Spot Prawns with Orange and Tequila

3 tablespoons olive oil

14 ounces fresh spot prawns

2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely sliced

Sea salt and black pepper

Generous splash of tequila

Juice of 1 or 2 oranges

Heat a large skillet, then add the olive oil. When hot, add the shrimp with the garlic and some seasoning. Pan-fry for 2 minutes on each side until the shrimp turn bright red and opaque.

Add a splash of tequila, carefully and standing well back as it may flambé. Pour in the orange juice and let bubble for a few minutes until the liquid has reduced. Transfer to a warm plate and serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Banding together for sustainable seafood

If you try to minimize the environmental impact of the food you eat, you likely know how tricky it can be to source sustainable seafood.

The first step in this epic plight is to visit seachoice.org, where you’ll find a downloadable wallet card of Canada’s Seafood Guide.

The card places seafood into three different categories: best choice, some concerns or avoid. On the SeaChoice website, you can also search the database for specific items, geographical areas and methods of capture.

Bluefin tuna has been so heavily over-fished that the World Conservation Union lists southern bluefin tuna in its grouping of most threatened wildlife. Their numbers have declined by 97 per cent during the last four decades.

You can even download drop cards to leave in your favourite stores and establishments, urging them to offer sustainable seafood choices.

However, if you’re visiting a Fairmont hotel or resort, you won’t need to drop any hints. The international chain recently announced it will remove threatened fish species, such as Chilean Sea Bass, a. k. a. Patagonia Tooth, and Bluefin Tuna, from its restaurant menus and align itself with reputable seafood watch organizations (such as Canada’s SeaChoice).

By making this commitment, Fairmont exerts considerable pressure for healthier practices, which flows down to suppliers, who then offer better choices to restaurants. (That’s what we call the opposite of a vicious circle.)

Fairmont will also make it easier for guests to make informed food choices by identifying responsible seafood choices on its restaurant menus.

Now, if only the federal government would help ensure seafood in stores and markets is as well-labelled as it will be in Fairmont restaurants!

The David Suzuki Foundation has just launched a campaign that hopes to push us in that direction by calling on federal government officials to implement stricter seafood labelling regulations.

“Canadians across the country are using SeaChoice’s seafood guide to empower them to eat well and to support sustainable fisheries, so that future generations can eat healthy fish too,”writes the foundation in an action call. “However, in order to make best use of the SeaChoice consumer guide, our seafood needs to contain information about exactly what kind of fish it is, where it was caught, how it was caught or farmed and whether it contains any additives or health warnings.”

The foundation is calling on concerned Canadians to send letters asking that Canada create national seafood labelling requirements that allow Canadians to make responsible sustainable seafood choices to: the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Gail Shea; the Minister of Agriculture, Gerry Ritz; and the president of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Carole Swan.

Visit davidsuzuki.org and then click on “Conserving our oceans” to send these letters in the click of a mouse.

The foundation also encourages concerned citizens to share their letters with local seafood restaurants and grocery stores so that seafood retailers know what their customers are looking for.

Tell us what you’re doing to protect the environment. E-mail

egilchrist@theherald.canwest.com

© The Calgary Herald 2009

2 ripe cantaloupes, peeled, seeded and roughly chopped

2 tsp (10 ml) olive oil

1/2 tsp (2 ml) grated lemon grass (available at asian food markets and some major grocery stores)

2 tbsp (25 ml) grated fresh ginger

1 tbsp (15 ml)minced shallots

1/2 cup (125 ml) fish stock or chicken stock

1/4 cup (50 ml) plus 1 tbsp (15 ml) sake (Japanese rice wine)

18 spot prawn tails, peeled

1lb (500g)dungeness crabmeat, cooked and picked over for cartilage

3 green onions, green part only, finely chopped

1/4 tsp (1 ml) sambal oelek or hot chili sauce

In a food processor or a blender, puree cantaloupe until smooth, 30 to 40 seconds. set aside.

Heat 1 tsp (5 ml) of the olive oil in a saucepan on medium heat.

Add lemon grass, ginger and half of the shallots and saute for about 1 minute. stir in fish (or chicken) stock and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 1 hour.

Strain the stock through a fine-mesh sieve and discard any solids.

Return the stock to the saucepan, add the cantaloupe puree and the 1/4 cup (50 ml) of sake and reduce for 30 minutes on low heat.

Season with salt and pepper, being careful not to add too much salt. (the crabmeat is salty.)

Cover with a lid and keep warm on low heat.

Heat a frying pan on medium heat. add the remaining olive oil and shallots and saute for 1 minute.

Stir in spot prawns and the remaining sake and saute until spot prawns are just cooked, 1 to 2 minutes.

Add crabmeat and toss gently to warm through, then remove from the heat.

In a small bowl, gently combine green onions, sambal oelek (or chili sauce) and the seafood mixture.

To Serve: ladle hot cantaloupe soup into individual bowls. spoon one-sixth of the seafood mixture into the middle of each bowl, then serve and enjoy immediately.

serves 6.

18 April 2008

By Andrew Morrison

Announced on Monday, April 14, at the 19^th Annual Restaurant Awards, held at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre Hotel.

Over 900,000 tonnes of Tiger prawns are harvested annually, roughly two- thirds coming from warm-water farms that dot the deltas of Southeast Asia. It’s a relatively new and very profitable industry in producer nations like Vietnam, and it has badly wounded the communities that support it. Along with environmental damage have come disease, debt, and dispossession. Despite these sad facts (not to mention that the prawns often feast on antibiotics and growth hormones), the prawns remain an attractive commodity on the global market. Predictable by virtue of their blandness and cheap availability year-round, farmed Tigers will always be an easy sell. Mushy in texture and almost devoid of flavour, they remain manufactured ghosts, shadows of the real thing. (Indeed, if this were a piece on the worst ingredient of the year, farmed prawns would most certainly crack the shortlist.)

