Shrimp Etouffee - Cook Shrimp Separately?

I can't think of any conceivable reason to precook them separately.

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Google thinks they should be separate.

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I guess, unless I hear more, I would reject that constituting a conceivable reason.

What you are describing is to "pink" the shrimp. A lot of competition guys will do it prior to adding it to what they are cooking. You basically just par cooking the shrimp inorder to cook out some of the water, that way you won't end up with too much liquid in your food that you have to boil out (and subsequently over cook your shrimp in the process). In my experience it's more common to do it when you are using a lot of shrimp, like 5 lbs or more

Always throw shrimp in as the last step and stir until pink, unless you live in bama.

I like to precook them. That way when you put them in the hot etoufee they get nice and mushy.

This is the way.

I don't want all that water at the last second, but I don't want to lose any of the shrimp flavor. I peel and devein the shrimp, I like about 20 count, make a stock out of the heads and peel, then briefly poach the shrimp enough to extract water. Sometime I saute in butter.

I use the stock in the etouffee, when it's ready, I add all the shrimp and any juices back in. Until I used this technique, it was hard not to get a too thin sauce.

Never found that to be the case when cooked in a gravy, maybe if you grill them.

Put them in the gravy raw at the last minute. The worst thing you can do with shrimp is overcook them.

I have cooked a couple of 20-gallon shrimp etouffees in the past with 50-pounds of shrimp. I cooked the shrimp first, pulled out the shrimp and refrigerated. Then I pulled out the water and saved it to add back to the etouffee when it was time to add the water.

The reason I did this was because you get so much water from 50# of shrimp, it’s impossible to correctly predict the amount of roux/thickner you need.

If I’m cooking a stovetop pot, I can simply make it a little thicker and add the shrimp at the end.