Colm O'Gorman: Here's my juicy and tender prawn cocktail – Korean style

Maybe it is an age thing, but I have been feeling very nostalgic in the kitchen of late. I was talking to a friend recently about the sort of food that we used to eat when we were kids, both the everyday and the special treats. I was born in the mid-sixties, so most of my childhood food memories date back to between the early seventies and the mid-eighties. Sunday lunch was usually a roast dinner, and for dessert, a trifle, or a cheesecake, or on a very special occasion a baked Alaska. We did not usually have starters, but if we did it would usually be a honeydew melon or a prawn cocktail. There are I think, few dishes more emblematic of that period than the prawn cocktail. Cooked prawns, usually defrosted as fresh prawns were a rarity in Irish shops back then, atop a bed of shredded lettuce and topped off with Marie Rose sauce, basically, mayonnaise, and ketchup combined, served up in a glass goblet or glass of some description.

Thinking about those dishes got me imagining how they might have been had we had access then to the amazing range of ingredients that we can find locally relatively easily these days. I love reimagining classic dishes, putting a fresh spin on them, adding new and exciting flavours that not only update but also improve a classic.

As regular readers will know, I am a huge fan of Korean food. So, this week, I want to share my Korean inspired take on that seventies classic, the prawn cocktail. Fresh king prawns, marinated in rice wine, garlic, and ginger, then tossed in cornflour and flash fried until they are crispy and golden but still tender and juicy and full of flavour. I serve these on little gem lettuce leaves, with diced cucumber, toasted sesame seeds, chopped red chilli and a lime wedge with a sauce made from mayonnaise and gochujang, my favourite chilli sauce, and a Korean food staple.

A few notes on ingredients. Use fresh and not frozen raw king prawns. You will find them shelled and deveined in most supermarkets these days, or from any good fishmonger. If you cannot get hold of rice wine, dry sherry is a good substitute. If you are near an Asian supermarket, get some Kewpie Mayonnaise. This Japanese mayonnaise is made using rice vinegar and egg yolks and is smoother and creamier than regular mayonnaise. You can use regular mayonnaise if you wish, and it will be delicious, but do not use low fat mayonnaise. The stabilisers and other ingredients in low fat mayonnaise do not react well with other sauces such as gochujang, and the cocktail sauce will have an unpleasant texture and will not taste great.

You will find gochujang in most Asian supermarkets or better yet, the ingredients to make your own. A home-made gochujang is a thing of beauty and just takes minutes to make. You will find my recipe for gochujangtarget="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> on ieFood. If you cannot get any, you can substitute sriracha for the gochujang.

This recipe serves four as a starter.

Korean-Style Prawn Cocktail

recipe by:Colm O'Gorman

Colm O'Gorman is fond of his Korean cuisine - and this is a unique take on a fishy favourite!

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 30 mins

Cooking Time

 40 mins

Total Time

 1 hours 10 mins

Course

 Starter

Cuisine

 Korean

Ingredients

• 350g fresh raw king prawns

• 30ml rice wine or sherry 2 cloves garlic 1 tbsp grated fresh ginger

• Fresh ground black pepper

• 1 tbsp Soy Sauce 150g corn flour or potato flour

• 1 litre sunflower oil

• Cocktail sauce

• 100g mayonnaise

• 50g gochujang

• To Serve:

• 12 crisp leaves of little gem lettuce

• 1/3 of a cucumber

• 1 red chilli

• Some toasted sesame seeds

Method

1. Grate two cloves of garlic into a bowl. Add the grated ginger, rice wine, and a good grind of black pepper. Mix well to combine.

2. Add the raw king prawns and stir well to get them fully coated in the marinade. Let them marinate for about thirty minutes.

3. Make the sauce.  Just pop the mayonnaise and gochujang into a bowl and whisk the combine them thoroughly.

4. Wash the lettuce leaves, finely slice the chilli. Set aside now while you cook the prawns.

5. Heat the sunflower oil to 180c in a large saucepan or wok.

6. Place a wire rack over a baking tray or line it with kitchen paper. Put the potato flour or cornflour onto a wide plate or pasta bowl.

7. Dredge the prawns a few at a time in the flour. Carefully lower them into the hot fat, again, a few at a time. I usually cook eight to ten at a time depending upon the size of the pan I am using. Do not crowd the pan, instead cook the prawns in batches. They will cook very quickly, for this first fry they only need one minute.

8. Use a slotted spoon to carefully remove them from the pan and pop them on the wire rack or kitchen paper to drain as you give the remaining prawns their first fry.

9. Check the temperature of the oil between batches as it can cool down a little as it cooks each batch. Make sure to bring the temperature back up to 180 Celsius before your fry another batch. This is crucial if you want golden and crispy prawns.

10. When you have given all the prawns their first fry, get the oil back to 180 Celsius again and pop all the prawns back in, this time for just thirty seconds.

11. After thirty seconds remove the prawns from the oil and let them drain on the wire rack or some fresh kitchen towel as you prepare your plates.

12. Arrange three leaves of lettuce on each plate, and scatter over some of the diced cucumber. Pile one quarter of the prawns on the lettuce leaves with a wedge of lime on the side.

13. Scatter the toasted sesame seeds and some thinly slices fresh red chilli on top.

14. Serve with the sauce on the side.