Prawns seared hard and fast, then finished in a pan sauce of garlic, white wine, butter and lemon that you mop up with bread. Searing in batches is the only fussy part, and it’s what keeps them sweet and just-cooked with a bit of colour on them. Pick up prawns from the Queen Victoria Market seafood hall, delivered to your door or via Click & Collect!
Serves 4 as a main with bread. Feeding 8 as a starter? The same quantity will stretch.
Ingredients
- 800g green prawns, peeled and deveined, tails on
- ¾ teaspoon cooking salt
- ¾ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
- 5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons garlic, finely chopped (about 6 cloves)
- 65g unsalted butter, cut into 1.5cm cubes
- ⅓ cup (80ml) dry white wine
- 1½ tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
To serve
- Lemon wedges
- Crusty bread
Method
- Toss the prawns with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, the salt and the pepper. Leave for 20 minutes at most. Any longer and the salt starts drawing moisture out, which costs you the plump texture you’re after.
- Chop the garlic by hand instead of crushing it. Crushed garlic releases more juice and burns in the few seconds this sauce gives it.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large non-stick or cast iron pan over high heat until it shimmers.
- Add a third of the prawns in a single layer and sear for 45 seconds a side, turning each one with tongs. Crowding the pan drops the temperature and they steam grey instead of colouring.
- Lift onto a plate and repeat with the remaining prawns in two more batches, adding another tablespoon of oil each time.
- Return all the prawns to the pan, scatter over the garlic and toss for 30 seconds, until you can smell it.
- Pour in the wine. It will sizzle hard. Stir for about 30 seconds until it has mostly cooked away, scraping anything stuck to the base back into the sauce.
- Drop in the butter cubes and add the lemon juice. Swirl the pan instead of stirring, so the butter emulsifies into a smooth sauce and doesn’t split into oil.
- Toss through the parsley and take it straight off the heat. Prawns keep cooking in a hot pan and go rubbery fast.
- Tip everything onto a serving plate, sauce and all, with lemon wedges and plenty of bread.
Adapted from RecipeTin Eats
