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Dirty prawns, spring onions and bacon with cheesy polenta
Serves 4 Starters and mains
Ingredients
- 16 raw king prawns, peeled with tails on, deveined and split down the middle to butterfly
- 1tbsp olive oil
- 6 garlic cloves, crushed
- 100g smoked streaky bacon, cut into lardons
- 1tbsp butter
- 4 spring onions, finely chopped
- 1⁄2tsp sea salt
- 1⁄4tsp white pepper
- good pinch cayenne pepper
- squeeze lemon juice
- cheesy polenta, to serve
Cheesy polenta
- 2 litres fresh chicken or vegetable stock
- 200g polenta, cornmeal or grits
- 1 thyme sprig
- 80g Cheddar cheese, grated
- 30g Italian hard cheese, grated
- 30g butter
- pinch cayenne pepper
Method
Place the prawns in a bowl with enough olive oil to coat them, add the crushed garlic and allow to marinate while you get everything else ready. This dish cooks fast so have everything prepped before you start cooking.
Heat a frying pan over a medium heat with a slick of oil. Add the bacon and fry until it is starting to crisp and the fat has rendered. Remove the bacon from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside. In the same pan, melt the butter in the remaining bacon fat. Turn up the heat to high and add the prawns. You want to cook these hard and fast. When they begin to turn opaque, return the bacon to the pan along with the spring onions, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. Check for seasoning and give it a generous squeeze of lemon juice before serving alongside the polenta.
Cheesy polenta
SERVES 4
Put the chicken stock, polenta, thyme and 1⁄4tsp salt in a medium saucepan and bring to the boil. Allow to simmer over a very low heat for 1 hour. Initially it will resemble murky yellow water, but have patience, it will slowly come together. Keep whisking the mixture, especially during the last 15 minutes of cooking, to prevent the bottom of the polenta scorching. Once you have a nice thick, gloopy consistency similar to a well-cooked porridge, which pulls away from the sides of the pan and has no bite to it when tasted, mix in the cheeses, butter, cayenne pepper and a pinch of white pepper. You will notice that the polenta lightens in colour and becomes lovely and shiny. Season with salt to taste and keep hot until ready to serve.
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