Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Because the kitchen gods must be appeased: Salt and pepper prawns! (easier than you think...and quicker too)


I've been having some cooking disaster recently. It all started with the lemon tart....

I decided to make a lemon tart for dessert one evening. Boy, I was looking forward to that. So I started the tart filling, and it seemed like things were going well until I got to the base. Unfortunately for me - I didn't quite have enough butter in the house to make the base. So I decided to go ahead and make the tart - and do the base the next evening Silly me. It didn't turn out well at all! The base burnt, and so I threw it away, and only had the realisation that I could have turned it into chocolate truffles as the last of it went into the compost. Decidedly NOT a good feeling.

I have also bought a slow cooker. The first recipe I tried was lamb shanks, but I made the mistake of buying the wrong wine, and it was so bad we ended up getting a pizza. It's gone back into the cupboard until I gain some cooking mojo back.

So there's my confessional, dear reader! I've made a few disasters recently.

However, something I stumbled upon quite by accident has left me quite excited - Salt and Pepper prawns. In the small town I live in, there are 2 supermarkets, one of which I frequent. They had promised me a delivery of squid would be arriving - so I carefully planned around that and made sure I showed up on the right day. Of course, there was no squid delivery! So instead I bought some raw prawns and decided to make salt and pepper squid, instead (oh, and I tend to make this when the prawns - peeled and de-veined, with tail on - are on special. It's great because it is yummy and quick; I think having to spend hours peeling prawns would take something away from this for me)

A few days later, the squid finally turned up, and after my success with the prawns, I thought I would try with the squid. It wasn't as nice - and was harder to prepare. I'm sticking with the prawns, in future! This is so damn easy; there should be more of it in the world!


Salt and Pepper Prawns

Ingredients

1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 cup rice flour
2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp white pepper
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp chili flakes

oil, for deep frying
500g prawns

Method

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together
2. Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius
2. Heat up the oil until about 190 degrees Celsius (a piece of bread turns golden within a few seconds when dropped in the oil)
3. In about 3 batches, coat the prawns in the mixture and deep fry them. Put cooked prawns on a well lined baking tray (use a few layers of paper) and keep them hot in the oven.
4. Serve with your favourite salad!

2 comments:

  1. Yumm O I'm hungry now after reading that and eyeballing the picture - must go make dinner now! Is:)

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  2. These sound delicious. I love salt and pepper prawns although my recipe uses no flour. I found your blog by chance. I scrolled through some of your prior posts and really like what you are doing here. I'll be back often. I hope you are having a wonderful day. Blessings...Mary

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