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In cookbooks, the term “Prawns and Shrimps” are used interchangeably. It depends on the natives of the countries where they live as to which term they will use to call them. It is one of the top-notch sea foods which are globally preferred by the real food lovers. This luscious non-vegetarian food belongs to the same family as lobsters and crabs and seems to be similar in plentiful ways.

As they are decapods crustaceans, which means that they have 10 legs and a hard shell that covers up their body, but their shell is not as hard as other crustaceans. One of the summer’s simple pleasures, prawns makes a healthy and versatile food. So let’s just move ahead and know everything you need to know about this popular seafood.

What are prawns?

Prawn, a marine crustacean which looks similar to a large shrimp is an interesting food source and a major part of the human diet. There are approx 30 different sorts of species of prawns which are commercially fished. Crustaceans, the best and largest quality is majorly found in the coldest waters of the south Atlantic and Pacific under 800 meters deep water. Since they differ in their taste from nutty and sweet flavor, they are highly demanding and costly than the usual lobsters found in the market.

How to clean prawns?

Prawns could given any taste from sweet to spicy depending on the cooking method, but above all, the very first thing you have to take care of is the cleaning process. Let’s see how to clean the prawns properly? In order to peel or clean the prawns, first you need to discard the heads. Afterwards, pull off its legs since they can disrupt its taste. In order to clean the prawns from inside, just work your thumb under its shell at the broad edge and then skim it downward to the tail by pulling off the shell.

You can remove its tail by cutting or pinching it. In order to haul the meat apart, run the sharp chef knife right down the back of the back. Once you are done with the cutting process, then wash it properly and pat dry with the paper towels. Until they are ready to cook, keep them inside the refrigerator or on the ice.

How to Cook Prawns?

There are different ways of cooking them in a healthy ways like- grilling, steaming, stir-frying and cooking them with olive oil. You can cook them as- garlic prawns, crumbed prawn cutlets, old poached prawns and more. Depending on the type of dish that you want to cook, make sure that you check in the right amount of spices and other ingredients you are supposed to add in the recipe.

How to eat prawns?

Depending on the head or non-head variety of the cooked prawns or shrimp you can eat them in a different ways either with forks or with hands. Before you start eating it, sure it’s properly peeled so that you don’t have to unwrap its skin during eating process, ew ew ew…it’s very annoying. Make sure that you if it’s cooked up with the gravy, you don’t forget to try out its juice by cutting it from the upper portion. If there are head and tails, you can cut them off. The freshly steamed prawn is easy to take off with or without head so what you have to do is just take a prawn, hold its head and push that down and pull the skin. It tastes very yummy. Moreover, there are differently cooked prawns and the ways to eat them is also different so it depends what type of recipe you are having.

Prawns as a food source

Prawns are not limited to any particular season, though they are best eaten in the month of summer, but one can have them all year around. They shine in the huge range of luscious dishes that are amazingly suited to the warmer months from simple sandwiches made with well cooked prawns to a party platter of crispy and crunchy prawns with dipping sauces and more.

You can either buy cooked prawns from the restaurants or can also make a delicate salads by transforming a green (uncooked) prawns into lip-smacking favorites such as garlic prawns in a few minutes. Apart from that, you can also use the peeled prawn meat to make prawn mince which is amazing for making Asian-style dumplings, skewers and patties.

What are the health benefits of prawns?

Moreover, a prawn is also good for the health since they are high in protein and by eating them, you and your family is sure to get enough iron, zinc and vitamin E. Moreover, they also contain heart-friendly omega-3 fatty acids.

Different varieties of prawns

1#King Prawns – They are bigger than the tiger prawns and are most popular in Australia. They have a rich flavor with moist, medium-firm flesh. When they are raw, their tail ends are blue. Since they are available all year around, the best time to eat them is from late summer to early winter. These could be better tied with a delicious dipping sauce or in a seafood salad.

2#Tiger prawns – They are large and flavorsome and having a firm flesh, moist and medium flavours. They have the distinctive blue; grey and black strip that after being cooked turn into red. You can find them all year around from late summers to mid-autumn. To make them more lip-smacking, serve them with mayonnaise or aïoli to bragger their thespian colour.

3#Banana Prawns – They are the sweet and mild flavored prawns with medium in size and come up in two varieties- regular banana prawns with red legs and white banana prawns with cream and yellow legs. They are available in mid-autumn. In order to cook them, just chop it into the pieces and make the prawn cakes and terrines. You can also use them in Asian dishes as their sweetness goes well with the spicy flavours.

4#School prawns – They come tiny in size and have a short shelf life with moist and sweet in taste and available in the cooked form. One can find them in late spring to early autumn. To make its taste more scrumptious, you can add the peeled cooked school prawns to fried rice or use them to make a classic prawn cocktail.