Make Prawns Taste Sweeter — The Artichoke “Sweet-Water” Trick

Make prawns (shrimp) taste sweeter — without sugar. Artichokes trigger a brief “sweet-water” effect (cynarin), and a quick chicory (Belgian endive) oil adds just enough pleasant bitterness to amplify it. In 90 seconds we warm chicory in neutral oil, toss through prawns (shrimp), and plate with marinated artichokes in oil (avoid water-brined). Try the sequence: artichoke → wait 30–60 s → prawns (shrimp) — many people find even water tastes sweet for a moment.

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Artichoke and chicory,
you don’t often see together in one dish, but today they’re going to give us
the sweetest prawns you’ve ever tasted. The hero is the artichoke,
which contains a compound called cynarin. It inhibits sweet taste receptors
for about 30 seconds to a minute, after which you get this rebound
called the sweet water effect. Yes, even water tastes sweet. When paired with something
slightly bitter like chicory, the perceived sweetness is intensified. It’s a fast and fun dish
so just buy marinated artichokes. Avoid the ones with water brine. Now let’s cook. Medium heat,
generous amount of neutral oil, sliced chicory in. Yes, we cook to evaporate
the water content and to concentrate the flavours, but more importantly, the compound that’s responsible
for the subtle bitterness is fat soluble. So we’re in essence making a slightly bitter oil infusion to later coat the prawns, intensifying the sweet water effect. Just a minute or two. Once the gentle sizzling sound
has subsided and your leaves are just starting to wilt, prawns, they go in. You can buy them raw, buy them cooked. The objective of the exercise
is just to have them warm through and thoroughly coated
in this beautiful, subtle fat. Now we can plate. And this is truly a fun dish. You start with artichokes,
give it about 30 seconds to a minute, then you go for the prawns
for the intense and lingering sweetness. Cook it, try it, have fun with it. [bell rings]