Local Spot Prawns with Tomato & Fennel
Wild BC spot prawns are a delicacy known around the world for their sweet, delicate flavour and firm texture. They are also a favourite at the BC Seafood Festival held each June in the Comox...
Wild West Coast Prawns
As we wrap up the 2019 BC Shellfish Festival in the Comox Valley, it seems like a good time to talk about prawns. Spot prawns that is.
I remember clearly the first time that I cooked BC spot prawns, sitting at a picnic table in Goldstream Provincial Park, just outside of Victoria. Having come from Nanaimo earlier in the day, we managed to buy a couple of pounds of prawns on the docks. As a 21 year-old hobby cook, I was up for a bit of an adventure, but was generally expecting a fresher version of the frozen shrimp that we imported back home on the Prairies. We sat at the campground with limited cooking supplies, newspaper spread across the table, and a recipe for Prawns Grand Marnier (along with a bottle of Grand Marnier of course!)
At first we figured we got a bit of a raw deal and they saw us for the tourists we were, as every prawn was FULL of eggs and covered with white spots! But now we were committed, and with no backup dinner planned, we continued. At first bite it was obvious that these were unlike any prawns or shrimp that we had tasted before, with such a delicate texture and a slight sweetness that I find hard to describe with only words.
Spot prawns are affectionately referred to as the lobster of Canada’s west coast. Every spring on the west coast of BC, locals go crazy for the delicacy when the short fishing season opens - only a three-to-five-week period before quotas are reached. A decade ago, they were a bottom-of-the-barrel seafood product—the mushy filler for chowder and fortifier of cheap fish stock. Nearly 95 per cent of the harvest was exported overseas, mostly to Japan, where they were (and still are) highly coveted and could demand big bucks. Then the local chefs started asking questions. We drink BC wines, support local farmers and search high and low for the best local cheeses, grains and charcuterie. So why can’t we buy these gorgeous local prawns?
Sabrina Currie, one of our Edible contributors, used to commercial fish here on the West Coast of Canada. She has some incredible prawning stories and delicious recipes to share on her website, West Coast Kitchen + Garden. Read more on her site, and be sure to try the following recipe for Local Spot Prawns with Tomato + Fennel.
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