Best ways to cook head-on shrimp/prawns/whatever you call them?

[blue_dolphin]

2 hours ago, heidih said:

The deep fried ones - were all abbout the crunch with just a sweet hit from the flesh.

Both deep fried and grilled had deliciously crispy shells and sweet flesh. It was just a bit tough towards the tail because of my inept overcooking.

But speaking of good bread for dunking, I used some of the shrimp to make Kenji's Sous Vide Shrimp With Garlic, Sherry, and Smoked Paprika from Serious Eats. I cooked these at 125°F and they were delicious. Clearly, these guys were beheaded before I cooked them so it's not quite on topic but from tasting the earlier preps, I knew they were nice and shrimpy and could stand up to the garlic and paprika. 

I find peel & eat shrimp to be awfully messy and I feel like I need to go take a shower and change my clothes

 

[heidih]

4 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

I find peel & eat shrimp to be awfully messy and I feel like I need to go take a shower and change my clothes

 

Works best eaten on newspaper covered picnic table folowed by a run through the sprinklers with the kids

[blue_dolphin]

7 minutes ago, heidih said:

Works best eaten on newspaper covered picnic table folowed by a run through the sprinklers with the kids

I got no picnic table, no sprinklers and no kids here and it's gloomy and in the 60's so I gotta go with it as the shrimp aren't waiting around for me to create a better setting!

[KennethT]

@blue_dolphin When I did them deep fried, I split the shells, removed the vein and then sliced from the back almost all the way to the other side but stopped before I got to the tail.  That way, the meat is even thickness all over.

[blue_dolphin]

17 minutes ago, KennethT said:

@blue_dolphin When I did them deep fried, I split the shells, removed the vein and then sliced from the back almost all the way to the other side but stopped before I got to the tail.  That way, the meat is even thickness all over.

That’s what I aimed for but may not have achieved. I believe these guys have been purged or fasted as there is just the tiniest thread of vein but I still thought it might help get more even cooking. And it was noticeably better than the grilled ones where I just slit the shell and looked for the vein but I still overcooked the tails both times. 
Still an interesting experiment!

 

[Bernie]

Just a thought.

When prawns are processed (cooked) on board ship they are boiled. That means the temperature they are in contact with is 100C (+- a little depending on brine, other chemicals)

Also the water has a very high heat capacity (its temperature wont drop much as its heating the prawns).

It transfers its heat readily.

So...when frying  one side of the prawn is in contact with much hotter temperatures, the heat transfer will be higher but have a different profile dependent on the thickness.

Maybe a quick blanch in boiling water then a very quick plunge into ice water to cool should result in the tails being heated then rapidly cooled and the head etc being heated and cooled but the cooling will be slower because of the mass of the heat etc.

Then perhaps a really high heat for a very short time to crisp up the shells without heating the internals?

 

I have taken to "deep frying"in ghee with garlic to get nice crisp shells, (and I have little toast soldiers to sop up the garlic ghee) but most wild caught prawns have fairly thick hard shells to start with and only have soft shells after molting.