Every phase of my Alaskan seafood journey has been met with culinary revelation. It began with the epic a-ha moment when I experienced sockeye salmon for the first time, with its crimson colored flesh and incomparable robust flavor. Then came my first encounter with Alaskan halibut, harvested in the waters of Homer, Alaska — my husband and WAC founder/CEO Arron’s hometown and the halibut capital of the world.
There were many more moments like these — but it was when Alaskan spot prawns came onto my radar that I really understood my seafood menus at home would always be as delicious as they would be dynamic. So, if you've enjoyed cooking the fish that regularly comes in your box, like me, you're going to be excited about spot prawns being back as an exclusive member special. The first time I cooked these, they forever changed up my seafood game. And I’ve been the biggest spot prawn fan ever since.
It’s not that I’m a stranger to shrimp (spot prawns are, by the way, the largest type of shrimp sourced from Alaska). Having been born in Colombia and spent most of my childhood in Miami, I had a unique relationship with the Caribbean, where it was a commonly eaten protein prepared with regional spices and ingredients. But the first time I cooked Alaskan spot prawns became a palate-shifting discovery, a Shrimp with a capital S situation. These morsels were indisputably the absolute best shrimp I had ever tasted. And it became clear that I hadn’t ever truly experienced the glory of shrimp until wild-caught spot prawns came into my world.
With spot prawns in my seafood rotation, I was thrilled to reimagine them for my Alaskan family through meals that reflected my own culinary curiosities. Like spot prawn arepas. Spot prawns summer rolls. And, of course, spot prawns and grits (which I shared last week), with its harmonious sweetness and contrast of textures between delicate spot prawns atop warm, creamy and comforting grits.
I began to realize that with Alaskan spot prawns the scope of what’s possible in the kitchen is actually pretty vast, and that crafting new menus with this ever-special seafood from Alaska would help me to expand my seafood-forward menu options into the world of wild-caught shellfish. Here are some more of my spot prawn faves:
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Garlic Butter Spot Prawns: The WAC recipe team also made these recently during a live event. If you missed it, you can catch the recording here.
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Spot Prawn Cocktail: Thank me later. It’s the best shrimp cocktail you’ve ever had.
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One Pan Mediterranean Bake: This is a dish you can serve any time of year, but I’d try swapping in ripe, seasonal tomatoes to give this a late summer spin.
When I moved to Alaska, I discovered that these succulent prawns — a novel delicacy to me — were the kind of easily accessible, everyday varieties of seafood that you could, on a whim, buy from local fishermen and women selling them out of the back of their pickup trucks in the heart of Homer. That said, you won’t need to go all the way to Alaska to get your spot prawns — we can include them in your next box. You have until September 11 to stock up on packs of spot prawns by visiting your Member Special portal so that you can enhance your own culinary wild Alaskan seafood journey through these incredible crustaceans.
Live Wild,
Monica
Pictured above: My tweaked version of garlic butter spot prawns, sprinkled liberally with cilantro and served with fresh arepas and ripe avocado.
