HAVE A PRAWNY CHRISTMAS.
Do what you will with the ham and turkey, but let there be prawns. Here’s half a dozen old and new ideas of what to do with them this year. Apart from eat them.
I do believe that sitting in the kitchen on Christmas morning peeling prawns, a cold beer within reach, is one of the finest of all Christmas traditions. As is smashing left-over prawns into a sandwich on Boxing Day.
It just ain’t Christmas without a big, beautiful platter of fresh Australian prawns. Buy them green (raw) and cook ’em yourself (see Ben Shewry’s clever method below), or buy them cooked, and peel them yourself at the last minute. With a beer.
THIS YEAR’S PRAWN COCKTAIL
When Good Food’s national editor Ardyn Bernoth asks you to do prawns for her Christmas feast of recipes for the SMH and The Age, you really need to pull something out of the box. I played with everything from prawn sushi rolls to Thai som tum prawn salad to lobster and prawn san choy bau to split-and-grilled prawns with a Christmassy finger lime butter.
But always, I kept circling back to the idea of just putting out a platter of beautiful Australian prawns with something creamy, crunchy and compelling.
Here’s how it turned out – a sort of Indian-inspired prawn cocktail, with a velvety, turmeric-tanned curry cream, pappadums and a crunchy salad. Full recipe is on Good Food, but I’ve popped the curry cream (reminiscent of ye olde coronation chicken) here for instant reference.
Curry Cream
Not just for prawns, and not just for Christmas. I can see this working for any sort of seafood, as well as chicken schnitzels, fish burgers. Lovely with vegetable crudite also.
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 level tsp Ayam curry powder
3 tbsp natural yoghurt
3 tbsp whole-egg mayonnaise
2 tsp tomato paste
3 tbsp mango chutney
1 tsp turmeric
Sea salt and black pepper
200 g whipping cream
Heat 1 tbsp oil and gently fry the curry powder for 30 seconds, just to cook out any harshness, then cool.
In a bowl, whisk the yoghurt, mayonnaise, tomato paste, mango chutney, turmeric and the cooled curry oil (you may need to scrape it out of the pan with a spatula), adding sea salt and pepper to taste.
Beat the cream until it holds firmish peaks, then fold in the yoghurt mixture and refrigerate until ready to serve.
AND HOW CUTE ARE PAPPADUMS FOR THE CHRISTMAS TABLE?
OR DO WHAT DANIELLE ALVAREZ DOES
In the AFR Mag this week (out December 10), Danielle Alvarez of the beautiful Fred’s restaurant in Sydney shares her dream Christmas Menu, starting with steamed prawns with a ginger and chilli dipping sauce that evokes her Cuban/Florida heritage.
“To an expat like me, nothing screams Christmas in Australia like cooked prawns, especially with a light, spicy, savoury dipping sauce” she says. She serves hers with a pile of baby cos lettuce leaves, fresh coriander, fresh mint, and wedges of lime. Couldn’t be fresher. Check it out in the glossy AFR Magazine with the Financial Review tomorrow Friday (it will go up online as well, but print magazines don’t have paywalls).
OR DO WHAT BEN SHEWRY SAYS
Again for the AFR Magazine, I asked Ben Shewry and Kylie Staddon of Melbourne’s mighty Attica for their Dream Christmas Menu. They start their feast with prawns, but with a proviso. “Prawns to me are not an everyday food, as the strain on wild foods by our population puts pressure on fish stocks,” says Ben, who recommends choosing prawns from the ‘better choice’ list on www.goodfish.org.au.
Ben and Kylie call their first course A Huge Platter Of Interesting Things, which involves sustainably sourced prawns, all manner of chunky raw and cooked vegetables, pita crisps, a cracker of a kimchi dip, cocktail sauce and avocado dip.
I’ll add a link to Danielle and Ben’s full recipes once they’re up online, but give yourself an early Chrissy present with the Magazine tomorrow ( if only for Ben’s kimchi dip, miso sour cream and an amazing grated tomato bread recipes).
HOW BEN SHEWRY COOKS PRAWNS
Bring a large saucepan of heavily salted water (3.5% salt, which is the same as ocean saltwater) to a boil.
Add the prawns, cover tightly, turn off the heat, and allow the prawns to poach gently for 6 to 7 minutes or until just cooked.
Drain and plunge the prawns into iced water for 10 to 15 minutes, then peel and chill until needed.
OR HAVE PRAWNS FOR BREAKFAST
Slather grilled sourdough with crushed avocado, refresh with lime juice and layer with small cooked prawns, finely sliced radish and soft-boiled or fried eggs.
OR MAKE PRAWN TACOS
Quickly toast soft tortillas in a hot dry pan, then top with chopped avo, fresh prawns, jalapeno chillies, Mexican tomato salsa and limes.
OR SERVE PRAWN COCKTAIL CANAPES
Couldn’t be simpler – just pile avo onto corn chips, top with a small prawn or chopped prawns and crown with everyone’s favourite pink cocktail sauce.
Prawn cocktail canapes:
1 avocado
1 tbsp lime or lemon juice
Sea salt and black pepper
2 tbsp tomato sauce (ketchup style)
150 ml good whole-egg mayonnaise
Tabasco or chilli sauce to taste
Half tsp smoked paprika
12 round corn chips
12 small prawns, cooked and peeled
2 tbsp finely snipped chives
Roughly crush the avocado with a fork, then mix in 1 tbsp lime or lemon juice, sea salt and black pepper.
Beat tomato sauce, mayonnaise, Tabasco and paprika with sea salt and pepper.
Set out 12 round corn chips, spread with crushed avocado and top with prawn. Add a spoonful of cocktail sauce, scatter with extra paprika, chives, sea salt and pepper and press send.
SANITY CLAUSE: If, like me, you have to buy prawns on Christmas Eve and drive to the country on Christmas Day, then don’t, like me, leave them in the esky with a big bag of ice. All you will end up with is very soggy prawns that taste of wet cardboard. Pack them with ice bricks instead, or make sure they are completely sealed.
Thanks for reading! And liking, commenting, subscribing, or sharing. Thanks also to Terry Durack for his excellent prawn-peeling capabilities.
I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands and waters upon which I work, live, cook and play; the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. I fully support the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice to be enshrined in Australia’s Constitution.
Prawn cocktail canapés are an inspired idea!
Love the corn chip idea