Salt Baked Prawns
by Val CucineSalt Baked Prawns
Rated 5 stars by 1 users
Category
Main Course
Servings
4-6
Roasting shrimp on salt has a number of benefits. It draws out water from the shrimp and shells so they cook perfectly and quickly, without drying out. They remain sweet and plump, and perfectly salted. This salt-baked shrimp is like classic beach-bar peel-and-eat shrimp, except instead of steaming flavor away, it’s concentrated in a dish that’s as simple to prepare as it is spectacular to serve to guests.
Ingredients
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1 pound of good quality prawns, trimmed
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2 pounds of coarse sea salt
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½ lemon
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½ teaspoon of honey
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½ teaspoon of paprika
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½ cup of “home-made” mayonnaise/aioli
Coarse kosher salt
Cayenne powder (optional)
Directions
Clean the prawns by rinsing them thoroughly and remove the legs and the whiskers on the head with a good pair of kitchen scissors. Keep the heads of the shrimp, do not remove them.
Place the kosher salt evenly on the metal baking tray & line the prawns on their sides in a row over the coarse salt.
Preheat to “ROAST” @ 400F/205C. The oven needs to be very hot for this dish.
Cook the prawns in the hot oven for 8 minutes, take the baking tray out of the air fryer, turn the prawns over and bake for another 7 minutes.
During the cooking process of the prawns, you can make the “paprika mayonnaise” by adding lemon juice, paprika, honey and cayenne (optional) to the mayonnaise. Mix the mayonnaise gently and place it in a small container.
Remove the baking tray from the oven, take each shrimp out and clean off the coarse salt and place them in a small bowl or a plate. If you don’t want diners to fuzz with the prawn shells, you can remove the middle section of the shell, from the bottom of the head to the lest section before the shrimp tail.
Eat the prawns by taking the tail section, pull off the meat from the head. You can dip the prawn in the aioli and savor the complexity of flavors.