This year I’ve been trying to make a more conscious effort to delve deeper into cuisines, Mexican in particular. Don’t get me wrong, I love a chipotle chicken burrito on a Thursday night, but there’s so much more Mexican food than a burrito. To learn, I thought I’d pick up a copy of Taqueria, Paul Wilson’s cookbook. It is full of creative and unique recipes, flavour combinations and these prawn tacos with bacon and corn.
Prawn tacos may sound gourmet, but this recipe, while fancy, is super easy, very quick and delicious. I mean, delicious. The salty-sweet combination of the prawns, bacon and corn complements the herbaceous and spicy tarragon, jalapeno and lime cream. If you’re making your tortillas, I highly recommend, the dish is elevated further with the fresh and authentic Masa Harina flavour.
How to cook prawn tacos?
This recipe has been adapted from Paul Wilson's book Taqueria, check out the original recipe here. I’ve simplified a few of the steps and omitted some ingredients which I couldn’t find and think the tacos still tasted great without.
There are three main steps to making these prawn tacos, which includes
- Lime, Jalapeno and tarragon cream
- Prawn, bacon and corn mixture
- Heating tortillas and assembling
What to have with prawn tacos?
Margaritas
Corn chips & Guac
Tamales
How to make your own tortillas?
Making your own tortillas is one of those things that seems very hard. However once you give it a go you find yourself saying, well that was easy.
Another thing. Once you start making tortillas from scratch you'll find it hard to go back to store-bought, unless they’re of great quality.
Invest in a tortilla press and it will make the job even easier. Check out my recipe and video for making your own tortillas, which show you what to do if you don’t have a press.
The best store-bought tortillas
Yes, making your own fresh homemade tortillas is easy, but for the days when you really can’t be bothered here are my favourite store-bought tortillas
I can and I have spent days doing nothing but flicking through cookbooks.
Mexican food is one of those cuisines like Chinese that is too often simplified. Chinese food in Australia is actually Cantonese, there are hundreds of regional variations of Chinese foods and I guess we somewhat insult the Chinese culture by pigeonholing 10-20 dishes in the term ‘Chinese food. Mexican food is similar in that we think of tacos or burritos but the more versatile.
Only a small bite need to make sure every bite is packed full of flavour
I miss going to new restaurants, cafes that push the boundaries and travelling to new countries to experience brand new flavours and textures. During the pandemic I purchased a number of new cookbooks and ingredients I’d never used before in order to push my knowledge and cooking skills, developing my innate ability to match ingredients and create my own unique and hopefully just as delicious recipes.
Prawn, bacon & corn tacos
Equipment
- Frying pan
- Chopping board
- Knife
- Bowl
Ingredients
- 8 tortillas, store bought or fresh
- 1/2 bunch corriander
- 1/2 cup salted ricotta, or strong hard cheese
Lime & Jalapeno Cream
- 2 Jalapenos
- 2 limes, zested, segmented and chopped
- 125 g sour cream
- 1/2 bunch taragon
- salt & pepper
Prawn, bacon & corn topping
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 100 g bacon
- 2 corn cobs, kernels removed
- 1/2 bunch spring onions
- 1 clove garlic
- 200 g peeled and deveined raw tiger prawns, cut into 1.5 cm pieces
Instructions
Lime & Jalapeno cream
- Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl
Prawn, bacon & corn topping
- Heat a large non-stick frying pan over high heat, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and the bacon, and fry, stirring, until crispy and golden. Set aside on paper towel to drain. Add the corn to the pan and cook for 1–2 minutes until tender. Transfer to a small bowl and set aside to cool.
- Wipe the pan clean, then add the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil together with the spring onions, garlic and prawns and fry over medium–high heat for 2 minutes, or until the prawns are just cooked and pink. Stir in the herbs and bacon, then season to taste with salt and set aside in the pan to keep warm.
Assembling the tacos
- Heat a medium non-stick frying pan over high heat. Lightly spray with oil and briefly fry the tortillas to warm them. Stack the tortillas, wrap them in a warm damp tea towel and set aside to keep warm.
- To serve, place the tortillas on serving plates and top with the prawn mix and generous spoonfuls of the crema. Scatter over the corn kernels, and coriander leaves and sprinkle over the salted ricotta and chilli powder to garnish. Serve immediately with the rest of the crema on the side.
This is my new go-to taco recipe! I would have never have thought about using tarragon but it is just magic ✨