Food - Drink
Ina Garten's Cooking Tip For More Flavorful Shrimp Salad
By JENNIFER SWEENIE
Boiling is the usual way to cook shrimp for cold preparations like shrimp salad, and because the shrimp becomes somewhat mild and bland, the main source of flavor is almost always the dressing or sauce. Celebrity chef Ina Garten, however, uses a cooking method that infuses plenty of flavor into the shrimp from the get-go.
As seen on her show "Barefoot Contessa," Garten places peeled, deveined shrimp on a sheet pan, adds a drizzle of olive oil and a generous seasoning of salt and pepper on top, then gives it a toss to coat. She then pops the pan in the oven to cook, then adds the shrimp to the salad dressing while still warm so they absorb the sauce.
This method adds flavor in two ways: through roasting, which concentrates the shrimps' flavor much better than boiling, plus the addition of more fat and seasonings in the final dish. Adding olive oil, salt, and pepper before cooking the shrimp creates more layers of flavor, compared to just sprinkling seasoning over the final salad.
