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When you want to serve an impressive prawn dish, go for the biggest prawns you can get. They look great on the plate, and if you’re wanting to serve them just as a first course or light meal, one prawn per person suits well. However — very important with large prawns — you should de-vein them before cooking, to avoid a strong, bitter flavour from the intestinal tract.
One of the few exceptions to the de-veining rule is with the freshwater prawns, which have a sweeter more delicate taste than their saltwater cousins. Their digestive tract needn’t be removed. Wairakei’s Prawn Park at Huka Falls Road farms freshwater prawns in a rather unusual way. The species it farms is a tropical fresh water crustacean; the Giant Malaysian River Prawn. This prawn dies in temperatures lower than 15°C or higher than 34°C. And so Prawn Park transfers heat from the geothermal waste waters of the Wairakei bore holes to fresh water from the Waikato River, which is pumped into the prawn ponds. It harvests the prawns when they weigh around 25g and measure 15cm long, washing and chilling them as quickly as possible to retain freshness. When buying prawns — look for glossy, undamaged shells and legs and tails which show no signs of becoming dark or discoloured. If you can bear to look at their eyes, they should be plump and shining, not shrunken or missing, which is a sure sign they have been frozen. Cooked or raw, they should smell fresh from the sea. Refrigerate them as soon as you can after buying them. Store cooked prawns in a plastic bag in the refrigerator until you need them. With raw prawns however, to stop oxidation, it is better to immerse them in iced water in the refrigerator for no more than three days. Cooked prawns do not freeze well, but raw prawns can be stored for up to two months in the freezer, if they’ve been frozen in ice. The way to do this is to place them in a shallow dish and just cover with water. Freeze uncovered, and when they freeze into a solid mass, transfer them into a plastic freezer bag. With any prawns, cooked, raw, salt or freshwater; cook them lightly and quickly to get that melt-in-the mouth texture. Here’s a simple prawn recipe using large prawns. We cooked it on one skillet, on a gas stove in the galley of a 63-foot cruising yacht. It took around 10 minutes to make. Sweet Thai Chill Prawns with Coriander and Oyster Mushrooms 6 large prawns Method Defrost and de-vein the prawns. Remove pan from heat and add about one tablespoon of Thai chilli sauce to the pan. Sauté the prawns in this for a further 30 seconds and remove. Return the pan to the heat, sauté the mushrooms and season. Place mesculin salad leaves on individual plates. On top put one prawn per person plus the oyster mushrooms. Top the prawns with the remaining Thai chilli sauce on individual plates, garnished with mesculin salad leaves. Top the prawns with remaining Thai chilli sauce. For the Thai chilli sauce In a saucepan over a low heat combine two tablespoons white sugar and three tablespoons water. Add one teaspoon each of chopped ginger and chopped coriander, plus one tablespoon of finely sliced fresh bird’s eye chillies at the end. Serve with the prawns.
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