I've visited many Japanese restaurants over the years, and I've found that every one of them seemed to prepare shrimp in the just right way. The shrimp served in most of these restaurants are usually larger and more flavorful than their smaller cousins found in the frozen food section of your typical grocery store.
My favorite dish, the Trio, is a common menu item I've found at nearly every Japanese restaurant I have visited. Mixed with spices and sauces, the shrimp also includes beef, chicken, scallions, and a homemade Teriyaki-blended secret sauce to make up the bulk of the main course.
The smaller shrimp that typically come from colder waters are better suited for salads and sandwiches. Growing up in Upstate New York back in the 1970's, I remember the rare occasions where shrimp salad was reserved only for special family get-togethers. Besides getting to spend quality time with extended family, holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas brought out the best of Grandma's shrimp salad. Next to the apple pie my Mom made, the shrimp salad was tops on my list. For the better part of my childhood, I never knew shrimp grew any bigger than the type used in Grandma's salad. It was somewhere around my 12th birthday before I was introduced to the Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail. That changed everything!
As far as cooking shrimp and prawn, there are hundreds of ways that I know of, and probably hundreds more I don't. Shrimp and prawn can be grilled (my favorite), steamed, fried, boiled, broiled, nuked, or even hung over a campfire. I once watched an online video that showed a group of Vietnamese shrimp farmers cook them over a bucket of hot coals. Shrimp can be cooked with or without the shell. Typically, if you're going to grill them, I suggest leaving the shell on to protect both the consistency and the flavor. Cooking without the shell is usually reserved for everything else.
Thawing shrimp and prawn
If you buy your shrimp from the grocery store, you'll likely need thaw them before cooking. This will allow even cooking throughout. You will not need to do this, however, with the platter of precooked shrimp cocktail that has recently become so popular. For these party platters, you can set them out on the table about 40 minutes before the party and they'll be ready to eat. For uncooked shrimp, I suggest they be placed in a water-tight zip-lock bag (if they're not already in a bag) and submerged in cool water. I fill the smaller side of our kitchen sink with water then use a cup filled with more water to weigh them down. Shrimp should never be thawed in a microwave because there is no way to prevent uneven thawing or defrosting while they're in there. One of the biggest benefits to thawing shrimp evenly in cool water is it helps to prevent contamination of bacteria. Any bacteria left in the shrimp will be destroyed during the cooking process.
Heads and shells on or off?
Here in the U.S., many of us have an aversion to seeing animals on our plates that still have the heads on. This exists in me, too. The thought of seeing a hog head on the main table during a pig roast, a trout head still connected to the fish on my plate, or a shrimp head still attached and mixed in with the rest of my meal is not very appealing. I'm sure people that grew up "down in the Bayou" would feel otherwise, but I have to have my heads off. Part of the process to cleaning fresh caught shrimp here in East Central Florida is removing the heads. I leave the shells on for freezing, and then after defrosting, and after I've decided how I'm going to cook the shrimp, I'll either leave the shells on for grilling, or remove them for anything else.
The preference for keeping heads and shells on is entirely up to you. Shells can be removed prior to cooking or after, but if you plan to remove the heads, this should be done as early as possible.
Removing the head, shell, and vein
If you have decided to remove the heads, there are two easy ways to do this. The first, and probably the cleanest way, is to hold the body in one hand, the head in the other, and with a twisting motion, remove the head. Another way, and one I usually use during my cleaning process, is to pinch the heads off with your thumb and forefinger. I remove the heads this way primarily to save time. When I clean shrimp, I am usually cleaning four or five gallons at a time.
To remove the shell, peeling is the most common way, and can be accomplished either before or after cooking. After the heads are removed, I start at the end where the head was by peeling from the underside first, then moving backwards toward the tail. Often, I have found that the legs do not always come off with the shell, so pay close attention to make sure all the legs are removed.
To remove the vein from the shrimp, use a knife or your fingers to pry it loose, then under running water, it should fall out of the meat. Generally, the larger the shrimp, the easier it is to remove. And on the larger shrimp, you'll likely want to remove it anyways because the vein too, is big.
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