Garlic Prawns

October 21, 2003

We have just returned from spending a few days in Brisbane, Australia, catching up with our elder son Ben and spending a leisurely time viewing the sights and sampling the local food and wine.

The restaurant industry there is alive and vibrant and we certainly enjoyed some excellent meals.

I love seafood and Brisbane has these wonderful crustaceans called Moreton Bay bugs. They are not the most attractive thing in the world but they yield a delicious mild lobster-like flesh and are best served halved, grilled and simply flavoured. I had some done this way, with a little lemon thyme and couldn't fault them.

Another taste treat for me was crocodile. After visiting Australia Zoo just out of Brisbane and viewing the huge crocodiles at one of the show events during the day, I was a little bit curious to know what they tasted like. My wait was short. They popped up on a menu the next night, marinated and herb-crumbed and I couldn't resist. Something between fish and chicken in texture and appearance. I learned the restaurant's supply of croc meat comes from Koorana Farm which has some 3000 crocodiles in residence. I would rather eat a croc than have one eat me so I did my bit in keeping the population down!

While I was eating these delicacies, The Spouse was sampling sandcrab lasagne in a creamy crustacean sauce and Ben was checking out a chargrilled and chilli marinated octopus dish. I did a quality check on both and they were totally delicious. The octopus was surprisingly tender.

If prawns are on the menu, my decision is already made for me. In one Sunshine Coast restaurant I had a fresh and tasty prawn salad. But my best dish of these was a wonderful plate of garlic prawns, served on a salad with a tasty dressing.

When I returned home to the wind and cooler temperatures of Wellington, the box of whole raw prawns in the freezer beckoned me and I had to recapture the memory of our holiday in the sun.

Garlic Prawns

500g raw prawns, defrosted if frozen
4 gloves garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon chilli paste
2 teaspoons lime juice
200g snow peas
salad greens
4 tomatoes
1 small Lebanese cucumber
1/2 red pepper cut into slivers
1 avocado, peeled and sliced
handful of torn basil leaves

Remove the heads and most of the shell from the prawns, leaving the tail on. Devein. Place in a bowl and stir in the crushed garlic, 1 tablespoon oil, chilli paste and the lime juice and set aside to marinate for an hour.

Meanwhile take your serving plates and make an individual salad on each with the salad greens, tomatoes, sliced cucumber and red pepper. Arrange the avocado slices around the edge.

Heat the remaining oil in a non-stick pan and when hot add the prawns and the snow peas which have been topped and tailed. Stir-fry until the prawns turn pink and the snow peas are heated through but still crisp.

Spoon onto the individual salads. Sprinkle with the basil leaves.

For the dressing mix together:

4 tablespoons grapeseed oil
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon finely chopped spring onion

Whisk together and pour a little over each serving.