Prawns in butter

I’ll come right out and say it: I’ve fallen for prawns. It didn’t happen in 2004 in Hong Kong at 2 in the morning, when a mate and I ordered seafood noodles at a cheap Chinese eatery for labourers who didn’t speak English. That was awful. We took turns pointing at each other to decide who had to eat the stranger-looking bits. I came round to prawns a few years later, when some friends invited me over for spicy prawns. I ate them with bites of baguette in between and thought, I’ve got to start making these myself.

I think I’ve got pretty good at cooking these cute little sea creatures by now. I try to eat them whenever I get the chance. Funnily enough, my parents have developed a taste for this dish too. Now every time I visit, they’ve got a stash of prawns in the freezer and ask me to cook them.

One very important thing: prawns and white wine get on famously. And me and white wine, well, my dear sir… I love prawns with bites of buttered baguette and sips of dry white Chablis. I have no idea whether Chablis goes with prawns. Frankly, I couldn’t give a toss. Maybe it’s barbaric. You be the judge.

Recipe details:

Prep time: about 60 minutes

Serves: 4

How many calories? Not all that many

Ingredients for tender prawns in butter:

• 1.2 kg frozen cooked king prawns
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 120 grams of butter (that’s roughly half a pack)
• 1 red chilli (you could use chilli powder instead, but I wouldn’t recommend it)
• 1 yellow chilli (don’t worry if you haven’t got one)
• half a bottle of dry white wine (what’s left, plus at least one more bottle, will go down beautifully with the finished dish. In fact, eating this without white wine is sacrilege)
• salt
• ground black pepper 
• two baguettes

The recipe (or rather, how I make it):

I put the still-frozen prawns in a pot, cover them with hot water, give them a stir and leave them for about 5–7 minutes. Once they’ve thawed completely, I drain them. If I’m in a good mood and really like the guests I’m making them for, I even “fillet” them. In other words, I take the shells off the tails (my record is 198 prawns peeled in about 30 minutes).

In a large frying pan I melt the butter and throw in the garlic, crushed and chopped into small pieces. I add the finely chopped chillies, seeds and all (how many seeds you add determines the dish’s firepower, so go easy if you don’t like it hot). I fry the lot for about 2–3 minutes, taking care it doesn’t burn, then in go the prawns, patted dry with kitchen paper.

I fry everything for about 10 minutes, stirring vigorously. The prawns should start to take on a little colour. Then I pour in 1/4 of a bottle of dry white wine. I turn down the “flame” and wait for the wine to evaporate. Then I pour in another 1/4 of the bottle. When the wine and butter start to come together into a delicate little sauce, it’s ready.

I serve the prawns in bowls with the sauce from the pan and some buttered baguette. And white wine, of course. Prawns cooked this way are a different dish from what you get in restaurants. Restaurant prawns are usually just fried and rarely get much time to simmer in white wine. That’s why mine are so much more tender and melt in your mouth. Enjoy!