Spot Prawn Risotto : Happy Mother’s Day!

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A very simple recipe, probably the only tricky bit is finding these amazing prawns. In Vancouver you buy them live just like lobsters. And they do taste similar to lobster and with a similar texture as well, really sweet and tender. They’re incredible. Of course, using any other shrimp would do, but I wanted to feature spot prawns from British Columbia in this post as well as some asian ingredients to mix things up a bit. Hope you enjoy it.

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Ingredients (makes 4 appetizer portions):

Prawns:

4 spot prawns
2 Tbsp vegetable oil or grape seed oil.
Salt to taste

Risotto:

1 cup of sushi rice
1 cup of seafood stock
1 cup of water
1/4 cup mirin wine
1 Tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
3 Tbsp heavy cream
1 Tbsp rice vinegar (Add more to taste)
3/4 cup water + plus more if needed
2 garlic cloves minced
1 or 2 green onions, the white part, thinly sliced
4 shrimp heads cooked (form the same 4 prawns mentioned above)
Sea salt to taste

Garnish:

Black pepper
Green onions, the green part, sliced
Extra Virgin Olive oil
Sea Salt

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1. The prawns. On high heat on a cast iron or stainless steel pan, add some vegetable oil and wait until it ripples. Sear the shrimp for a a couple of minutes on each side. You can flambé with vermouth and salt straight on the pan. Remove the shrimp. Reserve the pan juices if any to be added to the risotto.

2. The risotto. Heat the olive oil in a sauce pan on medium heat. Add the rice and the onions and sauté until the some of the rice starts turning golden. Add the garlic and cook for a few seconds. Add the liquids except for the heavy cream. Simmer for about 30 mins. Stir occasionally making sure nothing burns at the bottom. Squeeze the juice of the 4 cooked shrimp heads into the risotto.  Keep stirring and reducing until creamy. Remove from the heat.

3. Julienne the green parts of the green onions and place in a bowl with hot tap water to soften them and make them more pliable. Scoop the risotto on a plate. Peel the shrimp body but leave the tail on. Place the body and head next to the risotto scoop. Bunch up the julienned green onions and rest that over the risotto. Finish with some black pepper and olive oil.

Happy Mothers Day! Hope you all had something really delicious to eat and a great sunday! Until the next one!

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9 comments

  1. Hi Paul, great to see you posting again. Beautiful photos, as usual. You don’t mention how you kill the prawns. I expect they’d jump away from the hot griddle if you don’t kill them first 😉
    Unfortunately I can’t get live prawns here, but I can get fresh ones (they are about double the price of frozen and quadruple price of farmed and frozen, but much more delicious).

    1. Stefan! Sorry it took me a bit to get back to you. I’m in the US for a week spending time with my girlfriend, and just now I have a computer that’s able to log into my wp account… i can’t from my phone.. very long story, anyways.. Thank you! I didn’t wan’t to get too graphic about the killing process but it’s basically similar to killing a lobster. Cut off the head while they’re still alive (they jump around quite a bit). I put mine in an ice water bath, and that put them to sleep. At sushi places, they’re served with their heads severed placed next to the shelled body and the legs still moving around… it’s not for everybody i guess 🙂 But as fresh as it’s ever gonna get. How are you doing? I’m thinking of getting a new sous vide immersion circulator.. wondering if you had any thoughts on which brands are good out there. Hope you’re doing well!

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