The Art of Glazing: A Key to Elevating Your Shrimp Game

As I season my shrimp, I remember that we marinated them beforehand, and now they're infused with a super concentrated glaze. The citrus juice has been expertly balanced to create a beautiful, sticky coating. But what's the difference between a sauce and a glaze? A sauce is something you can sit in, slurp at, whereas a glaze is something that coats your protein or vegetable, enveloping it without drips.

To achieve this perfect glaze, I toss my shrimp with a gentle, precise motion, making sure not to create any soup. It's all about the texture and flavor profile we're aiming for. A good glaze should be finger-licking sticky, coating the shrimp evenly. This is what makes cooking with a glaze so rewarding – it's like wearing a beautiful, puffy parka on a cold winter's day, encapsulating everything in its warm, golden light.

When working with a glaze, it's essential to understand how to toss your ingredients effectively. You want to use the back of the pan as a pushing element, gently coaxing the shrimp into submission. This technique may seem tricky at first, but practice makes perfect. And when you do get it right, the result is nothing short of magical.

As I plate my dish, I take care to add a little flair – a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds, perhaps, or a squeeze of fresh citrus. But for now, let's focus on the star of the show: my beautifully glazed shrimp. I've taken the time to season my rice with a touch of vinegar and a pinch of salt, just to give it a bit of texture and interest.

And then, it's time to bring everything together. A drizzle of that sweet, sticky glaze – Agave, in this case – adds a depth of flavor that's simply divine. I like to use a subtle citrus, like Clementine, to balance out the sweetness and add a touch of fruitiness. The combination is nothing short of magic.

Now, it's time to cook my shrimp over the grill. I want to capture its natural texture and flavor without overpowering it with too much heat or seasoning. A gentle sear on both sides, and voilà! My shrimp is cooked to perfection – tender, juicy, and full of that sweet, sticky glaze.

As I take a bite, I'm transported to a world of flavor and delight. The crunch from the outside gives way to a soft, succulent interior, all while the glaze coats my palate with its rich, citrusy goodness. It's a truly indulgent experience – one that I hope you'll be able to replicate in your own kitchen.

So go ahead, take a bite of this Agave glazed shrimp, and let me know what you think. And if they're not raving about it, well... maybe we can just pretend they are. Because at the end of the day, cooking is all about sharing joy with others – and what's more joyful than a perfectly cooked meal shared around the dinner table?

