Cooking with (and freezing) prawns?

Bargain_Rzl

Somehow, despite the fact that I love prawns, I have never got around to actually cooking with them

The thing is, I normally batch cook and then portion it up to freeze, and I would like to make dishes like paella and fish pie which include prawns, but I am always wary about food safety when it comes to seafood. I am guessing that if I bought the standard frozen cooked prawns to include in cooked dishes then they would not be suitable to freeze once cooked.

I was nosing round Aldi yesterday and found a pack of frozen raw prawns. Based on general experience and common sense I'm guessing these will be just what I need...

...right?

chuckles1066

frozen raw ---> cooked ---> refreeze works fine

frozen cooked ---. recooked ---> refreeze is a bit of a Russian Roulette jobbie :eek:

You might get away with it..............but you'll wish you had shares in Andrex if it all goes Pete Tong.

Bargain_Rzl

That's what I thought

Thanks chuckles1066 :A

Oh - and why is is so difficult to find raw prawns in the shops? Does anybody else do them cheaper than Aldi?

~Chameleon~

The only thing I would be wary of in cooking prawns in a dish that's going to be frozen is that they will go rubbery when re-heated. Any chance you can keep a bag in the freezer and just add a few as and when you re-heat the dish?

Even raw prawns only take a few mins to cook and I heard Gino Ginelli say on tv the other day that when making fish pie you should only add them at the very last minute anyway, when everything else is cooked as they will cook in the residual heat of the sauce.

Atalanta

I buy the frozen cooked ones, then use them for quick stir fries when I haven't got much time. I defrost them in a bowl of cold water for about 15 mins ( while chopping the veg and cooking the noodles) then add them at the last minute. Probably not quite as quick as heating up a frozen portion of fish pie, but it is still pretty quick.

Willowx

I'm not sure how much they cost but I've always got raw prawns from Tesco. Never seem to have any trouble getting them.

Bargain_Rzl

And how do you use them, Willowx? Do you ever freeze them after cooking and how does the texture turn out when defrosted/reheated?

Willowx

I've only ever frozen them in a curry and I've not noticed any difference to the taste/texture to the portions I had straight after cooking. I should imagine fish pie would be similar although I'm not sure how well paella would freeze.

champys

Paella freezes fine, and so does kedgeree - or nasi goreng, in which I also use prawns. If you use small ones in a mixed-up dish like that, the texture doesn't matter so much. Thinking about it, I have often frozen leftovers of these dishes even when I used frozen cooked prawns in them, and it has not caused any problems (so far!). Sometimes I use tinned prawns, that is another easy option. The large frozen raw prawns often have too many food miles on them to my taste or have been cultivated in an environmentally unfriendly way, so although I find them very yummy to eat, I usually avoid them.

Bargain_Rzl

I often freeze risotto (successfully) so I'm guessing paella wouldn't be too different.

Bargain_Rzl

champys - thanks for pointing out the food miles issue, I'll bear that in mind.

What's nasi goreng? Is it a curry? Can you tell me how to make it?