TIGERS IN DRAWN BUTTER SAUCE WITH GARLIC AND PARSLEY

Once upon a time I used to cook lots of Italian dishes. It stopped for various reasons like long absence from home, kids are no longer demanding, great Italian food joints around etc. With pasta culture moving in fast along with chowmins on street sides; Italian condiments, fresh seasoning, good imported pasta etc are now available everywhere including at my small time neighborhood grosser.

The other day I went to the biggest wholesale fish market of North India to pick up fresh shrimps at half the price and landed up with lots of fish. So I thought I would use up some prawns with Italian dish as I was tired of eating Bong and Southern prawn dishes. The dish turned out to be very nice.

THE RECIPE

This is a fast recipe, prawns cooked in drawn butter sauce and spiced with black pepper, garlic and Parsley. ( I have used here dry parsley with basil, as I could not get the fresh parsley here,  please use fresh parsley or cilantro) 

INGREDIENTS.

Tiger prawns large ( about 25 per 1/2 kg with head ), cleaned, deveined with tail remaining (You can use the deveined frozen ones.)

Butter 2tbsp ( about 25 to 30 gms.)

Extra virgin olive oil 2 tbsp.

1 tbsp flour for dusting prawns.

Smashed and finely chopped garlic 2 level tbsp

Parsley finely chopped 3 level tbsp.( you can use cilantro, dry Italian seasoning) 

Salt 

Paprika flakes 1 tsp

Drawn butter sauce 75 to 100 ml 

for the drawn butter sauce 

butter 30 gms + 30 gms ( approx )

flour 2 level tbsp

Freshly ground pepper 1 level tsp

lemon juice 1 tbsp

water 100 ml

salt .

 PROCESS

Dry the dressed prawns and mix flour , leave aside.

In a thick bottom pan, add olive oil and butter ( 25-30 gms) and warm to melt the butter and disperse. Dont heat too much.

add the prawns, salt , saut'e, spread  and leave for 5 minutes covered. ( This step you can do in an over proof flat baking dish , in low heat broil mode)

Drawn butter sauce  

In a thick bottom pan, dry roast the flour and cool it in a separate dish. ( dont burn)

Add 30 gm butter and melt. Add the cooled flour, pepper powder, paprika and mix .

Add water bring to boil while stirring continuously.  Continue for 4-5 minutes , add the remaining butter  , stir to make a smooth sauce. 

Add salt, garlic , parsley and lemon  juice to the sauce and cook for another 2 minutes on low heat.

Add the sauce on the prawns and mix well under high heat till the prawns are coated with sauce. ( This step should not exceed 2 minutes. Prolong heating may break the sauce emulsion.)

Sauce added 

Serve immediately. ( I ate with a bunch of spaghetti under the prawns with a drizzle of EVOO and grated parmegiano Reggiano )

Happy eating!!.