How to Make Prosciutto Wrapped Prawns

Prosciutto Wrapped Prawns Today, I’m doing Prosciutto Wrapped Prawns; a very nice combination. Salty is always good with sweet and in this case, the sweet are these delicious pink gulf prawns. These will look cooked because it’s kind of orange pink but they’re raw and they’re from the Gulf Coast. Those are wild and raw. They were peeled and deveined. This is a real simple preparation here. I’m going to take my citrus zester and that’s actually a tangerine but you can use an orange. I’ve got a few strips of citrus. I’m going to put that on the shrimp. I’m going to drizzle a little bit of olive oil. I’m going to marinade these and that citrus is just going to give it a little bit of fruity sweetness in addition to the natural sweetness in the shrimp; beautiful pairing with the prosciutto. Normally in the summer, I’d actually grill these over coals outside but it’s winter and it’s cold and I’m not going outside. So, I’m going to cheat here, instead of just putting some regular paprika that I really like with prawns, I’m actually using a slightly smoked paprika, a nice Spanish paprika. So, there’s a little bit of smoky flavor to it, not overpowering, not super strong but it will give it a nice little kind of off the grill accent. I’m not going to put any salt. I’ll explain that later because our prosciutto does get salty when we crisp it up. That’s really it. What we’re going to do is we’re going to put that in the fridge and we’re going to let that sit for about half an hour, 45 minutes just so that citrus and that oil kind of infuse with the shrimp and there’s our prosciutto. Normally I’d say go to an Italian deli, have them slice this right for you but I kind of like the supermarket brand for this dish. They tend to be very uniform, little less fat than the more expensive Italian imported prosciutto. So, I have no problem using this style. You get about eight or ten slices in that package. What you want to do is you just want to tear off the piece that’s going to be long enough to wrap around the prawn. So, I’m taking one of my prawns. I’m going to start at the top and what I’m going to do here is I fill them. I’m going to make sure I’m out of the camera view, so you have no idea what I’m doing. So, that’s a wrapped prawn, not too scientific. Once it’s done, it’s very simple, six-inch bamboo skewer through the tail first and then through the thick top of the shrimp. Now, let me actually show you one that you can see. So, I brought in a new cameraman, hopefully this works out a little better. Let’s tear off a strip of the prosciutto. I like to start with the top. I don’t know if it matters or not. But let’s start with the top to begin and I just twist it around. End up somewhere nearly the tail. Because its slice is so thin, it just kind of sticks to it. Take your skewer through the tail first and then through the thick part. You get three on one of these six- inch skewers and it’s about perfect. We’re going to put those on a plate. I’m going to chill these in the fridge for another half hour and here’s why. When I sauté these, I want the outside to get crisp but I don’t want the inside to overcook and I think you need a little heat start if the inside is cold. Normally meat, in general, you come to room temperature before we cook it. Shrimp with this stuff wrapped around it. No, I want that refrigerated first. Here we go. It’s a fairly hot sauté pan, couple of teaspoons of olive oil drizzled in. I’m going to do three here at once and I’m going to cook those on medium to medium high heat for maybe two, three minutes per side. Again, you’re going to have to be the judge of this but that prosciutto does actually insulate the shrimp fairly well. So, it does take a couple of minutes. There’s nothing on these shrimps. You’re talking about a minute or two on each side. But I’m leaving this to about two or three minutes per side. Again, allow medium heat until you see the steam coming up. And after about three minutes, I’m going to flip them over and what I see is the beautifully, crisped prosciutto. Searing it, this way it really brings out the salty flavor of the prosciutto, which is again just perfect with its natural sweetness of the shrimp. Now, you see this on a lot of menus, pancetta wrapped prawns in a grill, that’s the Italian bacon. To me, that doesn’t work out as well because the pancetta, by the time that cooks through and gets nice and crisp, your shrimp is overcooked. So anyway, that’s why I chose to use prosciutto instead of pancetta. I think it just comes out a little nicer and the shrimp can stay nice and tender and we still get that nice crispy, crusty prosciutto on the outside. I’m serving this on delicious beans and greens. I learned that from my Uncle Bill and I will be teaching you that tomorrow, a very nice and very healthy side dish. You’ll see a little lemon there, squeeze that lemon on there. I think it is just an incredibly great combination. Anyway, whoops! I’m actually being handed a note here from someone in our legal department. All right, I’m supposed to inform you to please take out the sharp bamboo skewer before consuming this dish. I mean come on, you got to be kidding me. Anyway, I hope you give this a try and enjoy!