Shrimp cleaning and soup stock tips

I love shrimps but I am very cautious about the veins of shrimps, partyly due to the fact that I have ever been infected by Helicobacter pylori. Read more about Helicobacter pylori

This bacteria enters into our body mainly through seafood faeces or soil residues found on vegetable roots. Therefore, cleaning our food prior to cooking is important to reduce the possibility of infection.

I normally clean and deveine the shrimps prior to packing them in smaller portion for later use.

Remove the shell of shrimp's head, to expose its vein, pull the vein out by applying light force, you will notice the vein is connected on the other side in the shrimp's head, pull that end out altogether. Discard these.

Shrimp heads and shells are too tasty to throw away. I will use them to make prawn soup stock.

Warm up some vegetable oil in pot, put shrimp heads and shells.

Fry the heads and shells until colour turns to orangy, to obtain a beautiful fragrance from the ingredient.

Add water to cover the ingredients. Bring to boil, then lower the heat to let the soup simmer for 15-20 minutes.

You will be able to enjoy the beautiful aroma of shrimp stock during the simmering process.

Tadaaa... Strain the heads and shells to obtain the shrimp soup stock. This is a very simple yet economical way to obtain natural flavour for home cooking. I normally use the soup stock to cook Ipoh kai si hor fun soup (怡保鸡丝河粉）, to season vegetable stir fry and many other dishes. Hope this tip is useful to you, for preparing nutritional and healthy food for family.