PRAWN CITRIC CARPACCIO
Today´s recipe is specially thought for gourmand cooks. Which is not a synonym for difficulty!!! In fact this carpaccio recipe is fairly easy, and the final result is exquisit and absolutely gorgeous. Probably the hardest part of it all, is acquiring all the ingredients recquired, but once in the kitchen, it will definately be a fun moment you can even involve kids at home to help you out!
Ingredients (serves 4)
12 prawns, shelled
1 lime
1 grapefruit
1 orange
1 egg
sunflower oil
porcini powder
sherry wine
some salad to decorate (optional)
Method
Shell the prawns and reserve the heads. Devein the prawns and set aside.
Cut the prawns lengthwise along the loin, but not all the way down, so you get sort of a butterfly of each prawn.
Place the prawns in pairs or three between oiled cling film and flatten them using the bottom of a small pan. It is important they all have a similar thickness. Place them on a plate covering all the base, with no empty spots. Reserve in the fridge.
Use heads and shells to make a sauce. Put them all in a saucepan with a little olive oil and cook over medium heat for a few minutes. Then pour the Sherry wine and cook for 10 more minutes. Pass it all through a sieve, pressing the heads with a wooden spatula to get all the flavor out of them. Put the resulting juice back over the heat and reduce until the sauce thickens. Set aside. You will certainly not use all the prawns sauce, dont waste it!!! Freeze in smallportions , and use to intensify any stew or simply add to your spaguetti with grated parmesan and you will love it!
Zest the lime, grapefruit and orange. Set the zest aside.
Segment the fuits. Using a sharp knife, carefully slice off the top and bottom of the lime, grapefruit and orange. Using even downward strokes, slice the skin away from the flesh and discard. Remove any remaining white pith.
Cut between the membranes to segment the fruits. Reserve the segments on one side and retain any juices on the other.
Prepare a mayonnaise with the prawns sauce. Crack the fresh egg and a pinch of salt in the blender vase. Start blending and add the oil very slowly still with the machine running. Stir in the prawns sauce and mix. If by any chance you don’t know how to make a homemade mayonnaise, using a premade one of you choice could an easier choice.
Prepare a vinaigrette with extra virgin olive oil, the orange, lime and grapefruit juices, some porcini powder, salt and pepper to taste.
Serving
Cover the base of a plate with the prawns, decorate with he fruits’ segments, some mayonnaise dots, season with the vinaigrette and sprinkle with the lemon, orange and grapefruit zest. Season with some more salt and pepper to taste.
At Cook and Taste we love this recipe, and is one of our top choices in our team building menus. However our experience has taught us that often times, people don’t love the idea of eating raw prawns, therefor, a good alternative for those who feel this way is to gently heat up the vinagret (take care not to heat up at high temperature, you may burn the citric´s zest, and become bitter, which will ruin all the deep flavours). By doing this, your prawns will slighlty cook when drizzling the vinagret on top. Another option could be, placing the plate once the prawns are set on it (but nothing else) for 1 minute in the oven.
Enjoy cooking and eating this mouthwatering recipe!
