Prawns recipes help!

competitionscafe

I adapted this from a River Cafe recipe in the Observer food monthly magazine (which had no prawns and basil instead of rocket) - it's quick, delicious and very easy to make, I make it regularly now. Yum!

Lemon, Prawn and Rocket Linguine

enough pasta for 2 (linguine or tagliatelle, De Cecco is a good brand)
handful of rocket leaves, washed
tub of mascarpone cheese (250g)
2 unwaxed lemons (organic ones are always unwaxed)
salt, pepper
prawns (see below)

Cook pasta according to packet instructions, meanwhile gently heat the mascarpone in a pan with 1 tsp of grated lemon rind and 5 tbsp of lemon juice, salt and freshly ground black pepper stirring constantly until smooth and hot but not bubbling. Check seasoning and adjust if necessary. Add prawns to warm them through and remove from heat. Drain pasta and return to saucepan, add sauce to drained pasta, stir in handful of rocket leaves, check for seasoning and serve immediately.

Re the mascarpone - (Sainsbury's own brand one is good and inexpensive - at around £1.10 a tub it's also almost half the price of M&S and Waitrose ones!) For the prawns I prefer raw tiger prawns to cooked and Waitrose has sustainably farmed ones on offer at the moment, I cook them seperately in a small frying pan with butter and a little lemon juice, salt and pepper until just pink - about 3 minutes. Otherwise those small atlantic prawns are an alternative to standard tiger prawns which are not very environmentally friendly. You can also add halved cherry tomatoes to the pasta if you have them.

competitionscafe

Nice prawns, shame about the chemical cocktail.
No longer a luxury item, king prawns have become a staple on our supermarket fish counters - but at what price? Alex Renton reports from Vietnam where improverished producers have adopted some alarming intensive farming practices:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/21/fooddrinks.food

Pitlanepiglet

competitionscafe wrote: »

Nice prawns, shame about the chemical cocktail.
No longer a luxury item, king prawns have become a staple on our supermarket fish counters - but at what price? Alex Renton reports from Vietnam where improverished producers have adopted some alarming intensive farming practices:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/21/fooddrinks.food

Oh yuk! That's put me off Prawns...I wonder how you find out what chemicals have been used in them? Mine normally come from Costco.

hotcookie101

I dont eat prawns but OH does. If I remember correctly cold water prawns (Atlantic) are generally OK, the horrid chemical full ones are warm water farmed (generally tiger prawns etc) where they have destroyed local ecosystems to farm them and have so much disease have to pump them full of chemicals (think intensive chickens but 10x worse :eek:) Not on the Label has a chapter on them.

fish online (MCS) has lists of fish to eat/avoid see here

harvestmoon

Hi all
I have a student daughter who knows I love prawns.
To thank me for having her home over the hols she's been to a street market and bought me a bag of frozen king prawns - you know the ones - shelled but with the tails on ( as if I wanted thanking for having her home!!!)
Anyway, I've defrosted them and they're thoroughly tasteless!
My conscience won't let me bin them!
What can I do to make them 'edible'?
Any advice?? - asap!
Thanks.

Gigervamp

I take it by your post, that you've had a bit uncooked?

If so, could you cook them with a few herbs and spices etc?

foxgloves

I agree with the last post. Make up a batch of your favourite curry recipe and bung them in there. That's what I'd do. I wouldn't be able to throw them away either!

carolinosourus

Garlic butter? Always yummy with prawns. Also maybe cook them with some ginger and chilli?

floyd

Use them in things like prawn laksa, ginger stir fry and thai curries that way they wont need to taste too powerful as the spices will lift them

harvestmoon

Thanks Gigervamp.
The problem is they ARE cooked which is the reason why I'm so stuck!
If they'd been raw, I'd have fried them in garlic butter or chilli.
Thought I'd have them on a salad but they're really disappointing.
Does anyone out there think they'll be ok heated in the above ideas?