Spot Prawn with Blistered Shishito Peppers and Japanese Corn

More summer food!  

A year later, but here is hoping the information can be used to prepare for another summer cook out.  It seems I'm using a time machine in my blogs lately, life takes over and there are a few unpublished works that need to be revealed.  

A Japanese marinade for the corn and peppers do wonders for flavour, dead simple and ready for the grill.  I've added koji in my recipe to lift the corn to another level.  When the koji and the grill work together, the corn gets lovely carmelised glaze all over without using too much sugar.   I have also included pearl onions, in a homage to the prawn spots, grilled they add a delicate highlight to the dish.  

                                         

My spot prawns were caught with a net out of a more domestic aquarium at the market.  Here is a video showing how to catch yourself, if you were to be so lucky:

How to clean the catch:

The marinade consists of a 1/2 c. of tamari, 2 tbsp. rice wine vinegar, a few pinches of brown sugar, or a dash of maple syrup, season with salt and pepper.  Use less salt and more pepper, as the koji coming up in the recipe is quite salty  Mix well, dissolve the sugar and add a large batch of peppers and 6 cleaned and blanched corn cobs that have been generously rubbed with koji.  Finally drop in 6 pearl onions that have been cut in half.  Marinade in a bag, or shallow dish for several hours, or overnight.

The peppers are great to have growing in a kitchen garden, just one plant is great for making small plates on the fly.  Shishito peppers are a thin skinned Japanese variety of pepper.   Most times just pop them on the grill and blister a bit, sorted.   A substitute to use the UK is a Padron pepper, even though it is a Spanish pepper they may be more readily available.  They have a thin skin and a mixed hot, or mild temper within each batch, a sort of roulette spin just like shishito.   Padron are often found on a tapas plate, I hope to experiment with them soon.

                                        

While the veg marinades, prepare the prawns.  Simply boil them whole in water seasoned with Old Bay for a few minutes. 

Peel the shrimp ready to flash on the grill to heat on the finished dish.

Drain the veg, but reserve the marinade.  Grill the onions with good grill marks, about 10 minutes,  set aside.  Next grill the corn and peppers, they should finish about the same time, about 15 minutes each side.  The corn should be caramelised and the peppers blistered.

  

To plate, marry everything on a platter and pour warmed reserved marinade over the top.  This dish is nice with the corn on or cut off the cob.

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