Stir-fry Prawns with Peppers & Spinach

Mr. P came home the other day with a large box of frozen raw king prawns. I was going to make something with them Friday night for dinner but we decided on the spur of the moment to go out instead. This was fine by me as after making the Chewy Macaroons and Lemon Curd I was feeling all-cooked-out. Don't get me wrong I like cooking but when I've done what feels to me to be enough, or I'm quite simply not in the mood, then I'm quite happy for Mr. P to take over in the kitchen or invite me out, lol.

In summer we often eat grilled king prawns as they are on the menu practically everywhere here and especially at the little bars on the beach. Once upon a time it was only I who ordered them as Mr. P has a bit of a difficult relationship with anything fishy. He would watch me carefully peel off the shell, savour the meat and then, to his horror, suck out the best bit from the head. However, as time went by he became increasingly inquisitive about these funny-looking crustaceans that I frequently ordered and asked to try one. Well, of course, he loved it! He did baulk for a long time though over sucking out the heads but as it wasn't too much of a hardship for me to take them off of him, the best bit didn't go to waste.

Asking for recipe ideas for king prawns on n.com, I was directed to the BBC Good Food site by KitchenGoddess and there I found this very simple recipe that I decided would be perfect for our evening meal. I love stir-fries and this one appeared to be extremely easy, letting the main ingredients speak for themselves without being overwhelmed by what can sometimes be a plethora of condiments.

I opted to use my carbon steel wok as I felt it could do with a workout to keep the patina up, and also, because it's lightweight, it allows me give everything a good toss around. My cast iron one is heavy and so gets used for stir-fries that do only get to be just that, stir-fried! However, on the plus side, as it's got a flat base, it sits very securely on the hob so it's very good for deep-frying too. Because of the rounded form you get a greater depth of oil for the quantity used than you would in a pan. I have a draining rack that hangs on the side so it's just fantastic for doing tempura.

Back to the recipe. This was a doddle to make, apart from shelling and deveining the prawns, and making the basmati rice to serve with it, I suppose it must have taken all of ten minutes. The recipe says to stir in either soy or fish sauce, I chose fish sauce. The resulting meal was very tasty. Mr. P enjoyed it very much although I thought a little chilli wouldn't have gone amiss to give it a bit more depth. However, I must say that when prawns are cooked in their shell I feel they are juicier and more flavoursome. Searing the delicate flesh in the wok seemed to toughen them, so I'm not so sure that stir-frying is the way to go. It would be good to hear other people's opinions on this.