Shrimp and Onion Medley

Shrimp Cocktail
Ingredients:
400g (about 1/2Lb.) of uncooked shrimp, shell removed, sheel on the tail left on
water
vegetable steamer

Directions:
Place the vegetable steamer in a small to medium sized pot and fill the pot up with water to right bellow the bottom of the vegetable steamer. Place the shrimp in the vegetable steamer and turn the stove top on to the highest temperature. Cover the pot. Set a timer for 3 minutes. After 3 minutes check to see if the shrimp have attained their pink color, if not, depending on how much grey is left, let the shrimp steam for another 3 minutes, or until they are fully pink. Quickly remove them from the steamer at this point and place them in a bowl with ice water. This is make sure that the shrimp do not continue to cook and become rubbery.

Serve with some lemon and salt, or with cocktail sauce.

Beer Battered Shrimp & Onions
Ingredients:
400g (about 1/2Lb.) of uncooked shrimp, shell removed, sheel on the tail left on
1 large sweet Onion, cut into large rings
Vegetable Oil for frying
1 Cup of unbleached Flour
Salt
Onion Powder

Marinade
1/4 Cup Worchestershire sauce
1/2 Cup Lemon Juice (Juice of 1 large Lemon)
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Pepper

Batter
700mL (24Oz.) of Beer *choose a beer with a strong flavor that you would not mind drinking; avoid light beers or "watery-flavored" beers
2 Cups unbleached Flour
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Paprika

Directions:
In a medium-large bowl, carefully pour in the beer and makesure it does not foam too much (or you will be cleaning it off of your counter top instead of making bater with it). *Take a sift* and pour the flour through to make sure that the flour does not clump up in the beer. Whisk in the four. Pour the Baking Powder through the shift to make sure it does not clump. Pour the Paprika through the shift to make sure it does not clump. Whisk together. Place the batter in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Marinate the shrimp in the marinade for at least 30 minutes (in the refrigerator).

Heat the oil in a pot to 365°F. Make sure that the Oil is at least 4 inches deep and that the side of the pot are about 4-5 inches higher than the level of oil in the pot.

Remove the Batter from the refrigerator and whisk again.

Place the 1 Cup of Flour on a small plate. When the oil is hot enough for frying, remove 1 shrimp from the marinade and roll it in the *flour on the plate, dip it in the batter, and then carefully place it in the oil. Let it fry for about 1-2 minutes and then remove it with tongs. Try this with only 1 shrimp at a time until you get the hang of it, then you can do 2 shrimp at a time. I know it sems tedious to only do 2 at a time, and if you have a larger pot, you can do more at a time, it just requires a lot of coordination and timing to take the shrimp out in time. Also, regularly scoop loos batterout of the oil to prevent it from burning.

Place fried shrimp on a plate with paper towel on it in order to soak up some of the oil dripping from the shrimp.

Onion Rings
Directions:
This recipe usues the same batter as the Beer Battered Shrimp; there should be enough for the shrimp and the onion rings.
Place the Onions that you have cut into rings in the marinade from the shrimp (after you have fried the shrimp). Remove 1 onion ring and roll it around in Flour, dip in batter, and then place carefully in the frying oil. Depending on the settings of your stove stop, the temperature of the Oil may needto be lowered slightly to allow the onion within the batter to actually cook, or you will be eating raw battered onion rings. The onion rings need approximatley 7 minutes to completely cook, turning once within those 7 minutes so that each side browns.

Place fried onion rings on a plate with paper towel on it in order to soak up some of the oil dripping from the onion rings. Sprinklewith some salt and garlic powder.

*It is VERY important that you roll the shrimp and the onion rings in the flour before you dip them in the batter. The flour will allow the batter to stick to the shrimp/onion ring while it is frying. You can do a test to see what happenes if you don'tpre-roll them in oil. Basically, the batter fries off of the shrimp/onion ring and does not puff up.

I recomend drinking a small amount of alcohal or eating a salad with vinegar on it to help digest this greesey meal, but it is not a necessary step.

Fried Pickles
Although not pictured above, you can make fried pickles similar to how you make the onion rings. Just use large pickles that are cut in half length-wise, roll the pickles in flour, dip them in batter, and fry them. Only allow them to frylong enough to toastthe batter becausethe pikle will start to disintegrateif it stays in too long.