Creamy White Wine Garlic Prawns in the Tropics

 

Eating fresh prawns and seafood are synonymous with Christmas and living in Tropical North Queensland. The further North you travel the more seafood becomes the preferred option for a delicious Christmas meal. When it comes to eating seafood, often freshly cooked, chilled, and unadorned is what I prefer, however a plate of home cooked garlic prawns is always a delicious way to enjoy them. 

 This recipe was originally for 600g of prawn meat, so I have just slightly increased the quantities to suit 1kg of green prawns. This was enough for three of us, so to serve four people you could safely increase the quantity of prawns by another 400g to 1400g which would be perfect for Christmas and plenty for everyone as part of a Christmas banquet.  Let's lash out a little bit at Christmas time. There will still be enough delicious garlic wine sauce for everyone and plenty of prawns. There must be plenty of prawns. 

Thankyou to my very special friend Julie who gave me her original recipe for this dish, which I have tweeked just a little bit. It's a real winner and is my forever garlic prawn dish.  Julie loves cooking with prawns as well. I would never freeze cooked prawns because they are never quite the same again and become mushy, however it is quite safe to freeze green prawns and not impair the quality of them, as long as they are thawed out in the fridge. This is a great recipe as every part of the prawn is used imparting so much flavour. The shells and heads are poached in wine to create a beautifully flavoured base and stock, which combined with the cream and garlic creates a rich and delicious garlicky wine sauce. Mr. HRK and my daughter both love this dish, so I think it will now become a signature dish on rotation in my kitchen, when green prawns are reasonably priced. Poaching the shells and prawn heads is a little bit more work than some of the other recipes out there, however the result is well worth it.

I am also very careful when buying fresh prawns, green or cooked, to look at the labels of the seafood distributors or the supermarket and only buy Australian Wild caught if possible.  Sometimes the only ones available are from the prawn hatcheries and that is fine if they are local hatcheries, but the wild caught prawns are far superior in flavor and quality. My overseas readers will have their own sources for purchasing seafood.

Ingredients:

Serves 3-4 people

1 kg raw green King prawns (peeled and the shells and heads reserved) (1400 grams will be a good quantity for 4 people)
1 1/4 cup white wine
50g butter
1 tablespoon garlic infused olive oil
5 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
300ml cooking cream
3 tablespoons chopped parsley

grated fresh parmesan (optional) 
1 cup rice, increase the amount of rice if necessary, or spaghettini to serve (I prefer rice) 

Let's cook:-

1. Shell the prawns, remove the heads, and place the green prawn meat back in the fridge in a covered dish. Place the prawn shells and heads, the wine and a cup of water into a saucepan over a medium heat and poach until the liquid reduces by half. Strain through a fine colander and reserve the liquid. You will need about 1 cup of this stock.
2. Discard the shells and heads.
3. Melt the butter and olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium high heat.
4. Add the garlic and the prawn meat and cook, stirring for 2 minutes until the prawns start to turn pink.
5. Add the mustard, cream and the reserved prawn stock and cook for 2 minutes.
6. At this point if you think you have too much sauce, remove the prawns to a dish and keep warm, and simmer down the sauce gently for about 10 minutes. Removing the prawns stops them from becoming tough. Add the prawns back into the sauce when thickened and reduced sufficiently. However can you really have too much sauce? I found this recipe made the perfect amount of garlic sauce. 
7. Stir through the herbs (I prefer parsley) and toss to combine. Serve the prawns with the rice.  Add the cooked pasta if you are using pasta instead of rice. 
8. Serve with grated fresh Parmesan. (I didn't have any Parmesan this time and honestly it wasn't missed.)

This is a shorter post than many of mine, as leading up to Christmas this year is a busy time. We are in Cairns for Christmas and in the aftermath of Cyclone Jasper which hit North Queensland a week ago, we are also doing some extra cooking for our daughter's friend and her family who have lost all of their possessions after their home was flooded. They are living in temporary accommodation in a motel in Cairns. So we've been shopping this morning and I'll be cooking a lasagne for them tomorrow and making some Christmas shortbread. Shannon is cooking a curry in the slow cooker, and other friends are making rum balls and other traditional Christmas treats. I've also made two plum puddings, so I'll give them one of those. They just want to be able to celebrate a nice Christmas with some home cooked foods with their family and the grandchildren. There are a lot of families in the Cairns area, whose homes have been flooded who are trying to make do. It's been devastating for so many. However friends are pulling together and showing them a lot of support.

You might also enjoy a fresh and delicious Prawn Cocktail as a starter for your Christmas meal.

Thanks for visiting and once again, have a very Merry Christmas.

Warm regards,

Pauline.