Calling All Prawn Lovers!

THIS month's Cooking Corner will show you how to prepare a couple of small plate presentations using cooked prawns, ideal to be used as a starter or simply as a light meal.

Because good quality cooked prawns need very little embellishment to enhance their beautiful briny flavour, we are going to follow the ‘K.I.S.S.’ principle and keep the flavours simple and distinctive.

PRAWN AND ASPARAGUS WITH GREEN LEAVES

The ingredients in this recipe partner each other beautifully.

Ingredients

• 1 quantity of salad greens
• 1 bunch fresh asparagus
• 500g cooked prawns, peeled
• 1 egg
• 2 rashers bacon or prosciutto
• 3 tablespoons flat leaf (Italian) parsley
• 2 tablespoons Bertolli extra virgin olive oil
• juice 1/2 lemon
• freshly ground black pepper

Preparation

Wash the salad greens and dry the leaves thoroughly. Drying the salad leaves enables the dressing to adhere to the leaves and not just drain off onto the plate. Steam the asparagus spears until they are just tender and cut the steamed asparagus spears into thirds.

Put the peeled cooked prawns into a large bowl. Place the egg in a saucepan of cold water, bring to the boil and allow to boil for one minute. Remove the egg and place in a bowl of cold water to stop any further cooking. Popping the egg into a bowl of cold water also reduces the dark ring around the yolk.

Grill the bacon (or prosciutto) until crisp. Remove from the heat, drain on some paper towel and crumble the bacon into small pieces. Chop the parsley roughly.

Place the asparagus, bacon pieces, and chopped parsley in the bowl with the prawns and mix gently. Remove the shell from the egg and, using a fork, break the egg up into large pieces. To make the dressing, mix the olive oil, lemon juice, and black pepper in a screw top jar and shake vigorously.

To assemble the completed dish, place some of the salad leaves on small individual plates, adding a generous serving of the prawns, asparagus, bacon, and parsley to the salad leaves. Top with a little of the egg and drizzle with the olive oil/lemon juice dressing.

THAI PRAWNS

A simple, distinctively Thai dressing to serve with the prawns either as a dipping sauce or as a dressing.

Ingredients

• 1kg cooked prawns, peeled
• 1 finely chopped stem lemon grass, white part only
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped mint
• 1 tablespoons finely chopped coriander
• 1 tablespoon Thai fish sauce
• 2 tablespoon lime juice
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 small red chilli, finely chopped (optional)

Preparation

To make the dressing, combine all the ingredients with the exception of the prawns into a bowl.

To serve, place the prawns on small individual serving plates with either a small bowl of the dressing as a dipping sauce or drizzle the dressing over the top of the prawns.

The seafood in this column was supplied by Sam’s Seafood at Hamilton, ph. (07) 3268 7088.