Common prawn

Bouquet (crevette rose)

What it is

The bouquet is taken from the shore with a balance, a hooped net dropped into rock crevices on the big spring tides, a licensed foot fishery that has changed very little in a century. Its name is said to come from the way a lifted net makes them leap together like a bunch of flowers, though you will be given three other explanations depending on the port.

In the kitchen

Court-bouillon salted to the strength of seawater, prawns dropped in live, two minutes counted from the return to the boil for a large one, then left to cool in their own liquid. Peel them before cooking and you lose the coral colour and half the flavour; the shell is the point.

Goes with

Lemon Butter Fleur de sel de Guérande Dill Parsley Shallot White wine vinegar Fennel

Also used with

Manzanilla

In season alongside

Abalone Clam Surf clam King crab Mantis shrimp Mussel

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