Shimp. Help.

Yeah... I don't know what a "shimp" is, but I'm guessing it's nothing like a SHRIMP.

Anyway, I meant "prawn".

It's still in the shell, I assume? Plain old boiled shrimp -- season the water (I don't know if they sell Zatarain's or Old Bay up there these days, but nearly any seasonings work: salt of course, cayenne, bay leaves, and a few cloves of garlic, a stalk of celery, and a quartered lemon is the best bet), bring it to a boil, add the shrimp and boil until they turn pink (not long at all; a few minutes).

There's also New Orleans barbecue shrimp, which has nothing to do with barbecue: the easiest way to do it is to make boiled shrimp and then (preferably after removing the shells, although that's not traditional) dress them with a combination of melted butter, diced onion, Worcestershire sauce, and Tabasco sauce.

can you not boil them in beer too, I keep reading aboutthat and it sounds good, along with sausage and suff

You can, but they boil so quickly that I'm not really sure it'd make a difference -- even heavily seasoned water only leaves a light flavor. (Although if you use live shrimp, they do take more in, so maybe you're supposed to use live when you're boiling in beer.)

I've decided that dry cooking methods really do work best for shrimp. I tend to let them cook too long when I boil them — tough results. In a white-hot pan with some oil/butter, shallot and garlic, they seem to get done much quicker and I can get them away from the heat almost instantly. Melt-in-your-mouth without any sense of underdoneness. The best shrimp I've ever made have been on the grill after a brief marinade in lemon juice and a past of garlic, rosemary, olive oil and kosher salt.

Alton Brown's shrimp cocktail recipe involves a 20-minute soak in sugar-salt brine, then drying them off, tossing with olive oil and Old Bay, then broiling them briefly on a pre-sizzled pan. Sounds like a good plan to me.

One thing that I tried recently that I was really happy with:

Clean shrimp, remove shells, and butterfly. Heat olive oil in pan, set at medium heat. Cook shrimp until they start to become pinkish and start to geta little black/charred on the outside. Squeeze juice of lime (1 lime: 1 lb of shrimp) on top and season with cayenne powder. Allow to cook for a few minutes this way -- shrimp won't blacken any further, but will soak up lime and seasoning.

So, I ended up just making a pasta sauce with my shrimp. They were frozen and I revived them by soaking in salt water. I cooked chopped garlic in olive oil for a minute, added crushed tomatoes (from a can), 1.5 tablespoons of Huy Fong's hot chili garlic, sliced roasted red peppers and capers. Simmered that and added the shrimp when the pasta was ready. Very good but too much left over and I'm afraid the shrimp will turn all rubbery if I re-heat in microwave... Next time, I think I'll add more capers and more chili garlic.

Paella dude, paella. If you can get nice chorizo and have a sniff of saffron hanging about, that is.