How to prepare prawns

Being able to prepare prawns is a really useful skill to know and in a few simple steps, I'm going to show you how. Here we've got some uncooked and cooked prawns; now, they can be cooked with their shell on or off.

So to start with, I'm going to show you how to prepare an uncooked prawn. To remove the head, start by twisting and pulling it away from the body. The next step is to remove the shell: crack open the underbelly of the prawn and peel it away from the flesh. To remove the tail, squeeze and then ease it away from the body.

So now you need to devein the prawn. Lay it down and run a sharp knife along the back, then pull the vein, it should come away in one piece.

Okay, so that's done. Now a really good tip is don't throw away any of the shells, they make a really fantastic homemade fish stock. Now I'm going to go and give my hands a quick wash.

So onto the cooked prawns; as you can see, they're a vibrant pink colour and you can buy them like this if you prepare. However, the process the deshelling is exactly the same as raw so let me show you again.

Twist and pull the head away from the body, then remove the shell before removing the tail. As before, run a sharp knife along the back of the prawn, pull the vein and it should come away easily.

Cooked prawns are just delicious served on their own alongside some garlic mayonnaise and with the raw prawns, you can sauté them off and serve them inside a lovely pasta dish.

And that's how you prepare prawns.

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