Back again to The Moroccan Collection by Hilaire Walden for this lovely recipe that attracted me because the prawns are cooked shell-on. I found stir-frying shelled prawns toughened the delicate meat and so here I was hoping for a more succulent outcome. Also I thought the use of spices would give a more subtle and delicate flavour than the fish sauce used in the stir-fry recipe.
Wow, this is how prawns should be! Really juicy and full of flavour, we both loved this dish. It's incredibly easy to do too and is how I will be cooking them from now on ... it's even better than doing them on the grill. I served this with a delicate rice dish I found in the same book, Rice with Tomatoes, Advocado & Black Olives - recipe below.Moroccan Prawns with Spices - Serves 4
500g raw tiger prawns in their shells
4 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped
salt
lemon wedges to serve
Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the garlic and cook until it becomes aromatic. Stir in the cumin, ginger, paprika and cayenne pepper, heat for about 30 seconds, then add the prawns. Fry quickly, stirring, until they turn pink. Stir in the coriander and season with salt, heat for a further 30 seconds, then serve the prawns with the cooking juices spooned over and accompanied by lemon wedges.
8 comments:
Great pic, Pistachio!
I know you started a whole discussion about prawns here and on n.com. It's a discussion I'm quite interested in. As a lapsed vegetarian, I'm still learning how to cook various types of meat and seafood. I got some tiger prawns the other day and I wasn't sure how to prepare them. If you leave the shell on do you devein them though? Some of the ones I got had a lot of dark stuff, which I thought I should get rid of. Was I wrong?
And as a lapsed vegetarian I'm a bit squeamish about having a plateful of prawns with all their parts still attached _ legs, feelers etc. Do you think I'd get over that?
The prawns and the rice must have been really lovely together. Healthy too!
KJxx
Hi Karen,
Mr. P used to be put off by the prawns being head and shell on but he's found out how much better they taste than shell off, and so now dives in with relish.
If you bought yours shell on you are still going to have to shell them, whether before or after cooking. If you are going to feel squeamish about this I can't say, I have no problem with it at all. However, if this seems daunting you could perhaps buy them already shelled to start off with.
If you wish to devein shell on prawns you can cut along the shell with small sharp scissors to create an access, but it's going to take quite a lot of time to devein say 500g of prawns. Quite frankly I don't bother with prawns this size. With bigger prawns that have a larger digestive tract it's recommendable to devein, otherwise you could end up with some sand or grit in there.
I do hope that has helped you a little.
pi xxx
These look delicious. I love shell on prawns. I used to be a bit squamish about them and found it hard to remove the shells properly but after plenty of practice it is much easier. My OH's Mum always likes to suck out the stuff left in the head but that is one step too far for me!
Pi, these look fantastic!
xx
Mmmmm!!! I love prawns so much. Yummy, Pi!
Kathryn x
These look delicious! I wish that decent, large prawns weren't so expensive here because they really do taste the best like this! I love all the spices too!
Just made these tonight, will try to post a picture tomorrow on the pantry.
Thank you for this lovely recipe.
Francesca x
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