Prawn cocktail mini tacos Recipe

Prawn cocktails, in canapé form! These one-bite mini tacos are fantastic finger food, and you’ll love the nifty trick for making the miniature taco shells – just use an upside-down muffin tin!

Ingredients

Mini tacos:

• ▢6 corn tortillas ~13cm / 3" wide (Note 1 on flour tortillas)
• ▢1/4 tsp cooking salt / kosher salt (halve for table salt)
• ▢Olive oil spray

Prawns:

• ▢220g/7 oz cooked prawns/shrimp, peeled (ie 500g/1 lb whole cooked in shell, then peel yourself, )

Prawn cocktail sauce:

• ▢4 tbsp mayonnaise , preferably whole egg, or Kewpie 
• ▢1 tbsp ketchup (or Aussie tomato sauce)
• ▢1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• ▢1/2 tsp horseradish cream , or better yet fresh horseradish 
• ▢2 dashes of tabasco , for touch of spice (optional)
• ▢1/8 tsp cayenne pepper , for touch of spice (optional)
• ▢1/8 tsp garlic powder (or small garlic clove pressed using garlic crusher)
• ▢1 tbsp cornichons (or dill pickle), finely chopped

Garnish/serving:

• ▢1 tbsp chives , finely sliced (or parsley)
• ▢Fancy options – salmon roe, caviar (not pictured)
• ▢Dried black beans or rock salt , to keep upright when serving 

Instructions

Abbreviated recipe:

• Cut 17 x 6cm/2.4" rounds, microwave to soften, oil and salt, press into upside muffin tin. Bake 12 minutes, cool in tin. Fill!

FULL RECIPE:

Crispy mini taco shells:

• Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F (160°C fan-forced). Get a standard 12 hole muffin tin.
• Cut circles from the tortillas using a 6cm / 2.4" cutter. (Note 6 on using offcuts)
• Warm – Spread half on a dinner plate and microwave for 30 seconds on high (makes them pliable). Spray the warm tortillas lightly with oil, sprinkle with half the salt.
• Wedge – Turn the muffin tin upside down. Wedge the tortillas salt side down between the muffin tin holes – they fold into taco shapes! Repeat with remaining rounds.
• Spray the surface of the tortillas lightly with oil (no salt).
• Bake for 12 minutes, or until quite golden and crispy. Cool in the muffin tin so they set. (Stays crisp 2 days!

Prawn cocktail filling:

• Dice the prawns into small 5mm / 0.2" cubes (for large, cut in half horizontally, lengthwise then chop – see video).
• Mix the Marie Rose sauce in a bowl. Then stir the prawns through, just before assembling.

Assembling:

• Fill taco shells with prawn cocktail filling, sprinkle with chives. To keep them upright, place on a bed of rock salt or dried beans for serving.
• Pass around, bask in praise, be coy when people ask how you made those marvellous mini taco shells!

Recipe Notes:

1. Tortillas – You’ll need more than 6 tortillas if yours are smaller or less if larger. Corn tortillas bake up crisper than flour ones, have better flavour and stay crisper for longer, but flour tortillas work too – no need to warm to make pliable & takes a few more minutes in the oven.

2. Prawns (shrimp) – Best to buy good whole prawns and peel yourself. Else, buy whole raw and boil, or pan fry – 250g/8oz raw peeled prawns, sprinkle lightly with salt then sear in a pan on medium high heat until just cooked, they will keep cooking as they rest. Cook time will vary with size: small – 1 minute each side, large – 2 minutes first side, 1 1/2 minutes second side.

I find frozen cooked peeled prawns rather flavourless. I’d use seafood sticks instead!

3. Whole egg mayonnaise – smoother, less sharp, not as sweet as regular mayo. Labelled as such on the jar – I like S&W and Hellmans. Else, Kewpie always works 🙂

4. Horseradish cream mainly adds tang here and tiny wasabi-like heat. Can be omitted, don’t sub with lemon juice (thins sauce).

5. Not essential to have a bed of something to keep them upright for serving, you can lie on side or arrange so they hold each other up. To re-use dried beans, rinse under hot water in colander, dry thoroughly tea towels, store in container indefinitely.

6. Cutting rounds – If you don’t have a round cutter, you can always trace around a glass using a small knife. Stack, to cut faster!

Use tortilla offcuts to make crispy tortilla shards for sprinkling on salads. Chop/cut into small random pieces, spray with oil, sprinkle with salt, bake 8 to 10 minutes until crispy. 

Making ahead – Mini taco shells will stay crispy for 2 days in an airtight container in the pantry (flour tortillas lose a bit of crispiness but still respectable, can re-crisp in oven for 5 minutes). For filling, prepare both sauce and prawns but don’t combine until <30 minutes before using (salt will extra juice from prawns which tins the sauce). Once filled, they will stay respectably crispy for 30 minutes, but I still scoff them down an hour later!

Nutrition per mini taco.