Not every journey or experiment in the kitchen is a culinary success, but each and every experience can be a lesson on our cooking journey. Especially with a protein as vibrant and vital as wild-caught seafood, a learning curve is normal when trying to get it just right. Inspired by intrepid Wild Alaskan Company member Wendy Snow Love, we are exploring those moments — the times we over cook, under season, or get distracted and misread the recipe. We all deserve a Recipe Redo once in a while.
Recently on our Facebook Group, Wendy, a member of Wild Alaskan Company since 2018 posted about a serious fish fail. From a messy thaw, to stuck-on shells, to overcooked prawns — nothing went right. It was such a “massive fail,” in her words, that she reached out to the What’s Cooking Tonight Facebook Community to troubleshoot what went wrong. One of the most exciting parts of being a member of the Wild Alaskan Company is the community. There, many of you took time to exchange advice, collectively scratch your heads, and offer encouragement after what sounded like a comedy of crustacean errors.
“I wanted to be humorous. I’ve posted a lot over the years, but usually just when the colors are pretty,” Wendy explained. “I deliberately posted my ‘fail’ because so often people only see the success. But I thought it’s sometimes useful for people to see that, yeah, people who think they’re good cooks can fail too.” Go Wendy!
Wendy has always liked to cook. “But I’m not a natural. I follow recipes,” she emphasized. It was when she made our recipe for Simple Salt-Roasted Spot Prawns that WAC team members Trisha and Kat were inspired to host a “Recipe Redo” with her.
With Wendy’s not-so-simple spot prawn experience in mind, Trisha and Kat arranged a virtual Recipe Redo cooking session with her. They went back to the drawing board and discovered that Kat, our resident recipe developer, had originally written it for a batch of larger spot prawns — so the cook time didn’t suit the prawns Wendy had received in her box. Our spot prawns are wild, after all, and because of this they naturally vary in size. The simple fix that came from Wendy’s Recipe Redo? A more comprehensive range of cook times for spot prawns large and small, now reflected in the updated recipe. Try it for yourself!
With Wendy’s can-do attitude and intrepid spirit in mind, here are our top tips for learning to cook spot prawns:
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Thawing: Thaw your spot prawns like you would any of our wild-caught seafood. Remove from the packaging and thaw in a shallow bowl in the refrigerator for 12 hours for optimal quality in flavor and texture
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Removing the shells: Some recipes call to cook with the shells on, some call to shell before cooking. Either way, using kitchen shears will cut your prep time in half. Check out this quick video to see how.
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Cooking: Wild-caught shellfish varies in size. We do our best to package like sizes together, but check your prawns often while cooking for doneness to avoid over-cooking.
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Spot Prawn Roe: You’ll know you have roe if there’s some orange in the pack. You can save the roe to eat. To make that taste pop, we recommend rinsing off the saltwater glaze using a fine sieve before enjoying. Read more about How to Make the Most of your Spot Prawn Roe on our blog!
Recipes: Use spot prawns in any of your favorite shellfish recipes, but know they cook very quickly! Here’s some of our favorites.
