Today, I'm at the Steveston Fisherman's Wharf
I'm so excited to be here today where it's spot prawn season here in Vancouver, Canada
and I can't wait to see
how big they've become
Let's go have a look
Spot Prawns are a Summer delicacy in Vancouver, Canada
So today with the spot prawns
I'll be making a seared tail appetizer, a poached tail salad, a soup utilizing the forgotten parts of the prawn
and of course sashimi
First, since some of these guys are still having a party
I'll let them rest them in the fridge till they're about 0-1 degrees celsius
For sashimi, these guys taste a whole lot better after resting it for a day
I'll stick my thumb into the back of the head and twist to get most meat out of the prawn
Now we will proceed to deshell these guys
but If you leave the tail and the last segment of the shell
you now officially get what you would have in a restaurant
So guys check out this one I found
It's spot prawn at it's most natural state and this is what you'll probably find if you ate it live
It's almost transparent you can see the palm of my hand
Lightly slice open the back of the prawn to reveal the veins that tastes like sand when it enters your mouth
With delicate gesture, you can devein the prawn to reveal the sashimi that you can now consume
Before we start working on the hot dishes, let's make the salad
I'll take Sesame oil, ponzu, and sugar at a 1 to 3 to 0.75 ratio to create the salad dressing
Mix it all together, and you got yourself the easiest dressing of all time
In some lightly salted boiling water
lower your prawns in a direction that the boiling water will not angrily splash back at you
After it comes to a boil, stop the heat and let it rest in the water for about 2 minutes
Boil it too long and it may become too hard.
Because heat has progressed through the prawn, it will be much easier to peel than the ones for sashimi
Now these guys are ready to put on a bed of fresh greens
Next, we'll make some deep fried prawn heads
If your shrimps are live, the heads will turn black and bitter if it sits out too long.
So we'll trim off the whiskers, the sharp part of the horn, and the eyes to only consume what's edible
Then slightly pry open the legs from the head to expose the delicious miso
I'll dip this in some potato starch
making sure to coat the miso and to shake off any excess potato starch
I'll deep fry it at 330 degrees farenheit
and watch the four stages of deep frying for the golden prawn head
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Lightly season it with some salt and pepper
resisting the urge to eat it right away because you do not want to eat pain for dinner
Next for the soup
I'll transfer the prawn heads to a pot big enough so you can fill it with just enough water to cover the prawns
and a little bit more water to consider how much water will be lost while its cooking
The same will be done for the sauce as well
We'll be pairing this with the prawn tail appetizer
So add some Water, and a little extra
After bringing it to a boil, and lowering it to a simmer
some scum will form on top so so it must be taken care of
I'll slice some ginger, ends off, skin on, and against the grain for more flavour
Cut an onion in a way that you would imagine your favorite onion ring size to be
and we'll add this to what is the potential of what makes this appetizer so delicious
Now that we got that out of the way we'll forget ab out it for the next 45 minutes
In the meantime, we'll prepare the rest of the ingredients
Here are some vegetables that will be added to the soup
I'll roughly dice the cabbage in big chunks that will add sweetness to the soup
Roll the tomato over on the cutting board with your tiny knife to ever so gently
take out the solid core leaving us with just the soft parts for easy sliceage
Here's how can you can easily dice your tomatoes
This is a baby carrot
These are usually sweeter than you average bigger carrots
With the ends gone
cut them accordingly to a size that you would think would fit in your mouth
After remembering about the soup you left on the stove top
and not actually knowing if 45 minutes had actually passed or not
let's strain out the shells
and before we work on the sauce
I'll add the rest of the vegetables to the soup
I'll eyeball a touch mirin, light soy
and more of the salt to draw out the essence of the prawn
Now we can strain out the sauce as well
but this time, requiring that I try to get every shell into the strainer
so we can use the ladle to lightly push
which looked like it would have worked
or use this wooden stick
which comes in a pair with a Japanese mortar and pestle to crush the prawn heads for the miso
Let's finish up the sauce by adding
mirin and soy sauce at a 1 to 0.75 to 0.5 ratio
and some salt to adjust the taste accordingly
Some potato starch slurry
which is just potato starch and just enough water for it to become a liquid state
to which I'll add to the sauce that was just boiling
stirring while pouring the mixture until it is thick enough
to draw light streaks to the bottom of the pan
and bringing it back to a boil to give it that nice glossy finish
I also thought of adding some yuzu kosho butter to the prawn tail appetizer
So, we'll also add some butter to a warm pan and melt it
Then forget you were melting butter because you were too busy feeding your cat
Add a tiny dose of yuzu kosho to the butter
and this will probably work out better if the butter was not as hot as this.
but this method works as well
Finally Taking the spot prawns, I've cut open with some scissors
I'll lightly coat it in some all purpose flour to quickly obtain the golden brown goodness
then just a few seconds on the other side to get a little colour
Now brush it gently with the yuzu kosho butter
that will melt in your mouth
and using a tool that will not fall in your pan
splash some prawn miso somewhere on the plate that will look nice
Now we can witness the fruits of your labour
That was so delicious
Using the spot prawn
I've showcased the appetizer, soup, salad, and sashimi.
They were all delicious in their own right
but I think my favorite had to be
the seared spot prawn with yuzu kosho butter and prawn head miso sauce
The slight squeeze of lemon
really completed the dish and really brought out the natural flavours
that the spot prawn has to offer
Spot prawn is my favorite food
so I'm glad I could share some of my recipes with you guys
Thank you guys so much for watching
Leave a comment down below
which ingredient you guys would like to see next
broken down
Till next time
see ya