Defrosting frozen prawns

Klove

I've got a bag of frozen cooked prawns but don't have much experience with cooking seafood (lapsed vegetarian). What's the best way to defrost them without killing myself? Or can they be cooked from frozen?

Dizzyblonde

I've seen Nigella Lawson throw frozen prawns into a dish she was cooking.

boodlesdoodles

You can also defrost them in a bowl of cold water, or sit them in a colander letting the cold water run over them, shouldn't take too long.

Lola92

As said above they can be safely cooked from frozen. Just add them into whatever dish you are cooking or onto a pan o their own with a little oil until piping hot through.

nompere

Don't try putting the ones glazed in ice into a pan with hot oil and expecting them to fry - the ice will melt and you'll end up boiling them. I always let those defrost in a colander or sieve.

It's best done in the fridge, but in a sink works fine. They're not going to go off in the couple of hours you're defrosting them.

Klove

Thanks all. I thawed them in a bowl of cold water and used them to make a curry with tomatoes and coconut milk from eatlikeagirl.com. Delicious!

vibe666

i buy the 1kg bags of raw tiger prawns you get from asian supermarkets (very cheap, very big and tasty) and i always just leave them in a colander inside a bowl and run cold tap water on them for 10 minutes and they are perfect every time and no food poisoning here so far.

rubadub

Klove wrote: »

Thanks all. I thawed them in a bowl of cold water and used them to make a curry with tomatoes and coconut milk

Probably would have been fine from frozen in a curry so, they would all be in direct contact with the hot sauce for a good while.

Now if you were trying to stir fry a lot of them the odd one might be left at the top of the pile by chance, even when stirred and it might still be a bit cold.

Klove

rubadub wrote: »

Probably would have been fine from frozen in a curry so, they would all be in direct contact with the hot sauce for a good while.

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I might try that in future, they ended up a tad rubbery from my zeal in preventing any gastro-disasters. Still pretty tasty though!

nompere

Klove wrote: »

I might try that in future, they ended up a tad rubbery from my zeal in preventing any gastro-disasters. Still pretty tasty though!

If your frozen prawns are pink, then they have already been cooked, and they need no more than warming. A cold one is fine, though it might come as a surprise!

If they're grey then they are raw and need more care. They'll go pink as they cook.

vibe666

if you do get raw ones, you can make them go a lot further by slicing them vertically in half (like you'd cut a lobster down the middle) before cooking them as the separate halves will twist round like a pig's tail when you cook them and hold a lot of sauce etc. inside the twirls.

also, i think it looks quite nice on the plate.