Dublin Bay Prawns

Appears in
top 1000Floyd on Britain & Ireland
Floyd on Britain & Ireland

By Keith Floyd

Published 1988

  • About

Known also as prawns, langoustines or Norway lobsters, these shellfish have very little to do with Dublin Bay. It was simply that when the fishing boats which had accidentally caught them arrived in Dublin the fishermen sold them to street vendors there who peddled their wares from baskets – street traders of the kind immortalised by Julie Andrews – whoops, sorry, I mean Molly Malone – in her greatest hit, ‘Alive, alive-oh’.

Dublin Bay prawns, rather like sole, salmon and lobster, certainly fall in that category of food that should be bought as fresh as possible and tampered with as little as possible. When you have the chance to buy fresh, live prawns, run home with them at once and plunge them into slightly salted boiling water. Let them boil until a foam or mousse covers the top of the saucepan. Switch off the heat straight away and leave the prawns in the hot water for a minute or two. Strain them, rinse them under warm water and eat still tepid with home-made mayonnaise or aïoli (garlic mayonnaise).