Look, basically any time you’ve got prawns in one hand and a beer in the other you can safely say that life is pretty much as good as it gets. We took advantage of the pre-emptive burst of summer to go camping for the night down at Cape Otway. I swung past the fisherman’s co-op on Saturday morning and grabbed a bag of prawns. Now these were nothing fancy – just a kilo bag of peeled, green frozen prawns but you know,they’re pretty good and they kept the six pack of Asahi in the esky chilled to perfection.
It’s unbelievably gorgeous down at Parker River and it was impossible not to go in the water for the first swim of the summer. Note to self – it may look like the tropics down there with its white beaches, clear seas and forests meeting the ocean but it’s not. It’s the Bass Strait and it’s damn cold. It’s a steep climb back up to the little campground at Parker Hill though (especially with 2 small children in tow),which at least works up the appetite. The plan for dinner was to fry up the prawns in salt and szechuan pepper (freshly toasted and ground before we left home) and to wrap them in tortillas with cucumber sticks, a squeeze of lime and handfuls of the fresh herbs purchased at the Asian grocer.
I suspect the fact that Pete and I lost sensation in our mouths indicates I may have gone a little heavy on the szechuan pepper but it was all good, clean fun. We had our first run at the rice paddy herbs: wierd, full on and a whole lot of kick. Their pungency goes really nicely with the Thai basil. All this was too full on for the kids. Heide had a bowl full of plain fried prawns (probably her favourite food) with her tortilla and salad and Alex (who doesn’t do prawns) had a tin of tuna instead. This is kind of one of those ad-hoc, impressionistic dishes that I’ll never make the same way again and really is a camping dish for me. You could replace the szechuan/salt mix with chilli and garlic and add whatever herbs / greens you like. I would have loved some proper flaky roti and if I’d had it Iwould have rolled up the prawns and herbs and pan fried the whole package. My basic recipe, however, is below.
On Sunday we swam again at Blanket Bay and then just Pete and I on our own off the main beach at Apollo Bay. Bliss! I made a chicken stock while we were packing away the camping gear so dinner was a Cambodian fish and pineapple soup with steamed rice. Rice paddy herb again. Summer sure is coming.
Parker Hill Prawns
- Shelled green prawns
- Prickly Ash (toasted ground szechuan pepper and salt) or any other spice rub
- Sticks of cucumber
- Thai basil, Vietnemese mint and rice paddy herb or any other fresh Asian herbs
- Lime wedges
- Tortillas (or rotis)
- Cold Asahi beer
Warm through all your breads and set aside. Toss the prawns in the spice mix and fry quickly in a hot oiled pan. Roll the prawns, squeezed with lime, with cucumber and herbs up in the bread, crack open an Asahi and be happy.