When people ask me what my dinner party dish is, I usually say this one. I say that because it feels indulgent and special but isn’t loads of effort to make. It’s also a nice thing tosay because it’s inspired by – and really only able to be made because of – the people, things and places that have touched my life in some way. Rice from Spain. Dashi and sake from Japan. Good prawns from wherever you can reasonably get them. And a discerning partner in crime to test your ability to make it better and tastier each time.
The secret – to the extent it can be called that – is getting really good, ideally sashimi quality, prawns. Without them the dish is flatter and less deep, but still very enjoyable. The first time I made this dish properly it was with the big reddy pink prawns from the Don Don Donki sashimi section in Hong Kong. As I worked on the dish (including straining the stock rather than blending it, which made the texture of the final dish more pleasing), I slowly levelled it up, eventually using the big glistening sashimi ebi from Ozeki or Tokyu in Fudomae. Because everything is better in Japan, after all.
I always think of this as our dish, because we like it so much and because I only really perfected it after you came on the scene. Although it’s my dinner party dish, when I conjure up a memory of eating it, I actually don’t think of a dinner party at all. I think of you and me sitting on our lime green bar stools at our big heavy, wobbly wooden table. In this memory we eat the dish like you should, out of the pan and greedily. It’s smoky and sweet and savoury and prawny all at the same time. It’s a perfect evening and a perfect dish. An everyday indulgence that is somehow still special every time.
A&A’s Prawn Rice
Shopping List
This recipe serves three people, using a 20-25cm frying pan when cooking.
Must Haves
Spanish paella rice (one small handful per person)
Good quality raw prawns x 5 or 6. The kind where you know the head juice is plentiful and tasty and the flesh is sweet.**
Olive oil
1 can of good plum tomatoes
3 medium onions or 2 large ones
6 sprigs of fresh thyme
5 or 6 garlic cloves
One wine glass of sake
1/4 of a wine glass Mirin
2 x tablespoons double concentrated tomato puree
Dashi stock packets
Chilli flakes
Lemon wedges, to garnish
Optional
A couple of king oyster mushrooms (or other very meaty mushroom that retains bit once cooked)
Roasted peppers*
Other high quality seafood that cooks quickly and can be eaten rare e.g. scallops or small chunks of white meaty fish.
* You can buy these in jars pre done, or, better, roast 2 whole peppers on the hottest oven setting (or char on the gas flame) until dark brown all over. Put in a bowl immediately and cover with clingfilm to steam. Once cool enough, remove the waxy skins and seeds.
** If you live somewhere where you can’t get these (like, well, everywhere outside Asia), then make the stock with half good quality store-bought fish stock and half dashi and the same other ingredients. Use other seafood at the end in place of prawns.
HOW TO MAKE
Start by preparing your prawns. Remove the heads, shell and tails, leaving the meat intact. Remove the poo shoot (if there is one) and put the meat to one side. Keep the heads, tails and shells. Prep other seafood too, if using. Leave this out so it is at room temperature when you need it (as it will cook in residual heat only).
To make the stock, chop and sweat a large onion (or two medium ones) slowly in olive oil, so it goes translucent and sweet. One done, add 2 or 3 cloves of garlic and fry for a couple of minutes.
To this, add the prawn heads, shells and tails. Fry for a minute or two, then add half a glass of sake, a quarter glass of mirin and boil off the alcohol. Then add a tin of good plum tomatoes, two big tablespoons of concentrated tomato puree, a packet of dashi stock and three sprigs of fresh thyme (you don’t need to separate from the stems). Add water to cover. Add salt, pepper and dried chilli flakes to taste. As it cooks, use a spoon to crush the prawn heads, which should be rich with tasty cranium gunk. Simmer for 5-10 mins, but try not to boil too hard (as you want the liquid not to evaporate too much).
Take the mixture and tip it into a fine metal sieve over a bowl, so all the liquid drips through. Use a spoon to push down and get as much of the liquid as possible. Discard the remaining sludge in the sieve (feasting greedily on the prawn heads before you throw them if you’re a greedy cook like me).
In a clean frying pan, fry another two finely chopped onions (or one big one) until sweet and translucent. If using, you can also then add the oyster mushrooms and fry, chopped into a dice to be slightly bigger than rice grains. Add 2 or 3 cloves of finely chopped garlic and fry for a few minutes.
Then add one small handful of rice per person to the pan. The size of pan is important here, as you don’t want too much rice to puff up and crowd the pan. I use a 20-25cm ish pan for 2 or 3 people. You will need bigger pans for more people, as otherwise there will be too much rice in the pan. Fry the rice for a minute or so, then add half a glass of sake. Reduce a little to boil off the alcohol.
Then, ladleful by ladleful, add the prawn stock to the rice, stirring to stop sticking where needed. Add a fresh thyme leaves from the remaining time, this time separated from the stems (as you want the whole of the final dish to be edible, and stems are gross).
If you treat it like a risotto, adding liquid slowly and stirring constantly, the rice should cook and inflate in about 20 minutes. If you run out of prawn stock, use a dashi packet diluted in hot water to continue topping up.
Once the rice is just cooked, place the bodies of the room temperature shelled prawns (and other seafood and, if using, the roasted, deseeded peppers) artfully on the top. Push the seafood into the rice very slightly, not so it is submerged. Let it bubble for 30 seconds more and then turn off the heat and cover the whole thing with a double layer of foil (or a lid) immediately. Put a tea towel or oven gloves on top to keep the heat in. The aim is to cook the seafood in the residual heat, so it finishes just done and still with a subtle rawness in the middle (assuming you’re using good quality fish).
After 5 – 10 minutes, take the foil off, splash good olive oil over the top, and make sure to hit the seafood with flaky sea salt and a good grind of pepper. Serve immediately in the pan with lemon wedges on the side.