Spanish Sizzling Garlic Prawns Help! :)

[Craigh1983]

Hi Guys,

New to forum so hello first of all

Right, I went on holiday to Spain and I had some sizzling garlic prawns whilst there and omg it tasted amazing! I've been trying to make it ever since and I just cant get that same taste.

So it came out in a terracota pot sizzling with prawns, lots of garlic, a red chilli and some green herbs.

What was so nice about this dish is that the garlic taste was very very strong! like mega strong but I just cant think how they did this.

Could anyone help me out as I really wanna make this!

Thanks so much

Craigh

 

[buckytom]

firstly, you must use a very good quality spanish olive oil. then the trick is to cook the garlic slowly to get rid of the garlic "stink" while bringing out it's naturally delicious flavour.

finally, increase the heat a little then toss in your shrimp, some fresh parsley (which works with the garlic), the chilis, some freshly ground pepper, and a good pinch or three of sea salt.


hth.

i love spanish garlic shrimp.

 

[Craigh1983]

Excellent!

Thanks for that I will give it a try

 

[Craigh1983]

Would you do that in an oven or on the hob?

 

[buckytom]

sorry about the delay. doin' my sunday morning fenian calisthenics.

it depends on your cooking vessel. i cook mine on the stovetop in a deep saute pan, but i could easily see using some kind of clay or stoneware in the oven, like using a tagine or something like that.

shrimp cook very quickly, so that's why i use a saute pan.

 

[Gravy Queen]

Prawns like this are fairly easy to recreate at home, it all cooks very quickly . I cook them in sizzling butter , with chopped garlic and fresh chillies, a squeeze of lime and a handful of coriander .

 

[Dawgluver]

Welcome to DC! Great advice here, yum!

 

[puffin3]

Fresh garlic cloves are sticky and heavy and expensive even in season. The next time you buy a bulb of garlic that has zero weight to it and when you crush a clove and a green sprout is inside this is what has happened: A company somewhere contracted with a Chinese company to purchase a container full of garlic bulbs. That was last year. By the time these bulbs have been harvested and washed......in God knows what to kill any fungus/ecoli/etc it's been a month or so later. The weight of the container full is a factor in how much the exporter must pay the ship's owner. (A container full of goose down is A LOT cheaper to ship than a container full of rolled steel.) So by now these garlics are losing moisture AKA weight every day. When a garlic bulb has pretty well run out of moisture something inside the garlic bulb's head says "WE BETTER THINK ABOUT THE FUTURE!". Hence the green sprout looking for some 'night soil' to bed down in. I don't know when you ate the dish in Spain but I'm guessing the great garlic was fresh local. IMO there no point in making dishes with dried out 'sprouting' bitter garlics that basically have no flavor left in them. The poor little buggers.
"So how do you know this?" B/c a good friend is the biggest producer of garlic in BC. Local garlic grown in county's like Spain basically sell all they produce to the locals. Even when they hang the fresh garlics for a couple of months it's still far better than year old Chinese garlic. So to answer your question unless you can start with really fresh local garlic in season you're not going to be able to replicate the taste for Spain. IMO.

 

[Craigh1983]

Wow I never knew that! I am going to have a look to see if anyone sells
It locally. It would be interesting to see the difference!!

 

[Dawgluver]

A very good point, Puffin! One of our members, Got Garlic, grows a huge amount of her own, as I'm sure some other members do. Hope you can find the fresh stuff.

 

[Craigh1983]

Is there anywhere in the UK where I can buy differnet types of garlic? I really want to try the Spanish purple garlic but I am looking around on the internet and cannot find any uk suppliers.

 

[Gravy Queen]

Keep your eye out for local farmers markets and maybe have a word with local suppliers, not sure about the Spanish garlic though although it might be worth a trip over to Barcelonas La Boqueria market to get some ! Cheap on Easyjet

 

[acerbicacid]

I use this on-line U.K. shop for my Spanish ingredients (they even sell Padron peppers), I don't know if they have it fresh in season but you can buy this purple garlic paste
Delicioso :: Purple Garlic paste 1kg

I buy this pink garlic from Natoora and can really recommend it too
Ocado: Natoora Pink Garlic from Lautrec (Product Information)

Or if you want to visit Borough Market in London, you can get most everything there
Our Shop at Borough Market | Brindisa Spanish Foods

 

[Gravy Queen]

Great links there AA in the garden of England , I am oop north .