Scampi, one of my favourites

Scampi is a favourite of mine, breaded rather than battered, I regularly buy frozen scampi, and have them as a snack when no one is looking, or scampi and chips for dinner, with a homemade cocktail type sauce, lovely!  I got a strange satisfaction out of making these. I don’t know why this recipe was any different to all the others I have tried, but it felt extra special for some reason. It’s another Jamie Oliver inspired recipe, his were deep fried and I baked mine in the oven. I don’t like deep fat fryers and therefore don’t own one. I did try a minimal amount of fat in a deep saucepan once but I found that even though I used minimal, clean, fresh fat it was still stinky. Besides the scotch eggs I tried failed miserably. I am not really sure what happened to them, maybe the oil was too hot, because the sausage meat on the inside was raw but the outside was burning – then to make matters worse the sausage meat split and just absorbed loads of the fat making the egg rubbery. Needless to say that was the end of my deep fat fryer attempts. So I don’t batter anything, I have to bread it all and then bake them in the oven.

Scampi

100g plain flour

200g fresh white breadcrumbs

3 large eggs beaten

Salt and ground pepper

Cayenne pepper

1 lemon

800g fresh or frozen (thawed) raw prawns/shrimp

1.       Start by filling two resealable freezer bags, one with the flour and the other one with the breadcrumbs.

Put the egg into a bowl. Add salt, both types of pepper and some grated lemon zest to the breadcrumbs.

2.       In batches put your prawns into the bag with the flour, giving it a good shake to make sure they are well coated, then as you take them out of the bake, shake them gently to remove any excess, dip them in the egg and then put them in the bag with the breadcrumbs, again giving it a good shake to make sure they are well coated, shaking of the excess, remove them from the bag and place them on a lined baking sheet. Repeat the coating process until all the prawns/shrimp are coated in breadcrumbs, cover in cling film and put into the fridge until you are ready to cook them.

3.       Preheat your oven to 180˚C/350˚F and bake your prawns/shrimp for 10 minutes then turn them over and cook for a further 5-10 minutes, until they are golden brown and cooked through.