Smoked Shrimp
Abuja, Nigeria · View all recipes
Overview
Shrimp seasoned with paprika, garlic and cayenne and cooked in a barbecue smoker over indirect woodsmoke. The equipment named, pellet smokers, electric smokers, hickory, apple and mesquite chips, places this in American barbecue rather than any African tradition. That distinction is worth making because smoked seafood is genuinely important in African cooking, and this is not it. Smoked fish and dried prawn across West Africa are preserved over long, hard smoking that dries them out completely so they keep for months without refrigeration, and they are then used as a seasoning ingredient rather than eaten on their own. Smoked mackerel, stockfish, crayfish and dried prawn all work that way. What this recipe does is different: a short hot smoke of twenty to thirty minutes that cooks the shrimp while flavouring it, to be eaten immediately. The source is clear about the distinction between hot smoking, which cooks, and cold smoking at a much lower temperature, which preserves without cooking. This is the former. It sits in Worldwide Recipes under American, with its URL unchanged.
Ingredients
Dietary tags are provided by contributors as a guide, not verified by AFN, and they depend on the products you buy. If you have a serious allergy, check every ingredient yourself. Cooking, allergies and your own judgement
Directions
- 1
In a large bowl, mix the shrimp with the olive oil, minced garlic, paprika, cayenne, black pepper and salt.
- 2
Toss to coat them thoroughly with the seasoning.
- 3
Prepare the smoker for indirect smoking at about 105°C, filling the water pan if it has one.
- 4
Drain the soaked wood chips and add them to the smoker's chip box.
- 5
Place the seasoned shrimp on a grilling tray or wire rack.
- 6
Once the smoker is at temperature and producing smoke, put the tray on the grill grates.
- 7
Close the lid and smoke for about 30 minutes, until the shrimp are pink and opaque.
- 8
Remove and serve immediately with lemon slices.
Africook’s Notes
Personal notes from Deborah Olayiwola- Soak the wood chips at least 30 minutes. Dry chips flare and burn rather than smouldering, which gives acrid smoke instead of clean.
- Shrimp are done the moment they turn pink and opaque. Left in longer they toughen, and thirty minutes is the maximum rather than a target.
- Fresh shrimp gives a better texture than frozen, though frozen works. Thaw and dry them thoroughly first.
- Large shrimp are much easier to handle on a rack and hold their texture better through smoking.
- This is hot smoking, which cooks the shrimp. Cold smoking below about 32°C flavours without cooking and is a preserving method, not this.
- Serve immediately. Smoked shrimp loses its aroma quickly as it cools.
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