To some, grilling prawn can be a real faff! Do you keep the head on? What about the tail? Do I devein them and if so, how the hell do you that?!?!? Then, what temperature do I cook them at and when do I know they're done? Relax, take a breath and follow these instructions to make simple, tasty and really good looking prawn at your next dinner party.
First, I like to use Tiger Prawn but let's not be too picky here. Get yourself the prawn that work for you and your budget. The trick to this recipe isn't in the complexity of it's preparation, it's actually all about how you skewer the prawn that makes all the difference!
I like to prep my prawn by removing the head and deshelling them but keeping the tail. There's so much tasty meat in there that you don't want to lose any of it. Next, devein them if you're serving them at a fancy dinner but truthfully, I rarely bother as they come pretty clean if I'm honest. But, if you do want to take out the poop, this is all you have to is use a small sharp knife to make a slit along the middle of the back to expose the dark vein then simply pull it out and give the prawn a rinse. That's it.
Next it's worth investing in a set of flat metal skewers. Because they're flat, whatever it is that's been skewered doesn't spin when you flip them. A very important thing when using skewers. In order to keep the prawn nice and juicy you want to skewer them a certain way. Effectively by doing this you create one big prawn and by keeping them close together, they don't dry up.
I fit 10 prawn on each skewer. Take your first prawn (the anchor) and hold it in your hand with the tail pointing up. Now pierce it just above the tail shell. Slide it down your skewer and start adding the next 9 in the opposite direction. That is, hold the prawn with the tail facing down and peirce it through the middle, sliding it down and now dovetailing it into the anchor prawn. Repeat the same way for the remaining prawn.
Set up your Kamado for direct heat but if you have a set of grill grates, this is another great time to use them. Get the Kamado up to 400F (204C). All you have to do to season the prawn is simply coat them in olive oil and sprinkle on some Old Bay seasoning. That's it. Simple!
Place the prawn on the grates and cook the first side for 3 minutes. Flip and cook for another 2 minutes. Take them off the Kamado and let them rest for 2 minutes and then serve with whatever you like. You just can't go wrong with this recipe. It's dead easy to prep and once you get the hang of skewering the prawn with one anchor and the rest spooning together, you'll look like a grilling genius!
Let us know how it goes!
TKC