Homecooking: BC spot prawns feast

Okay so I write a lot of restaurant and takeout reviews, but this will be my first ever post on home cooking. This is because the spot prawn feast we made was so good!

BC spot prawns are available live during the harvest season, which usually starts in May and lasts anywhere from six to eight weeks. You can get them at your local T&T supermarkets or straight from the port in Richmond from local fisherman. One lb can cost you anywhere from $16-20.

If you are interested in getting some spot prawns this season or next season, make sure you buy some earlier in the day! T&T supermarkets are usually out of them by 4/5pm. We purchased ours from Market Crossing in Burnaby.

BC spot prawns – made in 5 different ways

We turned our 3 lbs of spot prawns into 5 different dishes. This portion size was good enough for 4 adults.

Sashimi style

Some people have asked me if it’s safe to eat spot prawns raw like this, and my answer is just that I am not really sure but I haven’t died yet.

I loooove eating spot prawns raw with some soy sauce. Pick the biggest juiciest ones, remove the heads and butterfly cut them and they are ready to eat fresh.

Nigiri

You can also use the raw spot prawn meat to make nigiri (sushi). Season some Japanese sushi rice with rice vinegar and use your hands to shape them into little sushi rice and place the spot prawn on top.

Deep fried shrimp heads

We did not want to waste the shrimp heads, so we added flour to them (no need to dip into egg and batter) and fried them in oil in order to make deep fried shrimp heads. This makes the shrimp heads crunchy and savoury. Also, you can eat the whole thing so you don’t waste a part of the sweet prawns.

Ebi mayo

We did end up panko frying some of the other shrimps to make ebi mayo. This one involves using panko and not just flour to deep fry it, but with some Japanese mayo this dish is complete.

Steamed prawns with sake

The last way we used the shrimp was to have them classic steamed. We threw in the prawns, garlic, green onions and some sake into a steamer. The prawns were still tender and sweet but this dish requires you to remove the shell! If you like brains, you can also suck on the heads for some juicy brain liquids.

Final thoughts

We had a lovely spot prawn feast with our friends. We also made some oyster motoyakis and had ingredients for making sushi rolls. Out of all the different ways we used the spot prawns, I liked eating it raw the most as sashimi. My second favourite way was the deep fried shrimp heads because I’ve only been able to eat these at a restaurant. I was surprised we could make it at home.

In terms of what was the easiest to make, I think definitely the raw sashimi style. But if you don’t like eating raw shrimp, the classic steamed prawns are a great choice and you can steam it with other things as well or make a broth/soup with it.

Hope you all enjoyed this post, which is a little different from my usual foodie posts. Let me know if you would like to see more of what we eat/make at home!

Sincerely, Loewe