Tamarind prawns
Tamarind and honey make a wonderfully sweet and sour marinade for delicate prawns. Serve tapas style or with a salad.
Ingredients
For the marinade
- 100²µ/3½´Ç³ú tamarind paste
- 75g/2½oz clear honey
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 2 tbsp light brown sugar
- 3–4 tbsp chilli oil, or olive oil if preferred
- sea salt flakes
For the prawns
- 800g/1lb 12oz raw tiger prawns (the biggest you can find), ideally peeled but with tails left on
- vegetable oil, for frying
- 2 heaped tsp toasted sesame seeds
- 10g fresh coriander, leaves picked and roughly chopped
- 3 spring onions, trimmed and thinly sliced from root to tip
Method
To prepare the marinade, thoroughly mix the ingredients in a bowl until the sugar dissolves.
Add the prawns and work the marinade into them using your hands. Cover the bowl with cling film and allow to marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Heat a large frying pan over a medium-high heat and drizzle in a little vegetable oil. Drain any excess marinade from the prawns then fry them quickly on both sides until they are cooked through and slightly charred. (Cooking times will vary depending on the size of the prawns – if using standard supermarket prawns you won't need to cook them for more than 1 minute or so on each side, but if you are using larger prawns you may need to reduce the heat slightly and allow them to cook for a little longer.) The marinade is sticky and sweet which means it will blacken, so don’t panic if the prawns look a little charred.
Serve sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds, coriander and sliced spring onions.
