Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants)

I am a pretty big fan of shrimp, so I thought I should check out Trader Joe’s frozen “SHRIMP SEAFOOD BURGERS” to see what they tasted like and write up a review.

TRADER JOES has this to say: “Trader Joe’s Shrimp Seafood Burgers are made of 70% farm-raised, Pacific White Shrimp and 23% wild-caught Pollock, held together with rice flour and sunflower oil. They are seasoned with garlic powder, dried basil, salt, and black pepper, which makes for juicy and delicious Seafood Burgers-whether you grill, bake, or pan fry them.”

In the box you find four frozen seafood burger pucks, individually wrapped. They are fairly small, weighing just a little over 3 oz each.

Ingredients: Shrimp, Pollack, Oil, Rice Flour, Salt, Garlic, Spices.

COOKING

I did the PAN FRY method – I followed the directions on the package which states to cook them right from frozen (frankly this instruction about cooking from frozen without defrosting, something I see a lot on Trader Joe’s frozen items, kind of goes against everything I have learned about cooking over many years! ) However I did what they tell you to do and cooked from frozen.

I put four frozen pucks in a pan with some oil and butter and sautéed them for 4-5 minutes, until they turn opaque which indicates they’re done.

Once it was cooked and I tasted it I found the texture of the shrimp seafood burger to be slightly rubbery. If you ever cooked shrimp you probably know they can easily get rubbery if you cook overcook them. Maybe I should cook these a tiny bit less? Take these out the moment they change to opaque or even a 10-15 seconds before?

I tasted the cooked shrimp burgers alone first, then with some sauce, and in a pita sandwich with sauce. Taste-wise I found them to be just OK, certainly nothing special. Unfortunately I did not find great shrimp flavor. TJ’s states these seafood burgers are “70% shrimp, 23% pollock” plus rice flour and oil to hold them together. Alaskan pollock is a white fish which is blended in here.

After shrinkage from cooking they made a fairly small burger. About 3 ounces uncooked, I imagine they shrink to less after being cooked. If you just put one shrimp burger on a regular hamburger bun they will look small compared to the bun. Maybe try them cutting them in 1/2 and eat on a small Aloha type bun? Perhaps 1 and a half makes a better burger to bun ratio.

To serve I also sliced the cooked seafood burgers up and served them on top of a bed of grains. I added a sauce I made mixing up some Greek Yogurt and Zhoug sauce

Certainly some type of sauce with these will help these. Plan to add some kind of sauce*.

A package (12.8 oz) is $6.99. So while I’d say there were not bad, I found them just OK, again nothing special and I didn’t think these stood out enough as being a “shrimp burger”. These are not 100% Shrimp. There is 23% Pollack in there. Unlike the Salmon Burgers which I found a bit tastier, in that you absolutely know its salmon when you taste it. Frankly I would rather have just grilled shrimp in front of me or even on a bun in a “Shrimp Roll” (the poor man’s lobster roll).

Still I see quite a few people on the internet think these TJ Seafood Burgers are good. So feel free to check them out and make up your own mind.

Personally if I want a real shrimp burger, I would make a REAL 100% shrimp burger, made with chopped shrimp, egg (or mayo) and bread crumbs as a binder, Southern-style. It’s not very hard, it might take 5 minutes of work and probably might cost about the same or a little more but with a way better result and taste way more shrimpy! Also using TJ’s wild frozen RED SHRIMP, they would probably taste great.

SAUCE RECIPE : *I found these tasted good with ZHOUG/GREEK YOGURT sauce (mix 1/2 and 1/2 of each)

These are a Product of Vietnam which farms a lot of shrimp.