Prawns with Almond Red Pepper Sauce and Cress Salad

Grilled Prawns and Cress Salad

  • Grilled Prawns and Cress Salad
  • Grilled Prawns and Cress Salad
  • Grilled Prawns and Cress Salad
  • Grilled Prawns and Cress Salad
  • Grilled Prawns and Cress Salad

NOTES

You can make the red pepper sauce ahead of time and keep it in the fridge. Use the extra as a dip or a pasta sauce. I used a combo of red and orange peppers, but I suggest sticking to just red for a brighter color. My version is a simplification of the classic Spanish dip. 

INSTRUCTIONS

Using a mortar and pestle, grind all ingredients for the prawns until well combined. Toss with shrimps in a bowl, sprinkle with sea salt, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. I left mine for a few hours.

Toast almonds (reserving the extra tablespoon of almonds for garnish) until they start to brown in a pan or toaster oven. Slice peppers and shallot thinly and saute with olive oil in a pan until they soften. You can add a 1/4 cup water and cover, cook on low for 5 minutes. In a food processor, combine all ingredients for the romesco except for the olive oil, and pulse. Add the oil in a slow stream as you pulse. Do not over blend, you should still have some of texture of the nuts in there.

Wash and spin Upland Cress. Cut in half lengthwise, add to mixing bowl.

Heat a grill pan or large skillet lightly brushed with oil. When pan is super hot, add prawns. Allow them to cook for about 3 minutes on each side, until the shell turns pink. Only flip them once. Remove from heat.

Whisk together all salad dressing ingredients and toss with greens. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Plate a scoop of romesco and smear it along the plate. Arrange 4 shrimps along the edge, and pile Cress alongside. Coarsely chop reserved almonds and sprinkle over the whole plate. Garnish romesco and salad with parsley, sea salt and cracked black pepper. Serve.

 

RECIPE

DIFFICULTY

HARD

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SERVES

3

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PREP TIME

25 MINS

Prawns

  • 12 
     
    jumbo prawns
  • 1/2 
     
    small tin of anchovies packed in oil
  • 1-2 
     
    cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/4 
    cup 
    dry white wine
  • 1 
    tsp 
    whole black peppercorn
  • 1 
     
    lemon, juiced
  • 1/3 
    cup 
    olive oil

Romesco

  • 2 
     
    red bell peppers
  • 2 
     
    cloves black fermented garlic or roasted garlic cloves
  • 1/2 
    cup 
    Marcona Almonds (this is a wonderful variety, but use raw blanched almonds if you cannot find them)
  • 1 
     
    splash balsamic vinegar
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    sea salt
  • 1 
    tsp 
    worcestershire sauce
  • 2 
     
    shallots

Salad Dressing

  • 1 
     
    lemon, juiced
  • 1/2  
    tsp 
    Sherry vinegar
  • 1/2 
    tsp 
    dijon mustard
  • 3 
    tbs 
    olive oil

INSTRUCTIONS

Using a mortar and pestle, grind all ingredients for the prawns until well combined. Toss with shrimps in a bowl, sprinkle with sea salt, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. I left mine for a few hours.

Toast almonds (reserving the extra tablespoon of almonds for garnish) until they start to brown in a pan or toaster oven. Slice peppers and shallot thinly and saute with olive oil in a pan until they soften. You can add a 1/4 cup water and cover, cook on low for 5 minutes. In a food processor, combine all ingredients for the romesco except for the olive oil, and pulse. Add the oil in a slow stream as you pulse. Do not over blend, you should still have some of texture of the nuts in there.

Wash and spin Upland Cress. Cut in half lengthwise, add to mixing bowl.

Heat a grill pan or large skillet lightly brushed with oil. When pan is super hot, add prawns. Allow them to cook for about 3 minutes on each side, until the shell turns pink. Only flip them once. Remove from heat.

Whisk together all salad dressing ingredients and toss with greens. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Plate a scoop of romesco and smear it along the plate. Arrange 4 shrimps along the edge, and pile Cress alongside. Coarsely chop reserved almonds and sprinkle over the whole plate. Garnish romesco and salad with parsley, sea salt and cracked black pepper. Serve.

 

I have never been to Spain. It is one of the places that I don’t want to visit, I only want to move there. The food alone: tapas, seafood, paella, forget Gaudi and the Prado. The Catalonian Romesco sauce, a nut and red pepper blended dip, is something I love because it tastes exactly like the sum total of it’s parts – nuts, red pepper and garlic.  I never even bothered looking at a recipe before attempting to make my own, it was all so apparent. For my version here, I used that black fermented garlic  that my mother-in-law sent me, but you can grab it at Trader Joe’s or any Asian Market. It is sweet and sticky, and takes the place of roasted garlic cloves used in the traditional romesco recipe.

Upland Cress is a beautiful thing, and a wonderful, delicate, yet peppery green to buy in the winter since it is grown hydroponically. It can be stored with the roots in water on your countertop. In this state, it is considered “live” so it is extra good for you and will stay super fresh for longer.