The Cookbook Guru – Katie Ate Sizzling Prawns
After the frustration I experienced with the recipe for carrot cake with cointreau soaked sultanas, I thought it only fair to trial a different style of recipe from “What Katie Ate”, the book under scrutiny by the Cookbook Guru.
While I followed the method as prescribed by Kate Quinn Davies, I confess to changing the flavour profile completely. I just couldn’t get excited about the recipe’s inclusion of lime juice and zest with the other ingredents. I felt okay about the garlic and chilli, but not with smoked paprika and parsley? In the end I ditched the garlic completely and made lime, ginger and chilli sizzling prawns.
The dish was simple to make. Most of the prep time was dedicated to peeling the prawns. While the prawns bathed in the marinade, I made the stock which basically looked after itself. I did add a step to the stock making at the outset, sizzling the prawn shells in a little oil helps intensify the beautiful crustaceous flavour imparted into the stock. The recipe uses 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon of prawn broth, but after making it as instructed in the recipe I had one full cup measure so I altered the method a little to maximize the flavour and avoid wastage.
This was a beautiful dish, quickly and easily finished. The flavours were fresh and lively and allowed the prawns to really shine. We enjoyed our sizzling prawns with a squeeze of lime juice, and side dishes of steamed rice and Vietnamese coleslaw.
Yes, I will definitely make this again….
Sizzling Prawns with ginger, lime, lemongrass and chilli
500g green prawns
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups of chicken stock
marinade:
2 kaffir lime leaves
3cm knob of fresh ginger
1 birdseye chilli
1 stalk of lemongrass
1/3 cup olive oil
to serve:
fresh coriander leaves
lime wedges
Peel and devein the prawns leaving the tails intact. Set the shells aside.
Pound all the marinade aromatics except to a paste with a mortar and pestle. Mix together the oil, marinade paste and the prawns and refrigerate until needed.
Rinse the prawn shells and drain thoroughly.
Heat the tablespoon of olive oil in a medium saucepan until shimmering, then add the prawn shells and toss until very pink and fragrant..
Add the chicken stock, bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
Strain the prawn broth and set aside. Discard the prawn shells
Drain the oil off the marinating prawns and set aside.
Heat a cast iron pan over a high heat. Add the marinade oil and all the stock except 1 tablespoon. Bring to the boil and reduce by half.
Add the prawns and continue to cook over a high heat until the prawns are cooked through, about 5 minutes.
There should only be a tablespoon or so of sauce remaining in the pan. If the sauce it still quite wet, remove the prawns and reduce the sauce until it is almost evaporated.
Return the prawns to the pan, add the reserved 1 tablespoon of prawn broth.
remove from the heat and scatter with fresh coriander. Serve immediately
Serves 4 as an entree
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18 comments on “The Cookbook Guru – Katie Ate Sizzling Prawns”
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Please Pass the Recipe by Sandra Gay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Please Pass the Recipe 
I could so very happily eat this for my dinner tonight… and then quite possibly repeat on a weekly basis. Yum!
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Thanks Margot, if only green prawns were a little cheaper….
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That was some meal that you prepared, Sandra. I admire that you are so familiar with Asian cooking that you’re able to completely change the recipe. I often drop ingredients that I do not like but rarely have the know-how — or nerve — to use other ingredients, especially with Asian cuisine. I just don’t have enough experience. I have to do something about that.
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The prawns were delicious, they go so well with simple Asian flavours, ginger lime and chilli is a simply delicious flavour mix
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I have a feeling Katie is not the most experienced cook in the world. Her book is all about the styling and photos
I love a good prawn but hubby doesn’t eat them so sadly I never cook with them. I just buy heaps at xmas to eat with lots of seafood sauce 🙂
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I think your right Sherry, it begs the question though, are recipe books about cooking or voyeurism. Prawns seems to be one of those foods that people either love or hate, I love them with cocktail sauce too
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It sounds fresh!
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Very delicious actually…
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Pingback: Katie Ate Sizzling Prawns | The Cookbook Guru
Reblogged this on Sharing The Food We Love.
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Wow! a treasure trove of tried & recipes by an Aussie cook. I’m going to check this out. I need to get back to enjoying cooking, especially in these summer months. Thank you
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Hi Meg, welcome to PPTR. I hope I can inspire you to get cooking
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Perhaps we should call this recipe, “Sandra ate Sizzling Prawns” as you have ditched all the clashing ingredients from the original recipe, and included all the lovely prawn stock too.
I still can’t bring myself to use olive oil in Asian recipes, although I know plenty of people do. I think I can taste this element which seems to clash. But this could come from spening far too much time in Asia each year, where other oils are used in the initial stages of frying.
I’ve neen making quite a few prawn recipes too, usually ones with fewer steps. The sauce in this one sounds tasty, given its long reduction.
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It was a really quick method (after the stock making) which helped reinforce the delicious prawniness. I can’t bear to discard the shells without first extracting the flavour so it worked for me. I take your point about the oil..
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I am rather fond of prawn shell stock too and find it a flavoursome essential to any prawn or fish curry.
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You are right, garlic sometimes overpowers other flavours. I like the simple lime-chilli flavours here, but wish (whole heartedly!!!) that my husband could eat prawns. I love them, but alas, his system reacts violently with them. Perhaps monkfish pieces – my standard substitute. Sorry about the carrot cake failure, but it actually made me feel a little bit better about a series of failures I’ve been having while trying to bake in this new kitchen – almond biscuits then sweet pastry crust for pumpkin pie. Will try again with both of these and try your tip about grinding almonds.
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Food allergies place meal restrictions on our entire household too, especially at celebration times. If I was in your shoes I’d order prawns whenever I ate at a restaurant to make up for the self denial. Take heart with the recipes letdowns, my spelt shortcrust was not a great success, but I figure you learn more from failure than success
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I do order prawns when we eat out. Plus, when my husband is away, I have seafood loving friends and we get together to have a prawn-fest. But, for family meals, the monkfish is a good substitute as it has a similar texture. So, I am not really deprived! Thanks for the encouraging words – we all have failures, but hopefully learn from them. Having like-minded blog friends to offer suggestions is something to be thankful for.
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