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi guys Jeff Morrow here thanks for joining me on this Food Network kitchen class I am going  to make one of my favorite super quick and easy and delicious recipes it is called Agave glazed  shrimp I'm going to show you how to handle that shrimp right how to choose the right shrimp how  to get that beautiful sear on it and how to make a glazy shiny luxurious sauce to coat it  off we're going to serve it over rice I'm going to show you how to make rice just like that in 10  minutes in this meal we'll be on this counter on your plate within 20 minutes super easy so  let's get started shall we all right first things first comes the rice I got this Nifty little rice  cooker you could do this listen I do this cheat all the time at home I'm not afraid to admit it  I get buy the Frozen rice I pull it right out of the freezer you microwave it you have rice ready  to go but nothing is quite fluffy and beautifully steamed like fresh made rice and we're going to  use brown rice because I'm going a little healthy a little more fortified got a little more fiber  in it it's good for you we're gonna do a cup of that and per the instructions on the bag says a  cup and three quarters of water I don't season my rice I don't pre-season it I just let the water  and the rice do its thing and we'll hit it up with a little secret sauce later all right we're  gonna put that on close it keep an eye on it and always keep it closed you don't want to release  that steam in a rice cooker just leave it there on to the shrimp so these are 16 20 shrimp what  that means 16 to 20 per pound all right it's how many they estimate we'll go in there and  it's like that perfect size where it's not gonna overcook like that but while we get that heart  sear on it and to me unless I'm eating cocktail shrimp there's nothing better than that crusty  caramelized exterior of shrimp right you get a nice little little bite in your teeth and it's  so nice and juicy in the middle so these sizes are perfect if you want to experiment with more  jumbo varieties you definitely can but I would not go smaller than 1620 because we are going to  marinate it just a little bit so let's start with that marinade using this is what I had on hand  when I can you guess what this is at home can you all right it is clementines you can use tangerines  you can use oranges right any nice bright you know sweet citrus fruit will do and we're going  to get I don't know a couple tablespoons of that so we're just going to have these  and we are going to add them to our Bowl right here you could see that beautiful  you know subtle sweetness we don't want um you know too much of this because  we don't want to overpower that shrimp with you know orangey flavor you gotta boom  you see that it's not a lot of seeds in this fruit so I'm not using the uh Citrus squeezer but if  it's a regular orange you know sometimes you get a ton of seeds and I'd rather do the dishes with  this thing and try to extract a citrus seed out of liquid which is very difficult sometimes let's  grab the rasp here now usually when I'm using the juice of a citrus you got to get the zest  there's no point not doing both so we're going to juice a lime here in a second right over the bowl  we're going to zest it give it a nice little fruitier note direct fruity aromatic quality  to the zest you don't want to waste right over the bowl right that's it beautiful now we can cut it  because it's pretty impossible to zest cut Juiced fruit it is not impossible but it's slightly more  less impossible okay so let's you know save some time zest first juice second now there are some  seeds in this so I will boom so we got about two tablespoons of orange juice in there nice little  hit of that lime juice shrimp lime grate uh great great uh you know combination when we're using a  lot of kind of Latin Mexican spices in this so we got the orange we got the lime and we got a  couple other dry seasonings that we'll show you in a second just a little pinch of that  and remember we want a good amount of juice in here because this will be reduced in a second  to help Glaze The Shrimp post grilling all right to help fortify the sauce give it a little more  liquid so we can reduce it later we're gonna do about a quarter cup of good chicken stock if you  want to keep this I don't know non-chickening or none you can use vegetable stock or a shrimp  stock if you find it it's a little bit in there beautiful a quarter teaspoon of cumin  which is going to give it that kind of floral spicy no to it and then a quarter teaspoon of  Chipotle powder which is going to bring smoke and a little Heat next comes our agave syrup  which is gonna obviously bring the agave in the Agave glazed shrimp recipe but also sweeten it  up which I love with shrimp shrimp loves a little sweetness to it and this is going to  help caramelize on the grill and get that Char that we love two tablespoons right in thereyou put that in our Bowla little bit of salt now we can whisk we got our shrimp peeled and deveined so what I did is went  to The Fish Guy at the grocery store who of course I formed a nice relationship with so he hooks it  up right whether you're ordering from the butcher the Delicatessen ear or The Fish Guy or fish  monger at your grocery store be nice to them greet them with a smile say hi how you doing today good  don't just go up there be like three three pound three quarters three pounds of trip now pointing  I got these shrimp peeled and deveined from my fish guy if you got frozen stuff too just fine  just make sure you properly defrost it maybe with some paper towels and extract all that moisture  post defrostation it's a word into the marinade 16 to 20 shrimp and we are gonna let these little  beautiful puppies of the sea marinate for about 15-20 minutes anything more you're going to start  the acid is going to start cooking the shrimp and we're going to get in the ceviche territory but  15-20 minutes it's enough to kind of soak in all that flavor and help even flavorize everything so  10-15 minutes don't go anywhere we'll be right back and I'll see you in 10 15. all right hey  guys welcome back you've had