The strongest argument against them is that we have always had a superior alternative sourced by fishermen right here at home. Sweet and delicately flavoured, firm on the incisors and succulent on the molars, the B.C. spot prawn—largest of all our local prawns—is one of the finest and best-tasting crustaceans that our oceans surrender. And the fishermen use baited traps on buoy lines, keeping habitat damage and by-catch to a minimum. Supply of the spot prawn has long been ample, but local demand had been minimal. The short season, six- to eight-weeks beginning in May, made it a delicacy overseas and doomed the domestic market. Ninety percent of the catch was whisked to Asia, the remainder going to the few restaurants and markets around B.C. willing to pay a premium price. Enter the Chef’s Table Society. Last May, the local collective of conscientious food lovers, chefs, and restaurateurs helped to develop and promote Vancouver’s first day-boat spot-prawn fishery. To raise public awareness they hosted the 1st Annual Spot Prawn Festival at False Creek’s Fisherman’s Wharf. The event introduced Vancouver chefs and home cooks to the best local ingredient they’d never heard of, and ensured the spot prawn a place on our more forward-thinking menus for years to come.

2nd Annual Spot Prawn Festival: Fisherman’s Wharf, May 2. For more information visit Chefstablesociety.com

Source:  Vancouver Magazine

It is not as though we go out of our way to choose non-sustainable products.  Largely it is a slick marketing scheme that shows the finished product much differently than its origin.  Price often is a factor.

This  Coffee House blog touches on sustainability  and a link to a  Prawn Consumer Guide.

The majority of prawn harvesting techniques and resulting available products that we find in local markets are less than acceptable to consumers today.  Our spot prawn by trap fishery is recognized worldwide as an acceptable, recommended and responsible fishery that provides a high quality product.

BC Prawns are choice.  Support our local industry.

These prawn cakes are perfect served as an appetizer or a first course. The flavor is so good, no sauce is necessary.  It ia a little overkill for the delicate flavour of spot prawns but

3 lbs. BC spot prawns

1½ T. Hunan red chile sauce (available in Asian section of supermarkets)

4 eggs

2 T. chopped parsley

2 tsp. lime juice

4 T. ranch dressing

1¾ cup panko bread crumbs

1 T. butter

Steps: Put 2 quarts of water into a 4-quart pot, add 2 T. salt, and bring to boil. Add the prawns and cook for 2 minutes. Remove the pot from heat, drain the contents in a colander; set aside the prawns to cool. Remove the tails; discard the body. Peel the tails and remove the black vein. (Cleaned shrimp should yield about 1 pound). Coarsely chop the shrimp meat and set aside.

Put the chile sauce, eggs, parsley, lime juice and ranch dressing into a medium mixing bowl; mix well using a wire whisk. Add the shrimp meat, then panko. Mix well. Let the shrimp mixture rest for ½ hour before forming the shrimp cakes. To form the cakes, divide the mixture into eight equal balls, press each into a flattened cake; set aside on a large plate.

Melt the butter in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the prawn cakes to the pan (do not crowd the pan, do in batches). Cooking each cake 3 minutes, then turn and cook it 3 minutes more. The cakes will be golden brown when done. Serve immediately.

This dish was invented one night when I was craving some pasta, and it quickly went on the menu. The pasta is just coated rather than swimming in sauce. Serve this meal with a light Macon Chardonnay or a New Zealand Chardonnay.

convert Ingredients
2 1/2 cups garganelli or penne pasta
Olive oil

Sauce
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup dry white wine
4 sprigs thyme, plus 2 sprigs with leaves removed
1 teaspoon heavy cream (optional)
1/4 pound unsalted butter (1/2 cup)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon fine lemon zest

Pasta Glaze
1 cup chicken stock
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tomato, peeled, seeded and finely chopped
1 tablespoon chopped chives
2 tablespoons julienned flat-leaf parsley
1 teaspoon fine minced lemon zest

Prawns
12 large prawns, peeled
1 tablespoon grapeseed oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon minced garlic
1 small shallot, minced

Method

Prepare the Pasta
1. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the pasta to al dente stage. Strain without rinsing the pasta. Toss with a small amount of olive oil. Spread on a flat baking sheet to air dry-this step allows the starch to remain on the pasta, which makes sauces cling better. You can do this ahead of time and store the pasta in resealable plastic bags.

Prepare the Sauce
1. In a small pot, combine vinegar, wine and the 4 sprigs thyme. Reduce to a syrupy consistency. Remove thyme sprigs. Whisk in cream-this step will prevent the sauce from separating. Remove from heat and whisk in butter a bit at a time. If sauce cools too much, return to low heat, but do not let it boil. When butter is incorporated, add lemon juice and zest along with thyme leaves to mixture. Season with salt. Keep warm.

Prepare the Pasta Glaze
1. In a large sauté pan over medium heat, reduce stock by half. Whisk in butter. Add the pasta and toss to warm through. Add tomato, chives, parsley and lemon zest, and season to taste with salt and freshly ground white pepper.

Prepare the Prawns
1. Season prawns with salt. In a nonstick frying pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. When the pan is lightly smoking, add the prawns and quickly sauté. When prawns are pink on one side, add butter, garlic and shallot. Turn prawns and continue sautéing until cooked through. Remove from pan and keep warm.

Assemble
1. Over low heat, add the pasta and 1/4 cup of the lemon and thyme sauce to the prawn juices. Toss until thoroughly warmed. Divide among 4 large bowls. Place 3 prawns on top of the pasta. Drizzle warm sauce on top of the prawns and around the plate.