Roast Christmas Seafood

If you go into any Australian supermarket in the weeks leading up to Christmas, you're likely to find handwritten signs at the deli reminding you to get your Christmas seafood order in early or by a specific date. King prawns are very popular at this time of year and I can easily find them 40 to 60% off in a lot of instances. We Aussies are used to hot and sunny Christmas days but what about Aussie seafood lunches? Growing up (and coming from a European family) we never had seafood at Christmas time.. not even a ham (which was reserved for Easter). I can't remember now who it was, but later in my adult years I remember someone's mother had a rule.. no cooking at Christmas, it was cooked, cold seafood all the way (which was pre-ordered & cost a mint). I can remember seeing platters of seafood in people's Christmas photo's but I never really had an Aussie seafood Christmas lunch until my thirties. Shopping for prawns, crayfish, crab, mussels and salmon at Sydney fish markets is an outing & experience in itself. Having lunch there is always necessary in my opinion, but tables can be hard to find and the crowds around Christmas time can be overwhelming. You can easily part with hundreds of dollars after forking out for bakery and deli treats in addition to seafood, your lunch and parking.

So we come to this weeks recipe which is from Nigella Lawson, except I've modified it to suit my families tastes. I made it exactly to her specifications but decided afterwards there were some things I'd change next time I made it. You're getting my version, you can find Nigella's on You Tube.

This recipe is kind of a Christmas present to foodies. If you'd like to include seafood on your Christmas menu but don't want to break the bank, this is your dish. I've omitted the clams Nigella includes in her roast seafood because they're not easy to find here and I figured for a first try, king prawns and squid tubes cut into rings (calamari) were enough. I spent a total of $13 on my seafood and it fed my family of three quite generously. Lamb costs more and beef steaks cost more. The roasted potatoes and onion in this recipe (and the accompanying side salad) make your seafood stretch so much further. It's also the perfect seafood dinner for one person or two because you decide how many prawns and potatoes you want on the platter.. there's really not that much to fuss over.

When I saw Nigella (on the telly) bite into a roasted prawn, shell and all.. I knew I had to try it. The idea of not peeling the prawn appealed to me.. and I love crunchy things. I'd seen cooked prawns eaten with shell-on during a Masterchef challenge earlier this year? I think they were deep-fried. My family and I didn't think these prawn shells were edible..though we tried. So I recommend you peel your prawns as you eat them. Are any of you cooking on Christmas day and planning your menu's now?
Roast Christmas Seafood
(Serves 3 to 4)

*6 medium potatoes, quartered (skins left on)
*1 large red onion, quartered, then each quarter, halved
*6 unpeeled garlic cloves
*15 king prawns
*2 squid/calamari tubes, rinsed and cut into rings
*olive oil
*1/2 cup of white wine
*1 cup of milk
*1 kiwi fruit
*1/4 cup freshly chopped parsley
*lemon wedges for serving
*salt & pepper
*optional, aioli or whole egg herb mayo to serve
------------------------------------------------
-Preheat oven to 220 degree's celcius
-In refrigerator, soak calamari squid rings in a covered bowl with milk and mashed-up kiwi fruit (to tenderise)
-In a baking tray, throw in chopped potatoes, onion wedges and unpeeled garlic cloves
-Drizzle olive oil over the top, sprinkle over salt and pepper and put in hot oven to roast for one hour until potatoes are light brown in colour
-When potatoes are ready to come out of the oven, drain milky squid and use some paper towels to absorb any excess moisture from them
-Remove oven tray (keep oven hot by leaving it on with door closed) and layer on prawns evenly on top of the cooked potatoes and place calamari rings alongside the prawns, sprinkle with more salt and pepper
-Splash over white wine and another generous drizzling of olive oil
-Return tray with potatoes and seafood to hot oven and cook until prawns change colour and are just cooked..about 10 to 15 minutes
-Remove tray from oven, sprinkle generously with freshly chopped parsley
-Serve roasted potatoes, onion, garlic and seafood with wedges of lemon and aioli or a good herb mayonnaise and a side salad




Nigella doesn't tenderise her calamari, but I decided to give it a helping hand.
This picture has lemons ready to roast alongside the potatoes etc. Though a heated or quick-charred lemon is fine in my book, I find roasting it for an hour makes it incredibly bitter and it ruins the flavour of everything. I say squeeze lemon juice over hot potatoes at the end.. or .. alternatively dust your potatoes with lemon myrtle with the final roasting (when the seafood goes in).You could now dust these potatoes with lemon myrtle, I might give that a go next time. Gorgeous king prawns, ready to roast. The calamari is added next however.

Roast Christmas Seafood done!