Spicy Garlicky Prawns

Spicy Garlicky Prawns
2.5 from 6 ratings
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Two memories are lodged in my mind when it comes to these prawns. One is of a meal at Mar do Inferno, in Cascais, a town which we visited with my parents and our little daughter. Here, the sea crashes against jagged cliffs just below the restaurant. We tried these messy, delicious, chilli-hot prawns, and our daughter, Isla, then a toddler, tried to eat a whole scoop of ice cream with both hands. The meal was a sticky, happy, silly one.The second was in Hugo Gonçalves’ sunny garden. His family owns art-deco cocktail bar Foxtrot in Lisbon. His mother, Maria Helena Gonçalves, or Lena, cooked us a huge pan of wonderful prawns. She adds a warming dash of whisky to her version. — Rebecca Seal, author of LisbonThis recipe uses piri piri sauce — you can easily buy store bought. If you want to make your own, click here for the simple and delicious recipe.
Servings
4
servings
Ingredients
  • 4 tablespoon medium/hot piri piri sauce, or to taste, plus a pinch of dried crushed chiles, if you really like heat
  • 1 garlic clove, crushed to a paste
  • 2 tablespoon white wine or 2 tablespoons beer
  • 4 dashes worcestershire sauce
  • 1 pound 2 ounces shell-on, sustainably sourced large prawns (shrimp)
  • olive oil, for cooking
  • handful of chopped coriander (cilantro) leaves, to serve
  • piri piri oil (see below), to serve
  • lemon wedges, to serve
  • garlic and coriander rice (see below), to serve
  • 10 piri piri or african bird’s eye chiles, washed and stems removed (not seeded)
  • 1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
  • grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon, shaved using a potato peeler
  • 5 bay leaves (fresh if possible)
  • 4 garlic cloves, halved, or quartered if very large
  • 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
  • 4 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon whisky
  • scant 2 cups long-grain rice
  • 2 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • generous pinch of salt
  • 4 garlic cloves, crushed to a paste
  • 3 1/2 ounce coriander (cilantro), leaves picked and chopped, stems reserved and finely chopped
Directions
  1. Mix together the piri piri sauce, garlic, white wine or beer and the Worcestershire sauce.
  2. Add the prawns, stir until they are well covered in the marinade, cover with cling film (plastic wrap) and place in the fridge for a couple of hours.
  3. When you are ready to eat, heat a large, wide, heavy-based pan — cast iron is best — over a high heat.
  4. Add a splash of olive oil to the pan, and when it is just smoking, use a slotted spoon to lift half the prawns out of the marinade, leaving the marinade behind.
  5. Place in the pan in a single layer and cook for 2 minutes, then turn each prawn.
  6. Cook for a minute longer and then, for the final minute of cooking, add half the marinade from the bowl.
  7. Let it sizzle and then use a spoon to scoop the whole lot out of the pan and into a bowl. Keep warm.
  8. Repeat the cooking process for the second batch of prawns. (If you cook them all in one go and include the marinade, the prawns will stew rather than brown, and the marinade will burn and stick to the pan.)
  9. Just before serving, stir through the chopped coriander and finish with a dash or two of piri piri oil.
  10. Place lemon wedges on the table for your guests to squeeze over their prawns.
  11. Eat with a mound of garlic and coriander rice, finger bowls, and plenty of napkins.
  12. Thoroughly clean a 1-litre (34 fluid ounces) heatproof glass jar or wide-necked bottle (including the lid) in hot soapy water, then place it in a low oven for 15 minutes.
  13. Roughly bash the chillies so that they are bruised but still whole.
  14. Place them and all the dry ingredients, plus a tablespoon of the extra-virgin olive oil, in a large heavy-based saucepan and set it over a medium heat.
  15. Bring to a sizzle, stir and then turn the heat right down, then add the remaining oil and the lemon juice.
  16. Warm the oil until hot but not boiling.
  17. Remove from the heat and allow to cool a little.
  18. Carefully pour the oil and all the other ingredients into the sterilised jar or bottle, using a funnel if needed.
  19. Seal and leave to infuse at room temperature for 1–2 weeks, out of direct sunlight, shaking it every now and then.
  20. It will keep for at least 1–2 months.
  21. Place the rice in a bowl and rinse it in three changes of cold water.
  22. Cover with fresh cold water and leave to soak while you cook the onion.
  23. Place a large saucepan with a lid over a medium heat.
  24. Add 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, the chopped onion and the salt.
  25. Sauté for 10–12 minutes until the onion is translucent, then add the garlic and the coriander stems along with the remaining tablespoon of oil.
  26. Cook for 1 minute, stirring, but don’t let the garlic brown.
  27. Drain the rice and add it to the pan, then toast it in the oil for 1 minute, until it begins to look translucent.
  28. Pour in enough boiling water to cover by 1 cm (1/2 in) and bring to the boil. Cover, turn the heat down and cook for 7 minutes.
  29. Remove from the heat, fluff up the rice grains with a fork, then cover tightly again and leave to steam for 5 minutes.
  30. To finish, remove the lid and fluff the rice again, then stir through the coriander leaves.
  31. Serve with meat or fish.
  32. Recipe excerpted with permission from Lisbon by Rebecca Seal and Steven Joyce (2017, Hardie Grant Books)
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