What’s cooking today: Prawn skewers with spiced coriander rice

The prawn product that I bought was blanched tails with some part of the shells on. It’s an imprecise product in that regard but the quality of the prawn meat is good and the fact that they’ve been blanched means they’re essentially cooked.

However, they do need a bit of heat unless you’re making a salad of them, so to skewer them after some marination means they can quickly be finished over hot coals while taking on the flavours the marinade has given them.

I was sent some lovely chilli oil by Banhoek the other day and it is a means of adding instant flavour to all sorts of things. It became the key note in a marinade for prawns with garlic and lemon; and that’s a classic trio for a prawn.

(Makes 6 generous skewers)

Ingredients

800 g blanched, shelled prawn tails

3 Tbsp Banhoek chilli oil

Juice of 1 lemon

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 garlic cloves, very finely chopped

Salt

Black pepper

2 Tbsp Finely chopped coriander

For the rice:

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 small red onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 Tbsp chopped coriander

The leftover marinade from the prawns

Salt and black pepper

Method

Defrost the prawns by inserting the unopened plastic packet in a bath of cold (room temperature) water. They will defrost in an hour or two at the most. When they’re defrosted, remove any shells you find, put the prawns into a colander and let the liquids drain for an hour. Then, dry them with a clean tea towel which you then chuck into the washing machine.

Mix together the lemon juice, chilli oil, olive oil and garlic, and stir in the chopped coriander. Season with salt and black pepper.

Add the prawns to this and toss carefully with two wooden spoons. Put it in the fridge for a few hours.

At an appropriate point, light a braai fire so you have coals ready when you need them.

Remove the prawns from the fridge an hour before you plan to braai them. Skewer the individual prawns on bamboo or metal skewers. NB: Retain the remaining marinade; it’s going into the rice.

Cook the rice in your usual way. Meanwhile, simmer one chopped red onion and two chopped garlic cloves in a little olive oil until softened. Add the leftover prawn marinade to this, stir it on a low bubble, and season lightly with salt and black pepper. Finally, stir in the chopped coriander.

Braai the skewered prawns for about three minutes on each side. Serve with the rice and some coriander garnish. DM/TGIFood

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.

This dish is photographed on a platter by Mervyn Gers Ceramics.