VERY GARLIC PRAWNS.

A lot of garlic, a few prawns, some good olive oil = a very nice lunch or dinner.

The rule for this week is to always use more garlic than you think you need. Whatever you’re making, double it. Nobody has ever died from eating too much garlic (I’m pretty sure. But I’m not going to google it, in case someone has.)

I’m a bit wussy on the sting of raw garlic, but I do go completely to town when it’s fried and roasted; the harshness muted into nutty sweetness. Sometimes, I’ll just fry up a few sliced cloves of garlic in a pond of olive oil at the start of a weekend and leave it, waiting to see what comes along that needs it. Does the job on anything from a fried egg on toast, to a dish of Spanish gambas al ajillo.

Prawns and garlic. So simple and summery and seaside. So holidays-in-Spain. And so FAST. Honestly, you’re back at the table with a glass of icy-cold sangria before you know it.

Serve as part of a cover-the-table tapas meal, or with just a jar of aioli, a green salad, and small bread rolls to capture the garlicky juices. And feel free to use more garlic than specified.

When you cook it, try to channel this bloke I once saw cooking them on a Spanish beach, in a fierce wind. He had six cracked, brown earthenware dishes seething over hot coals, before adding a fair bit of olive oil to each from a big can. When the oil was hot, he dropped in a massive amount of garlic, just peeled and halved, and a bit of red chilli and cooked it until it was brown and sizzling. Then he threw a scoop of small prawns into each dish and fried them for about 30 seconds over the fierce heat, and that was it. Best I’ve ever had.

Oh, you’re still stuck on the Sangria reference? Drop by next week (Feb 7, 2025) for the recipe. This is not your tourist-style sangria, built with cheap red wine, diluted with lemonade and looking like Carmen Miranda’s tutt-frutti costume hat. This is… elegant.

A taster, because we all need things to look forward to:

And here are the prawns just before turning to finish the other side.

VERY GARLIC PRAWNS

• 12 medium prawns

• 1 tsp sea salt

• 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• 4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely sliced

• half tsp dried chilli flakes or cayenne or a couple of slices of fresh chilli

• half tsp paprika

• 1 tbsp chopped parsley or coriander, chopped or as picked leaves

Devein the prawns in their shells by threading a thin bamboo skewer through the back of the ‘neck’ and hooking out the tract.

Peel the prawns, leaving the tail, and pat dry with paper towel.

Season the prawns with sea salt, on both sides.

Heat the oil in a cast iron frypan or heatproof casserole.

When hot, add the sliced garlic and chilli, and keep an eye on it, moving it around so it cooks evenly and almost flutters in the oil.

When the garlic is lightly golden and smells amazing, add the prawns and cook for 1 minute, then turn and flash-cook the other side.

Dust with paprika, scatter with parsley and a little extra sea salt, and serve in the cooking dish, while still sizzling, or tip out onto a warm platter.

Serve with bread, salad, and aioli. Serves two as a meal, four as a snack.

# Finish the cooking with a dash of sherry vinegar or lemon juice if you like, and maybe another swirl of olive oil to help coat the prawns in all that nutty fried garlic.

YOU MIGHT BE NEEDING SOME AIOLI

Use anything from two garlic cloves (if you’re a wuss), or up to six cloves if you’re not. Using an electric beater, beat the desired amount of crushed garlic cloves, 1 tsp sea salt and 2 egg yolks in a bowl until smooth. Very gradually, at a bare trickle, add 200 ml olive oil until you have a thick, smooth and silky emulsion. Beat in 1 tbsp lemon juice. Taste for sea salt and pepper, cover and refrigerate for up to 3 days. Makes 250 g. If your olive oil is quite heavy, cut the richness by using 100 ml olive oil and 100 ml of a more neutral oil such as sunflower or grapeseed. Or give up and just buy Doodles Creek Aioli, it’s fabulous.

A further use for aioli below, and here.

Thanks for dropping by! And thanks for your comments and suggestions. Special thanks to Terry for de-veining the prawns. The reason I say to devein them through the shell and then peel the shell off (which sounds contradictory) is because it works better for this recipe than peeling first and then trying to devein, or cutting down the spine of the prawn, which affects the integrity of the whole. Catch you next week, to raise a glass of Sangria together.

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I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands and waters upon which I work, live, cook and play; the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. Thank you for sharing your culture, traditions, knowledge, spirit, art, music, humour and food traditions, allowing us all to experience a greater sense of belonging in this ancient land.