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Sandhill crane

Thursday, June 27, 2024

Robert and Leslie's Pesto Prawns


My friends Lena and Ron had bought way too many prawns and asked me if I wanted some. The shrimp were very large and still had the heads on and my pals were a bit burnt out from cleaning them. Did I want them? Sure I did.

I decided to ask my friend Joel how his wife Lauren makes shrimp. Lauren is a Kiwi but was raised in Australia I think. All those people down under know their prawns.

Lauren told me that she liked to do it this way, the way they do it back home. I listened and gave it a shot. 


I cut off the shrimp heads, cut the shells off too and de-veined the shrimp. I washed them in cold water, cleaned them and patted them dry.

I stuck the peeled prawns in a garlic olive oil marinade and added, salt, pepper, garlic powder, red pepper and garlic, let them sit.

I cooked the shells and shrimp heads in a cast iron skillet with a little olive oil for five minutes, stirring quite a bit. 

I took the shells and heads and put them in a sealed bag in the trash. I let the pan cool down, as she instructed.


What was left in the pan was full of flavor and would be what I cooked my shrimp in. 

I added a little water at the end and cooked the sauce down at a simmer.

This is how a lot of people make shrimp broth for things like risotto. 

The flavors get highly concentrated.

Leslie made some wonderful pesto recently and we still had a tub in the fridge. 

After we made our pesto pasta I put two tablespoons of butter in my shrimp pan and brought it to medium heat. 

Cooked about two minutes a side.

Topped it with parmesan and we were good to go.

I don't know that I will cook shrimp like this all the time but the flavors did seem more intense, almost too shrimpy, and it was an interesting thing to try.

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Anne and Ivan's son Daniel was down at the Hillcrest Farmer's Market and he was kind enough to bring me organic peaches.

There is nothing worse than a bad peach and nothing better than a good one. 

This was a good one. So sweet.

I made my basic and I think arguably my best scone last night, straight peach walnut with a bit of lemon zest. Topped it off with a molasses sugar.

Pretty freaking wonderful.

These are hard to beat and hard to stay away from.

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