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“Don’t come the raw prawn with me mate”, goes an Aussie colloquialism, meaning don’t try to fool or deceive me. So we were initially skeptical when a food writer attempted to tell us everything we wanted to know, *but were afraid to ask about raw prawns/shrimp. |
Singapore writer Chris Tan set the record right, in an his column “Ask the Foodie” in the Straits Times, and we were won over.
“There is nothing like a really good prawns, he writes, “Whether it’s a jumbo-headed river prawn, a small, sweet wild prawn, a stripy tiger prawn and even a scary-faced mantis prawns with legs and flaps akimbo.” |
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| "A live and lively prawn, when freshly cooked, has a firm and fragrant succulence that is very pleasing, but it is complexly different from the elasticated meat scrunchies produced by chemical means, such as baths in sodium borax, alkaline water, or bicarbonate of soda.” |
| Tan’s prescription for firm, juicy texture is to buy alive, or just recently deceased: Shiny, dark eyes and firmly attached heads, and a smell of seawater. Don’t shy from smelling your prey before purchase. Fishy smelling, it shouldn’t be. |
| “if you encounter a mushy or powdery prawn in a cooked dish, it was either not beheaded promptly, or was repeatedly frozen and thawed.” He suggests removing the heads immediately, then rinsing the tails in saline water before storage; or for green/raw prawns head on, cook immediately. |
| In all cases, he recommends rinsing – some chefs leave under running water for an hour, or for a water-saving alternative, gently rub the meat with salt and corn starch/cornflour, then rinse off. This should remove all alkaline. |
| Our own cure to mushy prawns is high heat. The slower the cooking, the more likely soft flesh. Consequently, steam over already-boiling water, or barbecue on a pre-heated grill, directly over flame, not sides. |
| We wrote to the shrimp guru for further clarification, and here’s his reply: |
| In my experience, cooking temperature doesn't make a huge difference if the prawns are fresh, unless it is very very low (or low and inconsistent) heat for a prolonged time - I have a hunch that this accelerates the effect of any flesh-softening enzymes in head-on prawns. Practically all our common recipes for prawns call for high heat, whether steaming, blanching, stir-frying or deep-frying - there is a general understanding here that one cooks prawns quickly, so overall I didn't think it necessary to mention heat level. There are very few recipes that require the lower heat of simmering, and those that do typically feature a gravy with enough acid or salt to achieve a firm texture. Barbie-wise (barbeque), yes, I also find that cooking the prawns over strong heat from glowing coals gets the best results. In Bangkok I've eaten very good charcoal-grilled large river prawns at the markets, but I find really giant tiger prawns or banana prawns tend not to do so well, as the tail is done well before the head cooks through. |
| Finally, you’ll notice we’ve used shrimp and prawn interchangeably. Technically shrimp are small prawns, but English and American usage (not to mention Aussie Strine and Singlish!) has clouded the terms. We now use them interchangeably. Scampi, by contrast, connotes an especially large prawn, sometimes fresh water, occasionally including Dublin Bay and Mantis varieties. Its alternative usage is a specific Italian cooking style. |
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