Prawns - Warning! Has violent content!

I tried something new last week.
I had planned out my menu for the week and for my online grocery shopping, but I just needed one more meal idea, and my brain was a blank. I'm kind of at that stage where I'm getting really tired of cooking and eating the same old thing, just because it's familiar and easy and I can do it quickly with my eyes shut.

So I picked up my new Annabel Langbein book - actually it's her first book, the Free Range Cook, but new to me, because I've only just bought it - and said I would cook the first thing that I saw when I opened up the book. And it fell open at Prawn and Coriander Spring Rolls.

I added the ingredients to my online shopping, and had to order prawns. Normally, I'll just get the pre-cooked frozen packets of shrimp when I'm cooking shrimp, but I've actually never cooked Prawn before. I know they are super-popular in Australia, for some reason. I don't think I know any Australians who have not - at some point - mentioned how much they love Prawns.

I love Prawns too. Actually, I love any seafood or shellfish. I could live on the stuff. Maybe it's my Maori heritage that makes me love it so much. I do know that my husband is not so keen on it, so I don't cook it that much - are not I a considerate wife! But I had to this time - I had no choice really - as Annabel told me to cook Prawn and coriander Spring Rolls for dinner.

But Countdown didn't have the pre-cooked packets! So I had to order fresh. That's ok - that's better! But what I didn't realise was that they would arrive in their natural state.

With Heads and Shells and Legs and Tails. Intact.

Now, if you know me - you will know that I should probably be vegetarian, because I hate killing anything. I don't even like fishing. I save ants. I save spiders. I even save worms. And I do not like to know that my meat has had to be killed. Yes, I am one of those who would rather pretend that every chicken I have purchased at the grocery store, and every packet of beef or mutton or pork has come from a lovely green, hilly farm and been shot in the paddock while it was eating a large bounty of food, and was dead before it hit the ground. What can I say? I'm an idealist.

So when the prawns arrived with head and tail and shell and legs all intact, I kind of freaked out. But then, like any good kiwi girl realised that if we were going to eat that night, I better deal with it. So I looked it up on youtube. "How to Peel A Prawn" and this is the best clip that I found.



So I got to work and tried not to look the Prawn in the eye. Hugh came and helped me. I think he enjoyed it more than I did. But while I was pulling the head off, and feeling like a murderess, all this yucky stuff squirted out. So I gave up pulling the heads off and just did this:

But then I had to pull off its legs and shell and then tail. Ughh - I hated doing it. But after about 30 minutes I had a nice pile of prawn meat and a nice pile of heads and tails.

But it was kind of worth it in the end, because Prawn are so pretty to photograph, and the Spring Rolls were delicious and a big hit with everyone, even the small children. There were none left over, that's for sure!

And now, just to make us all feel more civilised once again, I will finish with a photo of an avenue of Pink Blossom, which is blooming wonderfully at our school gates.