Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Spaghetti wih Dublin Bay Prawns
We had great plans for Sunday: Tidy up, hoover, do the laundry, go for a wander around town and buy all these useful things one always puts off shopping for, pop into the pub for the Irish music session and on the way home pop into the video store to pick up a few DVDs to go with the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream I got on Monday. If this sounds like a tall order to you, imagine how we felt. We were so overwhelmed, after the first load of laundry was in the machine, we basically resigned ourselves to doing nothing more than surfing the Internet, playing poker and, in my case, cooking dinner. I suppose we are what could be loosely defined as lazy gits; if there isn't a good reason to go out, we don't.We didn't always used to be like that. In Cape Town and Prague we used to go to the movies at least once a week, take walks around the town, and go to restaurants quite often. We even had friends to meet up with for meals and long talks about everything and anything. But here in Dublin, all this is gone. The movies are expensive and the cinema a longish walk away. Restaurants are even more expensive and not the sort of places that you can spend a whole evening in without being expected to drink yourself into a delirium and into bankruptcy. And most people we have met here are very sweet, but do not know the continental habit of meeting in someone's place for dinner and a chat. Friends often go to the pub together. But like restaurants, they are quite pricey and are not what in German is termed gemütlich (which means comfortable, relaxing, great for taking it easy and a whole bunch of other English expressions rolled into one) and, what I find most off-putting, they are noisy as buggery. Loud music, loud talk, the loud banging of glasses and the occasional television all make for quite some background noise, and if I go out with friends, it's because I want to have a chat with them, not because I fancy screaming at someone over an overpriced beverage.
Strangely enough, we still haven't been able to convince any of our friends to just come round to our place if they don't want us in their living
rooms. I suppose the old habit of going out on the weekend is hard to break, even if you're tempted with the prospect of a nice dinner. And tonight dinner was quite nice. As I mentioned yesterday, I had bought a pound and a half of Dublin Bay Prawns (also known as Langoustines) that really wanted to be used up tonight. The fresher they are the better. We had no avocados in the house, so prawn cocktail was out of the question. There would have been too much anyway, but it did briefly cross my mind. To be honest, though, I had no clue what to do. It was way too cold for a salad and I didn't have any nice bread (or bread baking ingredients) to just cook them in garlic butter and serve them tapas style. I did have a packet of fresh spaghetti left in the fridge, though. So I had a look around the Internet and came across a number of inspiring recipes that I combined to make spaghetti with creamy Dublin Bay prawn sauce.For the sauce:
½ tbsp butter
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 small clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 portion of prawn stock (see recipe below)
100 ml double cream
1 tbsp olive oil
1½ pounds of Dublin Bay prawns (weighed in their shells, but without the heads), peeled and de-veined
2 large handfuls of sprouting broccoli, roughly chopped, or broccoli florets (baby spinach works equally well here)
salt and pepper to taste
For the prawn stock:
3 tbsp olive oil
the shells from 1½ pounds of Dublin Bay prawns(weighed in their shells, but without the heads)
1 small carrot, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 celery stick, chopped
1 small leek, chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled and sliced
1 fresh tomato, chopped
1 tsp rum (the original recipe called for Cognac, which is probably more appropriate; rum is not out of place here, but I encourage you to decide for yourself)
100 ml dry white wine
250 ml fish stock
250 ml cold water
1 sprig tarragon
1 sprig basil
1 sprig thyme
½ bay leaf
To serve:
enough spaghetti for 2 people
Parmesan shavings
2 spring onions, chopped
To make the stock, heat the oil in a large saucepan and sauté the prawn shells for 5 minutes until pink. Remove the shells and add the vegetables. Sauté these until golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes, then return the heads. Stir well.
Deglaze with the rum (or Cognac), then add the wine and cook until reduced by half. Add the stock, water and remaining ingredients and bring to the boil. Simmer until reduced by half, about 20 minutes. Strain through a muslin lined sieve and set aside.
For the sauce, melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium low heat. Gently fry the shallots until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic, stir briefly, then add the tomato puree. Leave to cook for about a minute, then add the prawn stock. Turn up the heat to medium and bring to the boil. Leave to simmer until reduced by about a third. Puree. Return to the pan over low heat and add the cream. Allow to heat through, but do not bring back to the boil.
Bring a large saucepan full of water to the boil. Add a generous pinch of salt followed by the spaghetti. Cook according to the package instructions, 3 minutes for fresh pasta or very thin dried spaghettini, up to 12 minutes for all other pasta. Meanwhile, blanch the broccoli (but not the spinach, if using) in boiling salt water until just starting to go tender, about 3 to 4 minutes (slightly longer for ordinary broccoli florets). Drain the broccoli and the pasta thoroughly (do not rinse!), toss together in the big pan (if you are using spinach, add it now), and cover with a lid.
Heat the olive oil in a shallow frying pan over medium high heat. When it is quite hot, add the prawns and fry until lightly browned, about 5 to 7 minutes. If your prawns release a lot of liquid, it might be an idea to pour that off to prevent them from boiling rather than frying and to reduce cooking time. Do not overcook, they can go quite chewy.
While the prawns are cooking, divide the pasta between two plates, pour the sauce all over (alternatively, just pour the sauce into the saucepan with the pasta, then dish up; this way you can be sure that the pasta is evenly coated), top with the prawns and decorate with fresh Parmesan shavings and spring onion rings. You can grind some black pepper over the top if you like. Serve immediately.
Christine at 10:31 pm
