Italian Prawn – Saturday Family Meal

Most people will remember their Mum’s cooking, the roast dinners, her roasties, or the gravy or the Yorkshire Puddings. Well the secret to my Mum’s roasties was simple, beef dripping, but her gravy I have no idea and the Yorkshire Pudding were to die for. However, more epic for me was some of the other meals she would make and this post is about one of them, Italian Prawn it is called, but I have no idea why.

In the mid 60s my Dad was in the Navy and based in Singapore for a couple of years and my Mum and big brother (who was tiny) were over there with him. They lived opposite another family, the Dad was a solider the Mum (Dutch/African I was informed) and there two daughters. My brother and the girls similar age and use to play together, well the Mum of that family is where this recipe came from and has been a Bushby favourite ever since.

Italian Prawn was normally one of the Saturday meals, it was also one of the meals my Mum always said had to ‘mature’ meaning it had to be made early and left to sit all day, before being warmed up when the rice was cooked. In a house with four boys leaving one of the favourite meals sitting on the stove was dangerous, it would be nibbled at and that meant smaller portions for dinner. I can remember to this day my Mum’s cooker it was the Carron Cordon Bleu gas cooker, which looked like this. See the griddle on the right, best thing ever for cooking steak.

Well, the Italian Prawn and her Spaghetti Bolognese, another of the ‘needs to be left to mature dishes’ was always made in a very large pan with a lid and then put on top of the grill, so that little boys were unable to get a spoon and taste it!

I can remember this being made en mass when friends came to stay, no mean feat when there were 7 of us maybe 5 visitors and lets not forget at the time we owned and ran a carehome with 5 residents. So one pan might have been more like two.

When I sit down and eat this now with my family, it takes me straight back to being 9 or 10 on a Saturday nights, watching the A Team or Knight Rider with the family. This recipe is one that started life being shared with us, and then handed down. I have already started teaching Emily to make this and to be honest, she does a pretty good job.

So here is the recipe, serve on white long grain rice, or side by side as I now have to, as that is Jane’s preference either way it’s amazing.

Serves: 4
Prep Time: 10min
Cook Time: 15min

Ingredients:

• 500g Frozen Prawns
• 1 Chopped Onion
• 1 Clove Garlic
• 1 tsp Mixed Herbs
• 45g Plain Flour
• 450 ml Chicken Stock
• ½ packets Tomato Purée
• 1 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 Tbsp Vinegar

Steps:

1. Cook the frozen prawns for 3 minutes, remove from pan and set to one side.
2. Fry the onion and garlic till soft.
3. Add flour and tomato puree and mix well (if too thick add a little stock).
4. Add stock, worcester sauce and vineger, bring to the boil stiring all the time.
5. Add prawns and cook gently for 2 minutes, season to taste.
6. Cook rice and serve.

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think.