Story: Prawn Cocktails
Episode: 8
Presenter: Caroline Taylor
Air Date: 10th November

Chef Caroline Taylor shares one of her favourite off-duty treats — a simple yet delicious prawn cocktail with dill mayo on a puffed-up cracker.

Ingredients

• 500g Raw prawn meat

Poaching liquid ingredients

• 2 tsp chicken or seafood stock powder or 500ml liquid stock
• 1 tbsp ginger roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp garlic roughly chopped
• 1 cup orange juice

Cocktail sauce ingredients

• 1 cup mayonnaise
• ¼ cup tomato sauce
• 1 small packet dill, chopped small
• 1 swig of tabasco sauce
• 2 tbsp white vinegar
• Salt and pepper to season

Method

• Using a wide, shallow stock pot, fill it with water to about the 2/3 mark and bring to a low simmer. Add stock powder, garlic, ginger and juice and keep simmering.
• Gently add in the prawns and let poach for around 2 minutes or until they turn red, and the meat is firm. They will keep cooking once you bring them out so be sure not too over cook. That’s when you get that terrible chalky texture.
• Make an ice bath and cool prawns down immediately, then set aside.
• Once cooled, roughly chop up into small 1/2cm pieces, set aside.
• To make the cocktail sauce, add all the ingredients together and mix well. You can add a squeeze of lemon or even grate the rind in if you want more zing.
• Season to taste and then add to the chopped prawns and coat thoroughly. Add in the sauce a bit at a time so you don’t have too much sauce and not enough prawn.
• To plate: use an organic shaped tortilla (the black ones look really effective!) or some puffed up papadums in the microwave. I puff up rice paper rounds in some oil in a pan (deep fried) but not everyone is up for deep frying. Another great way to enjoy these is with those seaweed snack papers you find in the supermarket and eat them like a little taco, so amazing!
• Spoon the mixture onto your cracker of choice and serve on a platter with gum leaves to help stabilise the crackers and finish with a zest of lemon and fresh dill or chives, yum. Serve immediately to avoid the crackers going soft.