Cooking with San Francisco Cooking School: Shrimp on the Barbie

When summer rolls in around here we dust off the grill and fill the propane tank. As a newly converted gas griller, I freely admit that I love the ability to make a last-minute decision to cook al fresco—no coals and no wood.Some would call this travesty, and many would cringe at calling it barbecue, so I’ll stick with the term “grilling” and, yes, I do it with pride.I make a mean rib, juicy salmon and killer skirt steak but one thing that’s taken me a while to get right is succulent grilled shrimp. The high heat of a grill needs lots of babysitting to ensure it doesn’t overcook shrimp the minute they hit the grates. We’ve all eaten them dried out—unappealing in every way. I was bound and determined to figure this out.It starts with great shrimp, or prawns if you like. I prefer a U16–20, meaning one pound consists of 16 to 20 shrimp. These are just 2–3 bites each, and big enough to handle a few minutes on the grill. Any smaller and it’s really tough to control the cooking time. I peel and devein myself, looking for wild shrimp whenever possible.Thirty minutes before the shrimp are going to cook I drop them in a very simple brine. The brine can be made ahead of time, too, always an added bonus in my book. Longer is not better here—shrimp are tender and too much time in the salted water solution will actually destroy the texture of the flesh.Once brined, I toss the shrimp in garlic oil and thread them on skewers flanked with bits of onion. How you thread them is important. I put the skewer through both the tail and head end of the shrimp so it forms a “C” on the skewer-this is more stable, and allows you to nestle the shrimp in tightly so they insulate themselves from cooking too quickly.The other nice thing about a gas grill is heat regulation. I get mine hot then turn the heat down to medium. I put on the shrimp skewers, shut the grill and give it 2–3 minutes, just until the shrimp turn pink on the underside. Flip the skewers over and in 1–2 minutes more you’ll have pink shrimp that are just opaque in the center. A minute or two of carryover cooking between the grill and the plate and you’ll be rewarded with juicy, plump shrimp that go down mighty easy.It’s worth cooking a lot of these. Piling them on a big platter with grilled bread and a drizzle of fresh salsa verde makes for a perfect summer meal and the leftovers can top a salad or fill a sandwich the next day. No time to make salsa verde? No worries—grilled shrimp are also great with tons of lemon wedges, grilled peaches, fresh pico de gallo or a simple vinaigrette.[tasty-recipe id="2106"]