Jane Grigson's Fish Book - Jane Grigson [136]
The odd thing is that these delicate creatures feed on the rubbish of the sea and shore. This tends to be glossed over in modern books on the subject, by the use of genteel latinate words – ‘organic remains’ – and scientific phrases. For realism one has to go to the Victorians who took a very concrete look at the animal life they were describing – ‘If a dead small bird or frog be placed where ants can have access to it, those insects will speedily reduce the body to a closely cleared skeleton. The shrimp family, acting in hosts, as speedily remove all traces of fish or flesh from the bones of any dead animal exposed to their ravages. They are, in short, the principal scavengers of the ocean; and, notwithstanding their office, they are highly prized as nutritious and delicious food.’
Precisely. One has only to think of the hygienic insipidity of a battery hen’s food, and the manure heap picked over by a farmyard hen, to see that fine flavour is not always produced in the way we might prefer.
The word prawn does cover an enormous variety of shellfish these days. The large pink prawn we are used to, Palaemon serratus, the one the French call bouquet rose, is now jostled by deep-frozen prawns from many other parts of the world including the striped tiger prawn from Asia. The situation is further confused by our habit of calling the Norway lobster a Dublin Bay prawn. And in America many of the creatures we label prawns are called shrimps.
This need not worry the cook, apart from plain curiosity. Try all these exotic shrimps or prawns, and you will probably agree that none of them can beat the shrimps or prawns from our own seas. There is no comparison between freshly-caught, freshly-boiled shellfish and the deep-frozen kind – and the smaller the shellfish the more this seems to apply. As to cooking, tiny shrimps and prawns are suitable for eating out of a paper bag, for potting (below), for making sauces. More can be done with the larger ones without spoiling their immediacy of flavour – all large prawns can be used in the same kinds of recipe, so don’t let distant origin and strange appearance put you off.
TO COOK PRAWNS AND SHRIMPS
I have assumed that the prawns and shrimps you buy have been boiled already by the fishmonger. But if you are handed a bucket of live ones, this is what you do.
(a) Bring a big pan of seawater to the boil, plus salt. Or a pan of tapwater, plus enough salt to make a strong enough brine for an egg to float in (see p. 112). Put in the shrimps or prawns. By the time the water comes back to the boil the shrimps will probably be done (i.e. the tiny shrimps, not American large shrimps). Prawns and larger American shrimps will take 5 to 6 minutes further boiling. Be guided by the change of colour and keep trying them. Under-boiled ones are mushy. Overboiled ones are hard.
(b) In The Home Book of Greek Cookery, Joyce M. Stubbs says that prawns lose far less flavour if they are put without water in a tightly covered pan and set over a high heat to cook in their own juice (the mussel system). Shake the pan occasionally, for about 10 minutes. Cool a little before shelling.
TO SHELL SHRIMPS AND PRAWNS
‘Take hold of the creature by the head and tail and straighten it out. Then press head and tail towards each other in a straight line, and afterwards pull them apart. The entire coat of mail will come away in your right hand, merely leaving the edible portion to be tweaked from the head.’
(Pottery by A. Potter)
PRAWN OR SHRIMP BUTTER
In the old days, one had to pound shrimp or prawn meat with the butter but nowadays it is easy to crush the whole thing in a blender. Melt an equal weight of butter, then add the prawn or shrimp mixture to the pan. When the mixture boils, pour through a muslin-lined