Brown Shrimp and pointed cabbage omelet

December 4th, 2018 | main dishes

The recipe for this omelette with brown shrimp and pointed cabbage I found in the culinary magazine “Effilee”. There, Stevan Paul writes the section “Schneller Teller [fast plate]”. However, in this case the preparation only is quick if you use already shelled brown shrimps. But: if you grew up on the North Sea coast, of course you peel them yourself…

I love sitting around the table with the whole family and getting the tiny brown shrimps out of their shells. It’s kind of meditative… In my childhood, we always peeled shrimps at home. Nobody would have come up with the idea of buying shelled ones. Then, we drove to the harbor and bought brown shrimps directly from the cutter. At home we put a newspaper on the table and off we went. Who had the biggest pile of shells on the newspaper at the end, was the hero… (or did nibble at least…)

For those who have never done it: Take the crab and turn the two ends together with your thumb and forefinger until the shell breaks at one of the joints. Then carefully pull off the tail part, then the head part. Very easy.

By the way, you get about 300g to 350 g of shrimp meat out of one kilo brown shrimps. Alone, you’ll have to reckon one and a half to two hours to peel one kilo. But that’s definitely worth it, especially as the shrimp meat, which you can buy for example in a supermarket, is driven to Morocco for peeling. Isn’t that mad? But there is an alternative.

Alwin Kocken is considered the inventor of the crab peeling machine. In his crab trade in Nordholz-Spieka (between Cuxhaven and Bremerhaven), the crabs are shelled directly on site with this machine. So if you do not feel like peeling at home, you should definitely pay attention to where the crabs are shelled.

Without doubt, brown shrimp became most renowned as a captain’s breakfast. Here the shrimps are placed on a buttered slice of brown bread and served with scrambled eggs, crispy bacon and lots of fresh chives. The brown shrimp and cabbage omelet is a refined variation with cardamom and fennel seed as a new flavour variant.

Brown shrimp and pointed cabbage omelet

(4 portions)