time to marinate your shrimp and look at it it's beautiful 15  minutes 20 minutes at the most remember you do not want to cook it through because when  it starts cooking through it does start changing color but all that Citrus flavor all those spices  penetrated the Flesh of that shrimp it's going to make for a delectable bite let's strain it  because we are going to reserve this marinade and reduce it for a nice kind of glazy sauce here so  right over another Bowl get all that out and we are going to put it over a fine mess strainer  give it a little toss so all that stuff kind of comes loose of the shrimp and drips into this bowl  and what you want to do now is put this shrimp on a plate that is covered in paper towels the  enemy of caramelization of char of you know a sear is moisture water right so we want to kind  of we got it in there we got the flavor in there we don't really need any more marinade on there  we're going to season it in a second but what we want to do is Pat it dry to kind of dehydrate the  surface of that shrimp so when it hits the grill it's nothing but Sizzle nothing but caramelization  nothing but Char so I got to kind of spread these into one layer here very easy and clean to do  without having to muck up your hands too so just use the tongs you just used and we  will now Pat it dry with another layer of paper towels right just like thisgot that marinade and the bottom layer is going to help dab it the top layer is going to dab it  look at that dry as a bone and that's exactly what we're looking for I got my grill pan here  on my stovetop at about a medium high heat all right again we don't want to like steam this up  at all so we've removed the moisture but we do want to create that beautiful bite with a Char  on the outside so I got this pretty high right if you don't have a grill pan or even a grill  outside at home you can use it in the same Skillet we're going to reduce the sauce and you get that  nice and piping hot sear it maybe in batches or all at once depending on how large of a skillet  nothing less than 12 or 14 inches I'm going to hit the outside of this right now just this one side  and we'll put it on seasoned side down onto our grill with a little salt I know we put some salt  in there earlier but remember we've kind of soaked in that marinade but removed most of it when you  know of the exteriors you want to make sure every bite is seasoned I got some vegetable oil to paint  directly on our Grill here just to help in the non-stick properties of that any neutral oil  will do something high smoke point but for this we're using good old vegetable oil right you can  see it's hot we are smoking and I like that now she's inside we're going to put that directly on  the grill and you know when you hear that snizzle right on there we are working with the proper Heat  and I like to kind of stick to the areas where the heating element is um you know because this  usually is the cooler part in the middle in between the two uh heating elements or flames  so we're going to try to stick right there and I already smell kind of all those spices the  citrus caramelization from the sugar and the agave but this is a great healthy meal good  Monday night meal if you're looking to tune up after a long weekend right went out hit the club  bottle service Champs right sparklers in bottles of vodka being brought to your table who's doing  that still probably nobody watching this right now on the Food Network kitchen app not the demo  but listen it could be sitting in your backyard with your best friends and family like I do  eating meat drinking some nice heady beers and enjoying and celebrating life so now it's time  Monday it's time to pay the piper and that's what we're doing with this very fresh shrimp  here all right we got that going I'm going to keep this right here I'm going to turn up my pan here  and then I'm going to bring my sauce up to a simmer really quick I don't like pouring when I'm  doing this I don't like to pour it in a pipe and hot pan then you just get a too hard an aggressive  uh of a simmer going right at first and you're losing so much of that liquid into the atmosphere  that just minute hits the pan evaporates so this way we can kind of gently bring it up keep an eye  on it season as we go we got our shrimps I'm not going to move it leave it be let the shrimp in the  heat do their thing co-mingle get to know each other create that Char alright start you know  this is this is a this is a process you can't rush shrimp doesn't take a long time to cook  right two three minutes aside at the most with these 1620s so you don't want to impede in that  caramelization or that Char by keep flipping it and moving it but we do want to check it  especially with the guys we put on first which I believe is right over by here so look at guess  what's okay yes yes that one's good to go and once it releases then you know it's ready if it's not  releasing guess what that means you're rushing it don't rush it right so that one's still there look  at that one perf see char crunch flavor texture color all the things we love in cooking right  oh yeah so these have been on for about two minutes there I'm keeping an eye on  my sauce we're real time cooking here on the Food Network kitchen app that's what I love  about this I do not have a team it's me it's just me here right and one of my uncles with a  smartphone that's it but seriously we're doing this all real time this is how quick and easy  this is this guy's gonna come on look at that look at that that's because we patted it down  little seasoning on this and two I did not do that so I'll just put it right on there look at that oh  gently peel it back look at oh you see that look at that that's what we're looking for  give our sauce is Stir we're reducing that Citrus juice in there we got the Clementine we got the  lime we got the Agave the spices cumin little smokiness from the Chipotle now these guys so I  put them on we're gonna let them Chi oh that's a pretty one that's how pretty well shrimps  we didn't eat a lot of shrimp growing up in my house because my dad Gus it's a very severely  allergic so when we go out to dinner a lot we