This spread of chilled cooked prawns with prawn dipping sauces comes together quickly but should be leisurely enjoyed, guests peeling their own prawns and dunking them into dipping sauces or piling them onto warm buttered bread or garlic toast. Provide lime or lemon wedges for squeezing onto the prawns, finger bowls of water and napkins, and serve with glasses of Champers, chardonnay or chilled beers.
A spread of chilled cooked prawns and range of prawn dipping sauces have been a feature of our Christmas Day meals in Australia for as long as I can remember. As we have a summer Christmas, the day is marked by much seafood feasting. And even after Christmas, if we’re enjoying a summer holiday somewhere on the coast, with a Fishermen’s Co-op nearby, we’ll continue to tuck into seafood, especially prawns. More of our best prawn recipes here.
Prawns seem luxurious, but they’re actually very reasonably priced in Australia – and sustainable, healthy and incredibly delicious. Bonus: a feast of chilled cooked prawns is quick and easy to prep. Fishermen’s Co-ops in Australia sell raw and cooked prawns, so unless you’re making garlic prawns – or, say, the Venetian specialty gamberi alla busara, one of my favourite prawn dishes – buy fresh cooked prawns. All you have to do is prep the prawn dipping sauces and you’re set.
Of course, you could just buy jars of tartar sauce and seafood sauce – which most Fishermen’s Co-ops sell – but it takes no time, well, about 15 minutes or so, to stir up a few of your own dipping sauces. And homemade dipping sauces make your feast a bit more special, don’t they? Along with the pop of a bottle of Australian sparkling wine or French bubbly if you prefer.
But before I tell you more about this spread of chilled cooked prawns and share my prawn dipping sauce recipes below, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader supported. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting Grantourismo by buying a handcrafted KROK, the best mortar and pestle ever; booking a cooking class or meal with locals on EatWith; or by buying something on Amazon, such as these cookbooks for culinary travellers, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, or gifts for Asian food lovers and picnic lovers.
And don’t forget, if you’re looking for more cooking inspiration, browse our recipe archives, which are heaving with many hundreds of recipes we’ve cooked, created and collected from around the world, from places we’ve lived, worked, travelled, and loved. Now let me tell you more about this spread of chilled cooked prawns with prawn dipping sauce recipes.
Chilled Cooked Prawns and Prawn Dipping Sauces for a Deliciously Simple Shrimp Feast
This spread of chilled cooked prawns with prawn dipping sauces makes a simple Australian summer feast that’s one of my favourite meals. As Christmas in Australia is in summer and Christmas Day is often scorching hot, Christmas food was fresh seafood that typically kicked off a sunny season of seafood feasting.
When I was a child growing up in Sydney, a couple of kilos of cold cooked prawns from the Fishermen’s Co-op was the first course of a casual Christmas meal if we were spending Christmas and our summer holiday in a caravan park by the beach of a sleepy coastal town that only bustled during school holidays.
If Christmas was a casual gathering at home in Sydney in the ’burbs, with friends dropping by, they took the form of prawn cocktails. Either way, for mum and dad, there were always prawns, and oysters and lobsters – in contrast to traditional Russian food around my maternal grandparents’ dining table, or roasts and vegetables followed by pudding and custard at my Australian paternal grandparents’ home.
The spread of chilled cooked prawns with prawn dipping sauces served as Christmas lunch for mum and I here in rural Victoria, far from the coast, where we sadly don’t have a Fishermen’s Co-op nearby. (We had blini with smoked trout and caviar for brunch and seafood spaghetti for dinner.) But it won’t be the last time we feast on Australian prawns while I’m here.
A spread of chilled cooked prawns need not be expensive. There were 42 medium sized prawns in the 1-kilo pack of cooked Australian tiger prawns I bought from Aldi for A$27, about US$16/GB£13 at today’s exchange rate. My mum and I polished off the lot between the two of us, but normal people could split that amount between 4 people for a main or 6 people for starters.
You’ll find fantastic fresh seafood at Fishermen’s Co-ops, including Australian prawns, both raw and cooked. Not only are they sustainable but going straight from the trawler to table, cutting out the middlemen, they’re very reasonably priced. A kilo of medium-sized king prawns are between A$25-30 on a few sites I checked.
While we love nothing more than peeling our own prawns and dunking them into dipping sauces, if your guests aren’t fans of doing so, check out my shrimp dip recipe for a prawn cocktail inspired dip and prawn cocktail brioche buns recipe.
