/0,1129,602_0_0_0,00.html

Hope this helps,

Richard

Thanks Richard. This does indeed help me to understand the issue. Not sure that one can be assured it is wild as opposed to farmed. Plan to make the buy on Friday and will post after the meal.

[Jenise]

Christina, I've been buying same up here, and they're EXCELLENT. They make you realize that you've been eating farm-raised shrimp for far too long.

Great to have a first hand report. Thanks Jenise.
I've looked at your report on a grilled shrimp recipe - keffir lime/coconut - 2001. What are your recent shrimp dishes ? It has been years since I've cooked shrimp I'm a little shy.

We sell them regularly at Central Market. I agree with Jenise that they are very good. Ours are fresh and never frozen too. I hope that you can get yours fresh Christina.

rwj

[Jenise]

Christina, I loved that dish but haven't made it in years. Which you might guess--you seem to have cottoned onto the fact that my cooking is very phase-oriented. It's the rare new discovery that becomes a repeat as is. That Miroton is one. Mostly, I love new dishes, but move on.

So what am I doing with shrimp these days? Well, not a lot, but a flavor I suddenly can't get enough of is tarragon with shellfish. So for awhile this summer, I was getting some really nice large U15-20 IQF'd shrimp in 3 pound bags, peeled but uncooked. It was so easy to thaw them, salt, lightly poach and then chill them in a tarragon based vinaigrette. I'd add mild pickled peppers, strips of red or orange bell peppers and black olives, then turn the mix out on a platter as an appetizer. Always tasty and beautiful, and that licorice-y tarragon is always so exotic and unexpected. That led to further experimentation as a shrimp scampi to serve on rice or pasta, in a butter sauce anchored by white vermouth and capers, and the discovery that vermouth and tarragon have a wonderful affinity for each other.

Something I have learned in the intervening years is that peeled shrimp, generously salted only about a minute before they go into a poaching liquid, have an amazing briney sea flavor and snappier texture than unsalted shrimp. The wild gulf shrimp won't need that step, but it makes farm-raised shrimp taste a lot more like wild gulf shrimp.

Something I have learned in the intervening years is that peeled shrimp, generously salted only about a minute before they go into a poaching liquid, have an amazing briney sea flavor and snappier texture than unsalted shrimp. The wild gulf shrimp won't need that step, but it makes farm-raised shrimp taste a lot more like wild gulf shrimp.

Hold it, Jenise, I'm trying to write this down so I get it right: if you salt shrimp just before cooking them, when you're finished the shrimp will taste.....let's see....salty. There, have I got that right?

Seriously, though: When I was living in Dallas (then not exactly reknowned for its seafood quality) I preferred buying my shrimp from the back of pickup truck vendors. They caught them, iced them, drove up from the Gulf Coast, and sold them roadside. Some reporter in the local paper did an actual comparison of the roadside shrimp and the shrimp in the chain stores----not surprisingly to some, the roadside shrimp were biologically fresher than the grocery store stuff.

The Texas Gulf Coast has a long and rich shrimping history. After the influx of Southeast Asian refugees following the fall of Viet Nam, there were some tensions, reflectedin a movie with, as I recall, Ed Harris starring (?).

As to the onslaught of Pacific Rim shrimps, those can be vile stuff. In Viet Nam and Thailand the entrepreneurs often just dig tidal pools, load them up with shrimpy shrimps and let them breed, breed, breed. The pools get murkier and murkier with body wastes and detritus until they're a foul stinking sludge----then they just dig another tidal pool just down the beach and start all over again.

Doesn't that sound appetizing? yum

[Jenise]

Hold it, Jenise, I'm trying to write this down so I get it right: if you salt shrimp just before cooking them, when you're finished the shrimp will taste.....let's see....salty. There, have I got that right?

Thanks for being a turd. The POINT, Hoke, had to do with the cooking method--many would argue that the salt would wash off in the water and presalting the water would yield about the same result. But it doesn't.

Where there's a punchbowl...

I would assume the salt is being absorbed by the natural juices of the shrimp, whereas immersion into hot salty walter would "seal" up the shrimp and prevent absorption. But I really have no idea.