I was in one of my favorite markets Tuesday night, just north of the city, to pick up a bottle of inky black Cahors wine from the French Southwest, and I will typically walk past the seafood counter just to see if anything interesting was available. At first, didn’t look like there was anything special, but then I spied those little reddish/brown little gems on ice, and the sign read Fresh Spot Prawns: U.S. Wild. I thought that the season had ended in December or early January, but I was wrong. As it turned out there were four areas in which the fishery were still open, that is, until Sunday, February 28th at 4 PM local time. I had managed to stumble into the last Spots (Pandalus platyceros ) of the season in Alaska.
What we call Spot Prawns are technically called Spot Shrimp, and I was so excited because along with the Coonstripe Shrimp (Pandalus hypsinotis), they are just about the only members of the shrimp/prawn congregation that I will now eat in these days of toxic shrimp farming, not infrequent counterfeiting, and rampant use of preservative washes. These two species inhabit our side of the Pacific from the North Pole to Baja and there are significant fisheries in various areas of Alaska and British Columbia. The Southeast Alaska fishery is well regulated and conducted with pots, which are considered to be one of the most sustainable methods of shrimping. The Spot is named for the paired white spots behind its head and near its tail. Most begin life as males and eventually transform into females – the females molt into special shells that allow them to carry as many as 4000 bright reddish-orange eggs underneath their body.
They are sold live, fresh, and frozen, head on and head off. They vary in size and head-on are often as big as 12 per pound. Over the last half dozen years, I have only occasionally seen them that big in the markets, and only once live here in Seattle. When fresh, they cook up soft, sweet and buttery, like those I bought the other day. I shelled them and made an improvised Spot stock by sautéing the shells in a bit of oil and then simmering them in white wine and water for about twenty minutes. I chopped one medium leek and one clove of garlic cooking them slowly in olive oil until they wilted, added the stock, reduced it a bit, and then added the Spots and eggs - there were three females in my purchase - for about one minute on the heat. I sprinkled in some chopped parsley and a little Aleppo pepper and served it over linguine…a little bit of heaven at the end of the season.
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