King Prawns

[gdallas]

Help, I love fresh King Prawns, and I'm sure I've seen Chefs on the TV cook them in their shells. Fine! However on some programs the chefs insist that the prawns are shelled and de-viened before cooking. O.K! How do they manage to remove the intestinal tract if the prawn is cooked in its shell? Peeling a prawn is easy, cutting out the black tract is messy and I'm not very good with a knife. Is it all just a chefy presentation thing? Any ideas anyone?

[the charlatans]

Hi
If you de-shell a prawn you should be able to run a sharp knife along its back which will open it up enough to take out the intestinal tract.

Fantastic way of cooking prawns - snap its head off and clean out the guts, take a big sharp knife and cut the prawn open from tail to tip as to 'butterfly' it. Marinate in a good dollop of oil, chilli (easiest from a 'easy chilli' jar) and chopped ginger and garlic for about 5 or 10 minutes. Then fry on a hot griddle or frying pan. Serve with salad, bread and drizzle some olive oil and lemon juice on. My mouth is drooling writing this. The prawns cook in their shells and keeps them very juicy. If you are worried about the intestinal tract this could be removed once the prawn has been 'butterflied'.

Let us know how you get on.