European · Starter · From the menu Sobremesa

Prawn on focaccia, black garlic, chilli

Gamba sobre focaccia, ajo negro, guindilla

A single large prawn, cooked hard and fast, on a square of hot focaccia with black garlic butter and chilli. Eaten with the fingers, which is the point of the Sobremesa menu.

Serves
Six
Prep
30 min
Cook
25 min
Cuisine
European

This is a canapé that behaves like a first course. Everything can be prepped hours ahead except the prawn, which takes ninety seconds and cannot be done in advance. Black garlic gives the sweetness and depth that would otherwise need a reduction, and it comes out of a jar, which on a busy service matters.

Ingredients

  • 6 large raw prawns, shell on, heads on if you can get them
  • 6 squares of good focaccia, about 7 cm
  • 8 cloves black garlic
  • 120 g soft butter
  • 1 red chilli, half finely chopped, half sliced
  • 1 lemon
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • Flat parsley, flaked salt

Method

  1. Mash the black garlic to a paste with a fork and beat it into the soft butter with the chopped chilli, a squeeze of lemon and a good pinch of salt. Roll it in paper and chill.
  2. Peel the prawns, leaving the last tail segment on. Run a knife down the back and lift out the dark vein. Pat them dry.
  3. Split the focaccia squares horizontally, brush the cut faces with olive oil and toast them cut side down in a dry pan until crisp and hot.
  4. Get a pan very hot with the olive oil. Cook the prawns 45 seconds on the first side without moving them, turn, and give them 30 to 40 seconds more. They are ready the moment the flesh turns from grey to white.
  5. Take the pan off the heat, add a thick slice of the black garlic butter and roll the prawns in it as it melts.
  6. Sit each prawn on a square of focaccia, spoon the pan butter over, and finish with sliced chilli, parsley and flaked salt. Serve immediately, on a board, no cutlery.

Serve it with. It is the opening bite of the Sobremesa menu. Cold fino or cava, standing up.