Theme: Barbecue
Cookbook: The Food I Love by Neil Perry
Despite it being autumn, Melbourne managed to provide some beautiful weather for this week’s theme of barbecue. I love seafood on the barbecue and decided to try Neil Perry’s way of doing prawns.
Recipe: Barbecued Marinated King Prawns with Tarator
Firstly I must confess that I didn’t make the tarator. No walnuts to be had in my pantry, even though I was sure that there was a stash somewhere. I served the prawns with some mixed steamed greens and some steamed rice. Probably not what Neil intended, but it rounded out the dish.
10 large king prawns cut in half lengthwise
extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground black pepper
lemon wedges to serve
Marinade
1 garlic clove
1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger
1 lemongrass stalk, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped coriander
2 tablespoons chopped mint
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon smoky sweet paprika
1 red chilli
zest of 1/2 lemon plus juice of 1 ( I used a finger lime)
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Cutting prawns in half lengthwise is neither fun nor easy. Maybe the prawns I had were not large enough to handle being cut this way, but it was a bit of a challenge.
Put all the ingredients for the marinade in a mortar and pestle (or a food processor if you feel so inclined) and mix, blend, pound until smooth. Put the prawns in a bowl, add the marinade and leave for about 30 – 45 minutes. Next time I would lay the prawns on a tray and then add the marinade to ensure that all the prawns get a nice even covering.
Barbecued Prawn Marinade
Preheat the barbecue to hot and make sure that you have it nice and clean. Put the prawns cut side down on the grill and cook for 1 minute. Turn over and cook shell side down until the thickest part of the prawn is still a little translucent. Note to self for next time: do this with good light so you can see what is going on.
Thank goodness for the flash - prawns on the bbq
They ended up just slighty overcooked, but not too bad at all.
Drizzle the prawns with a little extra virgin olive oil, give them a good grind of pepper and a dollop of tarator (if you made it!).
The Beloved really liked this marinade as did I. Next time, I would use 2 finger limes and a bit more paprika to bring out the smoky barbecue flavours.
It was so great to meet you at the conference yesterday!
Wow those bbq’d prawns look great – something that I will have to try (why we still have some warm weather left) for sure
Thanks Lisa – lovely to meet you too
That looks really good! And I love all those spices as well. Must be pretty aromatic!
Nice one Joey xx
Mmm delicious. I love prawns. So looking forward to eating more than my fair share of them on Good Friday (traditional family seafood feast). Looks like a tasty marinade!
Cant wait to try these next time im over for dinner!! Yum
Barbecued prawns are great, but I had never heard of tarator before! I have that cookbook too but thanks for the education hehe!