would be ordering the shrimps because it was  like twofold one we never got it at home B my dad couldn't taste the food therefore not being able  to eat half of the children's food so my mom even to this day usually order shrimp and that  is a fact and I think she does it just despite my father they've been married like you know I  don't know a century so you know they you know like most married couples they do things to get  on each other's nerves but they love each other and shrimp is the reason they've stayed together  she gets to eat her own food without one of the morrow men dipping into her plate which  I'm guilty of with my wife and my son that's why they tend to order things I don't like  which there's not a lot of because I like it all except cottage cheese which is gross  look at this couple minutes charred shrimps reducing the sauce my rice let's check on it  oh it's perfect right it's nice and steamed in there now we want to get this to a fairly glossy  glaze here right a nap a consistency which I'll show you in a second now sorry look at let's see  those ones we put on are just about okay yes now how do you know when a shrimp is done you could  take the temp but once it goes from opaque to Pink all the way through on both ends especially kind  of right up the gut there right you can kind of see it look like cooked shrimp or look like  lobster whatever we're good to go like I'm gonna actually take these guys off put them in a bowl  while we finish our sauce you do not want to overcook these so it's best to let that carry  over cooking finish these shrimp when you take them off the grill you take them 90 85 to 90  percent of the way there they're going to finish cooking uh just with the residual heat right off  the grill and then remember we're going to put it back in there to glaze them so so you could check  all right let me see this one right there there we go let me show you this so we're looking at our  shrimp here how do you know it's not cooked yet you kind of look in there and it's still got this  you know there's pink Hue in the middle there it's not quite there we'll put it back on the grill  whereas this one you can see it's a perfectly cooked through  go right on there look at this oh yeah that's good to go that's it now how do you know we're good  right is that you see that this doesn't take a lot but you look at the back of a  spoon drag through it um oh it's so good right we've reduced it enough where the sauce is not  kind of enclosing back into the strip I just drew with my finger it's perfect ready to go  oh yeah and you know what this shrimp is done it's going right in the glaze  stuffed directly from the grill a little of this glazed glow goes a long way all  right remember that we season the shrimp we marinated the shrimp we got the super  concentrated glaze all that Citrus juice in it we're gonna give it a nice little toss here  get it shiny right I don't want it soupy I want a glaze there's a difference between a sauce  and a glaze a glaze coats your protein or your vegetable or whatever you're glazing envelops it  right like wearing a beautiful puffy parka in the middle of winter it just kind of encapsulates it  without drippage all right a sauce it's sitting in there it's slurpable this is a glaze you want it  to coat that shrimp be finger licking sticky and that's what we're doing give it a couple tosses  right when you're doing this at home right you could just use a spoon but if you are tossing  doing this fancy Chef move you see us all doing practice it right it's hard to articulate how to  exactly do it but you always go forward and then back first using this back rear portion of the pan  to kind of as a as a you know a pushing element to go back up right like as a I don't know what  you would call it but boom see I'm using the back of the pan but you can see that look at  this beautifully glazed look how good that looks let's get our rice plated nicely herenow I don't like just dumping rice I don't know I like to make it fancy  and add a nice little layer so we're going to do that a little rice vinegardirectly into that right just move it around a little bit fluff it up firstwhether you're microwaving your rice baking your rice or steaming your rice or using a rice cooker  like this season a little bit afterward just for some texture and this is going directly  on the plate so if you have a spoon right just like this we're going to spoon it down  compress it in there so you got yourself straight Grands right on therevoila fancy schmancy look who's charging money for his family's dinner tonight this  guy Jeff Morrow you two at home now you're gonna take that shrimp rightbefore we're gonna put it right on there oh manoh manlook at that beautiful Agave glazed shrimp it's collapsingbeautiful look at that oh man I'm gonna kill one more on there super glazed onegarnish with maybe if you got any toasted sesame seeds a little fresher whatever  you have laying around but there's so much flavor right here in this right now I feel  it needs nothing else except a proper bite which is what I'm about to do isthe grillthat's the best that's that's so good that's one of the best texture and flavored bites of shrimp  I've had in a very long time proper amount of heat just to kind of wake your your palate up a little  bit without like blowing it out but it tastes orangey it tastes limey we use that kind of subtle  citrus from that Clementine which kind of just gives that sweetness and that fruitiness we love  a little bit of agave to help caramelize it we chart it properly so you got the texture and kind  of that that crunch from the outside of the shrimp which I love lovely rice from the the seasoned  rice but I mean what do you got to say you got to make this we made it together I hope you followed  along at home hope your family's chomping at the bit right now banging on the dinner table and if  they are they're rude okay hold it up a little bit why don't you sit here and enjoy your plate  with me right while I was sitting there banging on the table but me and you we did this together  and I applaud you I salute you thank you very much this is Ben my Agave glazed shrimp I am Jeff Mauro\n"