Inspired by Adrian’s recent trips to New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico for work. He has been talking about the traditional boiled shrimp and crawfish that he sampled there since he has been home. Checked out a variety of recipes online but most featured brand name spice mixes that we don’t easily find on the shelves here in Australia. Luckily Adrian had brought home a container of authentic “Slap Ya Mama” Cajun spice mix and with some research into what goes into Zatarain’s crab and shrimp boil mix, we turned out and excellent result that Adrian assures me is very authentic! We held back on serving the shrimp on newspaper but still got our hands dirty like real Southerners do! Great light dinner after a lovely visit to the Sydney Fish Markets on a sparkling Sydney winter’s day to pick up “small” prawns that are needed for this recipe.
Ingredients:
1kg small green prawns or shrimp
2 corn on the cob
2 tablespoon(tbspn) hot cayenne pepper
2 tbspn Slap Ya Mama or additional cayenne pepper and onion salt
3 dried chillies
2 tbspn onion salt
2 tbspn dried thyme
1 large brown onion cut into quarters
2 sticks celery chopped
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
2 juicy lemons
2.5-3 litres water
On the side:
Crispy bread and butter
Louisiana hot sauce or Tabasco
Lemons to squeeze over prawns
Method:
Put water into large stock pot
Add all spices, onions and celery(not lemon) into water and bring to boil
Boil for 5 minutes to let water absorb flavours of spices
Add corn and boil for 10-15 minutes until almost done
Add Apple cider vinegar
Add juice of lemons and lemon halves themselves into water
Bring back to boil
Add prawns and boil for 5 minutes
Strain prawns and corn into serving dish
Warm bread to crisp up and serve immediately with prawns and corn with sauces and spices on the side.
spicy, light and easy dinner
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