How To Devein Raw Prawns

Raw Prawn

I watch lots of cooking shows and there's always one thing that infuriates me; when people use pink, ready cooked prawns in a recipe that requires cooking. Why?! Why would you do that?! To cook a prawn from raw takes a couple of minutes tops, or else it gets over cooked and rubbery. Why on earth would you then put a pre-cooked prawn into a recipe that requires it to be cooked again?!

I don't know, some people. That was my little rant for today :)

Deveining raw prawns is really easy, we get ours from a little Oriental shop down the road, they come ready peeled so there's not much effort required in prepping them.

Here's the simple steps to make sure that your prawns are lovely and clean before you cook them:

• Hold the prawn underneath side up on a flat surface
• You should be able to see a thin white vein
• Take a small sharp knife and insert gently into the prawn where the vein starts

Don't Go In Too Far With The Knife

• Slowly run your knife from top to tail but don't cut in too deep

• Use your knife tip to get access to the vein

Located!

• Pull out with your fingers

Fiddly

• Open up the tail section and look for a light brown sack, it's very small but if it's there you will see it
• Carefully cut out with the knife tip
• Turn the prawn over so the back is facing you
• Slide the knife from the top to the tail in one motion, don't cut too deep you don't want to halve the prawn

Cut Softly

• Use the knife to open up the cut and check for any brown vein

If You Don't Devein this Is What You're Eating

• If it's whole use your knife to get access and pull out with fingers

Eww

• If it's in bits use your knife to scrape the vein out by going sideways, not top to tail, it's much easier and it also keeps the prawn in good condition for serving purposes

You now have perfect prawns without any nasty surprises at the dinner table!

Always Devein Your Prawns!

If you've happened to notice any strange marks on my hands during the shellfish posts (not just the orange stuff from the cooked prawns, I did all the photos in one go), they're burns. Blog burns I like to call them as they have been as a result of testing out the recipes to post. Aren't I a trooper?!