How to Cook with Dried Prawns: Oporo in Nigerian Soups
Most Nigerian cooking leans on crayfish for its savoury base. Ground fine, it disappears into the pot and does its work invisibly.
Dried prawns, oporo in Igbo, do something different. They stay whole, keep their bite, and read as a proper ingredient rather than a seasoning.
Prawns or crayfish
Crayfish is ground, cheaper, and goes in almost everything. It is the base note.
Dried prawns are sweeter, cleaner and firmer, with a smoky edge. They cost more and they show up on the plate.
Most households keep crayfish always and prawns for when it matters. A useful trick: grind half your prawns and leave the rest whole. You get depth and texture from one ingredient.
How to prepare them
- Rinse in warm water to remove ash and grit. Dried seafood always needs a proper wash.
- Soak ten minutes if they are very firm.
- Add partway through cooking, not at the start. Too early and they toughen and lose their sweetness.
What to cook them in
- Egusi, where they sit visibly among the lumps.
- Okra and ogbono, where the firm bite works against the slip.
- Native soup and palm nut soup, alongside periwinkle.
- Jollof and fried rice, stirred through near the end.
- Abacha and moi moi.
- Yam and plantain porridge.
How much to use
A small handful for a family pot if you are leaving them whole. Less if you are grinding, because ground prawns go much further than they look like they will.
Storing them
Freezer, in an airtight bag. Dried seafood loses its aroma quickly at room temperature and picks up moisture, and prawns are more delicate than crayfish in this respect.
If they smell of nothing when you open the bag, that is why the soup tastes flat.
A note on cost
Prawns are expensive and there is no way around it. If you are cooking every day, crayfish is the sensible base. Keep prawns for Sunday, for guests, and for the pots where somebody will notice.
We ship both anywhere in the United States.
Allergen: crustacean shellfish.