Prawn Crackers from Zeeland

When you think of Zeeland, you think of oysters, lobsters and mussels. But not prawn crackers. Yet the very first traditionally made prawn crackers sourced in the Netherlands come from the land of the North Sea shrimp. And that’s less strange than it sounds.

We know prawn crackers from Indonesian cuisine. We eat them as a side dish with nasi, for example. But the crisp chip also works well as a snack with drinks.

Shrimp

The fact that the Wilthagen family business in Tholen now makes Zeeland prawn crackers is less strange than it sounds. Because an important ingredient in prawn crackers is shrimp. And Zeeland has plenty of those.

A discovery: prawn crackers with Oosterschelde seaweed

Until now, prawn crackers were baked in the Netherlands, but using ingredients from Asia. The Zeeland prawn crackers are therefore the first in the Netherlands to be made partly with regional ingredients. With—apart from Asian tapioca flour, without which you simply can’t make prawn crackers—Zeeland ingredients such as North Sea shrimp.

Knotted wrack

In addition to the North Sea shrimp variety, the Zeeland prawn crackers come in a version with Brabant and Zeeland onions. The third flavour is made with 23 percent Oosterschelde seaweed, specially cut for this purpose in the clean waters along the Oosterschelde shores by seaweed harvester Jan Kruijsse. Wilthagen uses knotted wrack, one of the few types of Oosterschelde seaweed that does not lose its flavour when heated. Not even when it is deep-fried.

Zeeland prawn crackers are available at Jumbo, Deen, Spar and delicatessen shops.