When it comes to deep-frying, my favorite batter is beer batter. Super simple--just equal parts beer and flour--beer batter makes a very light, crisp coating. But I’d never thought that you could saute with it, rather than deep-fry, until I read a recipe for sauteed beer-batter shrimp in Cooking Light. Intrigued but skeptical, I tried it, adding my little trick of dusting the shrimp in flour to start, which helps the batter to adhere to the shrimp. Once I had my shrimp, I married it to good old tartar sauce, a nod to my roots in New England, where tartar sauce ends up on top of every kind of fried food. However, if you’re not in the mood to whip up some tartar sauce, use soy sauce instead. You can think of this recipe as a kind of American tempura.
Yield : Makes 4 to 6 Servings
Prep Time : 25 minutes
Cooking Time : 25 minutes
Ingredients
- One 12-ounce bottle beer
- 1 cup plus 1/3 cup Wondra or unbleached all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- Kosher salt
- Tartar Sauce (see Notes) or soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
- Freshly ground black pepper
Tartar Sauce (Makes about 1¼ cups):
- ¾ cup mayonnaise
- ¼ cup finely chopped dill pickle
- 1 trimmed and chopped medium scallion (about 2 tablespoons)
- 1 tablespoon drained capers
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- ½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- ¼ teaspoon hot sauce
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 300°F. Whisk together 1 cup beer, 1 cup flour, the mustard, and ¼ teaspoon salt until just smooth. Strain the batter into another bowl and let stand for 10 minutes. Reserve the extra beer. Meanwhile, make the Tartar Sauce. Whisk together mayonnaise, dill pickle, scallion, capers, lemon juice, dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and hot sauce.
2. Put 1/3 cup flour into a pie plate lined with wax paper or parchment. Check the batter; it should have the consistency of a thick pancake batter. If it seems too thick, whisk in up to ¼ cup more beer.
3. Heat 1½ tablespoons vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Working with half the shrimp at a time, toss them in the flour, lifting the wax paper on both sides to move them around. Transfer the shrimp to a strainer and shake off the excess flour. Coat the shrimp with the batter, letting the excess drip off, and add them to the skillet. Cook them, turning once, for 1 to 2 minutes per side, or until they are golden. (Most of the batter will stay on the side you first put down in the skillet.)
4. Sprinkle the cooked shrimp with salt, transfer them to a baking sheet, and keep them warm in the oven while you cook the remaining shrimp in the remaining oil. Serve with the Tartar Sauce or soy sauce for dipping.
Notes
How many shrimp are in a pound?
Now that is a question that doesn’t have a short answer. Shrimp are marketed in many forms. You can get them in the shell, shelled except for the tail, fully shelled, and ready to eat, to name a few. Although the price of shrimp on the wholesale market is set by the number of shrimp per pound, in retail the categories vary from market to market. A rule of thumb for shrimp is that you will get about 10 colossal, 11 to 15 jumbo, 16 to 20 extra large, 21 to 30 large, 31 to 35 medium, or 36 to 45 small raw shrimp in their shells per pound. If the shrimp are partially or fully shelled, you will get up to 20 percent more shrimp in the pound, but they will be more expensive.
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