Tips to Making these Chilled Cooked Prawns with Prawn Dipping Sauce Recipes
Just a few tips to prepping this spread of chilled cooked prawns with prawn dipping sauces, as it’s quick and easy and comes together in minutes.
The Prawns / Shrimps
You’ll find fantastic fresh seafood at Fishermen’s Co-ops in Australia, where prawns, raw and cooked, are reasonably priced. But you can also buy chilled cooked prawns from fish markets, fish shops and supermarkets in cities and towns.
Keep the prawns in the fridge so they stay cold until you’re ready to serve them, then lay the prawns out on a platter on a bed of ice if you’re eating al fresco or serving the prawns as one of an array of dishes. Skip the ice if you’re only eating the prawns, as they won’t last long!
Provide each guest with an empty bowl for prawn shells and a finger bowl of water with lime or lemon wedges and serviettes for drying their hands.
The Dipping Sauces
Each dipping sauce is made in minutes and there’s no need for a blender or food processor, just a vigorous stir. As you complete each dipping sauce, cover it and refrigerate until you’re ready to serve.
All of the dipping sauce recipes are versatile too. Always taste and adjust the seasoning and spices to suit your palates. Just as you can make a dip out of almost anything, you can also make a dipping sauce out of anything, so get creative.
To Serve
Provide baguettes or warm buttered bread if guests prefer to pile their prawns onto the bread, along with lime or lemon wedges for squeezing over the prawns, and spoons for dolloping on the sauces. I’ve been making buttery garlic bread of Turkish bread for mum that’s perfect generously topped with prawns.
Serve with chilled glasses of Champagne, a good Australian chardonnay or icy-cold beers. Perfect.
Chilled Cooked Prawns with Prawn Dipping Sauce Recipes
Ingredients
Prawns
- 1 kilo cooked tiger prawns - chilled on ice
- 1 lemon or lime - cut into wedges
Basil Pesto Mayonnaise
- 4 tbsp mayonnaise
- 4 tbsp basil pesto
- ¼ tsp fine salt
- ¼ tsp fine black pepper
- 3 baby basil leaves - for garnishing
Classic Prawn Cocktail Sauce
- 4 tbsp mayonnaise
- 4 tbsp tomato sauce - ketchup
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 small purple shallot - finely diced
- 1 scallion - green part only, finely sliced
- ½ tsp ground paprika
- ½ tsp ground chilli powder
- ½ tsp sea salt
- ½ tsp white pepper
- 1 tsp fresh dill - finely chopped
Spicy Sriracha Mayo
- 3 tbsp mayonnaise
- 2 tbsp Sriracha sauce - or other spicy chilli sauce
- 1 tsp lime juice
- 1 tsp chilli oil - optional, for drizzling on top
Instructions
Basil Pesto Mayonnaise
- Make the basil pesto mayonnaise: to a small bowl, add the mayonnaise, basil pesto, salt and pepper, and stir vigorously with a spoon until well combined; taste, and adjust as needed to suit your palate.
- Transfer to a serving dish and refrigerate.
- Just before serving garnish with small fresh young basil leaves.
Classic Prawn Cocktail Sauce
- Make the classic seafood sauce: to a small bowl, add the mayonnaise and tomato sauce (ketchup) and stir with a spoon until well combined, then add the lemon juice, finely diced purple shallot, spices and seasoning, finely sliced scallion (spring onion), and finely chopped fresh dill, stir until well-combined; taste, and adjust as needed to suit your palate.
- Transfer to a serving dish and refrigerate.
Spicy Sriracha Mayo
- Make the spicy Sriracha mayo: to a small bowl, add the mayonnaise, Sriracha sauce (or your favourite spicy Southeast Asian style chilli sauce) and lime juice, and stir with a spoon until well combined.
- Transfer to a serving dish and refrigerate.
- Just before serving, swirl a teaspoon around the top of the sauce then drizzle a teaspoon of chilli oil so that it falls into the ridge.
Assemble the Spread
- Lay the prawns on a platter on a bed of ice and garnish with lime or lemon wedges.
- Provide empty bowls for the shells and finger bowls of water with lime or lemon wedges, baguettes or warm buttered bread for guests to pile the prawns onto the bread, along with lime or lemon wedges for squeezing over the prawns.
- Serve with chilled glasses of Champagne, a good Australian chardonnay or icy-cold beers. Perfect.
Nutrition
Please do let us know in the comments below if you make our spread of chilled cooked prawns with prawn dipping sauce recipes as we love to hear how our recipes turn out for you.
