Follow our easy, step-by-step, photo illustrated instructions to learn how to fry golden brown shrimp at home. Printable recipe included.
Lightly battered and lightly fried. That’s the Calabash way of frying seafood. I’ll show you how we fried them at my brothers “Captain Gordon’s Seafood Restaurant” some years back. It’s really simple and easy, and they taste awesome.
Lightly battered, lightly fried. Here in North Carolina, it’s a style of frying seafood that we refer to as Calabash style. It’s totally awesome if you ask me.
Down along the East coast, very close to the North Carolina and South Carolina state line, there is a small little town called Calabash. You’ll find several seafood restaurants in Calabash, all serving this very delicious lightly battered and lightly fried seafood. I’ve had the pleasure to eat at several of them.
When my older brother opened his “Captain Gordon’s Seafood Restaurant” in our little town back in the 80’s, Calabash was the style of seafood that we served. I managed the kitchen for him during the first year or two that it was open. I’ll say it yet again, that was some of the hottest and hardest work I’ve ever done. Smile.
You’ll find the recipe very simple. And, I do hope you will give our recipe a try. Let me know how you like it when you do. I love to read your comments and memories in the section at the end of our recipe.
At the restaurant, we would serve about 500 people every Friday night. That was a lot of seafood and fish back in those days because we served a large portion of both on the plates that went out to our customers.
Calabash shrimp is usually a “popcorn” shrimp. We served a 130/150 size shrimp. That’s about 130 to 150 shrimp per pound. You’ll eat them several at a time, like popcorn. Thus the name.
Be sure to check out our other Calabash style seafood recipes here on Taste of Southern. I’m doing a series of these based on my days at my brothers restaurant. You’ll find the links below the recipe.
Ready to give our recipe a try? Alright then, let’s head on out to the kitchen, and… Let’s Get Cooking!
Calabash Fried Shrimp – You’ll need these ingredients.
We always used what was known as “popcorn” shrimp. They were very small in size and fried up quickly. I’m using a 61/70 count shrimp here. It was the smallest I could get at my local grocery store, but what we sold were even smaller than these. You’d eat several of them at one time, kind of like eating popcorn. Smile.
If you’re using frozen shrimp, you’ll need to thaw it first. Just place the shrimp in some cold water. It will thaw out in just a few minutes.
We bought shrimp by the 50 pound box back in the restaurant days. It came in 10 pound blocks with 5 blocks per case. We’d fill up a sink with water and add a case of shrimp at a time to the water. The water would get so cold from the frozen shrimp that it would make your hands hurt just trying to open the packages and rinse the shrimp.
Drain the water off of the shrimp once they are thawed and you’re ready to start frying them.
Pour enough milk over the shrimp to coat them well. Probably will not need much more than 1/4th cup. And, you need to use the EVAPORATED MILK. It’s a bit thicker and will hold to the shrimp better. Toss the shrimp around in the milk until they are fully coated.
Place about a cup of flour in a deep bowl or container.
We used large “bus pans” at the restaurant. We had one large pan for flour and another large pan for shrimp. Even now, using this small container seems kind of funny to me.
Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the flour.
Start off easy on the salt. You can test fry a few shrimp to see if you prefer to add more later.
Stir the flour and salt together.
Remove some shrimp from the milk and place them in the flour.
At the restaurant, we’d cup our hands together and scoop up two big handfuls of shrimp at the time and place them in the flour.
Toss the shrimp around in the flour until they are fully coated.
A wire basket comes in real handy for this part. Place the shrimp in the basket and shake off any excess flour. You don’t want lots of extra flour going into your hot oil. It just sinks to the bottom of your fryer and burns, causing your oil to go bad quicker.
You just want a light coating of flour sticking to the shrimp.
You’ll need to heat your cooking oil up to 350F degrees for frying the shrimp. At home, I use a deep pot to do this. Give the oil time to heat up before you add the shrimp. Carefully flip them out of the shaker basket into the cooking oil. I’m using Canola Oil here.
I’ve mentioned it before, but we used pure Lard at the seafood restaurant for all of our frying. It’s pretty common in the South, or at least it was back then. I imagine a lot of restaurants these days fry in Peanut oil.
It will only take a minute or two to fry the shrimp. They will float to the top when done and should be a light golden color when they’re ready to be removed from the oil.
Remove the shrimp and place them in a pan with a wire rack if you have it to let them drain for just a moment. Then, they are ready to be served.
Enjoy!
These are normally served with a choice of baked potato or French fries, a side of Creamy Cole Slaw, and of course, you’ve got to have Southern Hushpuppies. A little Tartar Sauce or Cocktail Sauce on the side is also typical in a seafood restaurant around here. Plus, don’t forget a big pitcher of ice cold Sweet Tea.
