Prawn cocktail will be one of the most popular starters at this of year with the whole world already being prawn crazy. Our appetite is voracious for these fishy tails and the seafood shelf in any supermarket will give you ample choice. They will be fresh or frozen, cooked or raw, peeled or whole, marinated in all sorts of flavours and even ready to eat in your very own little tub with a marie rose sauce. If you look at the labels however you will see they originate in literally the four corners of the globe and all the oceans in between never mind being farmed on a mega industrial scale in Far East food factories.
Of course the word prawn is used mainly in English language influenced regions as they are called shrimp in the United States and anywhere else where American English was dominant. In our part of the world, the term shrimp is used for the very small prawns hence the well known dish potted shrimp in the UK when it’s preserved in butter. I recall for an experiment saying I would pick the prawns off a restaurant menu in LA and the server had no idea what I was referring to.
The wild fished varieties are almost infinite with three distinct regions offering the splits in classification with colours from white, brown and grey to orange, red and pink and sizes from one to a jumbo ten inches in length. The north Atlantic and European species range from the small Norwegian to the Mediterranean Italian, Spanish and French varieties like the crevette rouge which is highly prized. Overcooking these in a French kitchen is a culinary crime of the highest order as I witnessed one time when an apprentice did not watch his timing.
Then the West Atlantic also offers us the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico ones synonymous with the cuisines of that area. Finally it’s over to Asia where Japanese, Indian and Pacific Ocean species like tiger prawns form so much of the cooking there. East and West Africa and South America also provide numerous varieties. I even had the experience of fresh water Yabby prawn fishing in Australia and boiling them in a barrel at the side of a lake which was one of the best foods I ever tasted.
In Ireland we import virtually most of the prawns we buy yet we produce the Dublin bay prawn variety or langoustine which I consider the best to eat. It is so sought after abroad however that the price at around a euro or more per tail depending on the size is way above what the average consumer is prepared to pay. I use to go to one of the Irish prawn harbours and throw a big plastic bag and a tenner to one of the fishermen on the boat after they landed. He would then fill it with a few shovel loads of about two hundred or more live dancing big juicy beauties into the bag. I don’t think this is allowed anymore somehow. There was certainly no overcooking of these.
I think cooking in the shell is still the best method of preparing them by simply plunging them whole into a large pot of boiling salted water, letting them barely simmer for just a few minutes at most and then scooping them out and letting them finish their cooking while cooling down. Peel them while still warm and with a good mayonnaise, squeeze of lemon, some fresh crusty white or soda bread and chilled white wine you will not have a better feed. The heads will also make a delicious prawn bisque soup.
They can be peeled raw as well for stir frying and the dark intestinal vein or gut running along the back should always be removed whether raw or already cooked before eating. In shrimps it’s almost invisible so is edible. Prawn farming is now well established so wild stocks are more sustained as of course they are an essential food for larger fish as well. The farmed versions are not too bad and very affordable but nothing beats the taste of the wild.
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