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How To – butterfly prawns


00:00:04hi I’m Pete from Jamie’s food team and

00:00:07today I’m going to show you how to

00:00:08butterfly prawns

00:00:10here’s first prong as you can see it’s

00:00:15got its head on and it’s still in its

00:00:17shell so that this hard shell here this

00:00:19is his back and what we’re going to do

00:00:22is cut through its back cut through the

00:00:24shell open the tail up roll out a little

00:00:27bit the best thing to do is to take a

00:00:32serrated knife like this doesn’t have to

00:00:36be this big you haven’t got one this big

00:00:37but a serrated blade is really good for

00:00:40doing this because you’ll find that a

00:00:42smooth blade will just slip off the

00:00:44prong whereas this catch isn’t actually

00:00:46cut into the shell because remember it’s

00:00:48not it’s not me we’re cutting here

00:00:50initially its shell we need to cut

00:00:52through you need to hold the prong flat

00:00:54you need to be careful

00:00:56keep your fingers sticking up don’t try

00:00:58it all little out because then you’ll

00:01:00cut the end your fingers hold it up and

00:01:03when you’re comfortable start cutting

00:01:06with it serrated knife along the shell

00:01:15like that

00:01:18and this is what you want open up the

00:01:22prong like that without cutting through

00:01:24it you cut a little bit more into the

00:01:27head if you like there we go and that

00:01:31stuff when it caramelizes this stuff

00:01:33when it cooks on the barbecue we’re in a

00:01:35frying pan super delicious so don’t get

00:01:37rid of that now one last thing you need

00:01:40to do before you cook it it just look

00:01:43inside the back of the shell here then

00:01:47you’ll find it either on this side or on

00:01:48this side you’ll find a little pipe like

00:01:53that and that’s the prawns intestine and

00:01:56you don’t eat that you know that is you

00:02:00go pull it all the way down pull the end

00:02:03off and that’s your prawn butterfly and

00:02:08ready for cooking now you don’t have to

00:02:11keep the head on if you don’t want to

00:02:14you can take it off and that’s easy to

00:02:18do and we can cut it off and just pull

00:02:19it off quite simple and then do exactly

00:02:22the same things you before fingers up

00:02:34just carefully carefully take your time

00:02:36cutting the shell if you’re not cut

00:02:42quite enough to open it up and go back

00:02:44cut again open it out then we change

00:02:49knife and we look for the little and

00:02:53testing bit there is all right

00:02:59and there’s your prawn butter five and

00:03:03ready to go so I’ll just do a couple

00:03:08more fingers up out of the way so gently

00:03:15don’t have to be super quick at this

00:03:18open the shell out and use a little

00:03:27knife pick this dodgy bit out now you

00:03:33can use this technique on prawns around

00:03:38the size or prawns a little bit smaller

00:03:40but when prawns get really small it’s

00:03:43way too fiddly for prawns that are

00:03:46really big or even lobsters which are

00:03:48kind of the same thing the shell is

00:03:50really thick and it’s actually quite

00:03:52dangerous to be cutting into it with

00:03:54your hand right over here so I’m not

00:03:55sure I would if I was going to cut a

00:03:57lobster in half I wouldn’t do it this

00:03:58way here my prawns nicely butterflied

00:04:03opened out like that you can have them

00:04:06head on head off whichever you prefer

00:04:10they’re really nice and easy to eat now

00:04:12because once you’ve cooked them you can

00:04:15really take a fork scoop it in pull the

00:04:17meat out so it’s really simple it’s not

00:04:19fiddling about peeling shells or ending

00:04:21like that you made it very very easy for

00:04:23you and your guests to eat and you can

00:04:25cook them in all kinds of ways you can

00:04:27put them on a barbecue you equipment a

00:04:29griddle pan you can simply fry them or

00:04:31you could sprinkle them with all kinds

00:04:33of lovely herbs and spices and steam

00:04:36them and that’s how to butterfly prawns

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